Facebook can be considered as one of the examples of companies that have demonstrated escalation of commitment in recent years. The numerous privacy issues can evidence this and scandals the network has been involved in starting from 2006 (Newcomb, 2018). However, arguably the most infamous scandal associated with Facebook’s privacy issues happened in 2018 when German and Belgian courts ruled that the network was violating data privacy laws (Gandolfi and Stone, 2018). One of the issues was the fact that Facebook collected information about its users “on third-party sites through the use of cookies” (Newcomb, 2018, par. 37). In addition, the network has allowed Cambridge Analytica, “a company that profiled voters for Donald Trump’s campaign”, to harvest private information from more than 50 million of its users (Newcomb, 2018, par. 32). These issues can be seen as an escalation because it was later revealed that Facebook had been aware of the massive data theft and did nothing to prevent it.
It can be suggested that the network continued with a failed course of action to pursue its own interests, such as expanding its user base and making a profit from selling the data to third parties. The de-escalation process that Facebook used involved several steps; first, the network promised to investigate all apps that had access to its users’ private information. It was also stated that Facebook would put restrictions on the types of data that can be accessible to apps. Finally, the network promised to create a special tool that will allow all users to see what apps can access their data. The main lesson that can be learned from this scenario is that unethical practices that lead to such massive data leaks cannot be justified and have to be prevented by all service providers.
References
Gandolfi, F., & Stone, S. (2018). Leadership, Leadership Styles, and Servant Leadership. Journal of Management Research, 8(4), 261-269. Web.
Newcomb, A. (2018). A timeline of Facebook’s privacy issues — and its responses. NBC News. Web.