Facebook's yet another alleged data misuse hit the headlines, as it was revealed that the company had "harvested the email contacts of 1.5 million users without their knowledge or consent when they opened their accounts." Earlier, leaked internal documents showed that "Mark Zuckerberg leveraged Facebook user data to fight rivals and help friends." The documents implicated Zuckerberg as well as Facebook's board and senior management in finding "ways to tap Facebooks trove of user data including information about friends, relationships and photos as leverage over companies it partnered with. In the separate revelations that Facebook had been leveraging user data as a currency, leaked documents appear to show that the company was prepared to trade away user data when it perceived there to be a commercial advantage. The picture painted is of a network of friendly tech giants conceiving of ways to commercialize the information gleaned from users on social media in an entirely non-transparent way. And this was made much worse because "all the while, Facebook was formulating a strategy to publicly frame these moves as a way of protecting user privacy."

Q1. The steps Facebook should take to manage the crisis

Q2. Whether regulations for using consumer data for commercial gain need to be stricter

Q3. The role of social media in affecting business reputation