No matter how many times Mark Zuckerberg or other CEOs say sorry, corporations will continue to screw us over until someone steps in.
The result is that even if their leaders earnestly wanted to impart meaningful change to provide restitution for their wrongs, their hands are tied by entrenched business models and the short-term focus of the quarterly earnings cycle. They apologize and go right back to problematic behavior.
It’s not just Facebook though, this is every company that puts money over users (so all of them?) Whether you like regulation or not, I think both sides can agree that nothing can be done without outside influence. Like I said in a previous link, criminals don’t voluntarily turn themselves in.
Check It Out: Corporations Aren’t Aligned With Consumer Interests
I disagree with what seems to be a premise of your article; we are not consumers of Facebook. We are the products. Other corporations are the consumers of Facebook, those consumers seem fairly happy with the product (our information) that they purchase from Facebook. For an interesting perspective on the morality of Facebook, take a look at this opinion piece in the ew York Times this weekend. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/24/opinion/sunday/facebook-immoral.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/07/22/you-dont-know-it-but-youre-working-for-facebook-for-free/
Or as I’ve said for a couple of decades: Corporations are simple creatures that live on money. Ethics have nothing to do with it. What makes money is good, anything stands in the way of that is bad, even a CEO with high personal standards. If the company can make money by treating their customers and workers well they do so. If they find that they can make more by abusing their workers and ripping off their customers then they do that.
Business Ethics is an oxymoron.
Non-financial businesses don’t exist solely to “maximize shareholder value.” Rather, they exist to serve some (hopefully useful) purpose. FedEx delivers packages. Amazon sells stuff online. Apple makes smartphones and computers.
A company that prioritizes “maximizing shareholder value” over providing benefit to its customers – for example providing useful or beneficial goods and/or or services – doesn’t deserve to retain them.
One can make the argument that an unethical approach to business can be counterproductive. Lying is more complicated than telling the truth. Harming your customers, employees, business partners, or the general public can alienate them, and can invite legal action as well.
Even tobacco companies might be more profitable if they didn’t kill as many of their customers.