So, value and trust appear to be going hand-in-hand like some cheesy scene from a Lifetime movie as the two main characters walk down the beach while the credits roll up the screen. By the way, don't blame the babysitter. She was obviously under a lot of stress. She will be missed.

The meat of the issue here lies in several not-so-neat piles: Our personal data, our trust in free platforms, what data is really being collected by Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and others, and who's using our data for what purpose and how exposed we are.

This is a case where the phrase "you can't put the genie back in the bottle" truly applies.

Our personal data, your credit union's data, and everyone you and your credit union is connected with … the data is out there and has been for years.

Initial reports indicate that Cambridge Analytica used the data from 50 million Facebook accounts to help target specific ads for the last presidential campaign. There have been reports that the number could be more like 250 million or even one billion; we just don't know yet.

Our Roy Urrico did an initial story for us about the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica (FBCA) news and the potential impacts on credit unions and your members. I found it interesting that people were trying to define if this was a "data breach" or not. And Gene Fredriksen, chief information security strategist for PSCU, I think, got it right. To summarize:

In the case of Facebook, he suggested everyone should consider information in their profiles, discussions in their posts and anything happening in their friend's accounts as vulnerable. And also look at this FBCA issue in a broader data breach world that we live in. "Combine the Facebook information with the financial and account information from an Equifax breach and information from a personnel department breach, such as the Office of Personnel Management, and you can build a cradle-to-grave personal history."

Gulp.

Other experts say this is a great reminder to not overshare on these social media platforms. Again, though, the cat is out of the bag for hundreds of millions of people. God knows where it all is or who really has it. Once we find out, we are not going to be happy about it.

Does this mean the end of Facebook or social media? I think we will see a big shift in social media use, privacy policies and even uses by credit unions. Unless there is a massive worldwide revolt, I think Facebook is in that too-big-to-fail zone of businesses. But, it didn't help that Elon Musk deleted his Facebook business pages for Tesla and SpaceX. And it also didn't help that Brian Acton, the co-founder of WhatsApp (which Facebook purchased for a crazy pile of money) is literally the person pushing the hashtag #deletefacebook and who is trying to educate business owners and influencers about the dangers of "what Facebook is doing with your data."

Double gulp.

So what are we to do? There are so many new articles out there posted on blogs and how-to videos on YouTube, and articles in the New York Times and Forbes showing you how to delete your Facebook data "as much as possible." So you know, you've shared a lot of information, so deleting it all will be challenging.

I've considered deleting my Facebook account. Not because I'm ticked at FBCA, but because I want to see if I can really delete everything of me from that site. Seems like a fun challenge.

What should your credit union do? We don't have that answer yet. And, so you know, Tina Orem, one of our brilliant tech writers, is working on a feature story that is focused on answering that and other questions.

I will say, if I were a credit union marketing or IT executive, I'd be on the phone with CUNA, NAFCU, the NCUA and my fintech partners to see if there's anything to be done, or calls to be made to lawmakers. And I'd sure as heck make a special marketing and public relations effort in my community to show our members that we are doing SOMETHING, because, and I'd bet on this, no one else is making that kind of effort in the community for members, consumers or their audience.

And talk about knowing your audience – Mozilla has even launched a new add-on to the Firefox browser called "Facebook Container," which basically isolates your Facebook activity from the rest of your website browsing. This is the kind of reaction and diligence that puts trust in a brand. Google knows its time is coming to get wrapped up into the FBCA data storm and Firefox is very aware of that.

A lot of consumers and credit union members are rightly upset by all of this. I just think the anger might be aimed in the wrong direction.

In life, and in Lifetime movies, people seem to need a villain. In this case, we were the babysitter. We will be missed.

Michael Ogden, CU Times Executive Editor

Michael Ogden is executive editor for CU Times. He can be reached at [email protected].