Changes to Facebook Advertising After Cambridge Analytica: What's Happening with Usage, Advertising and Data Privacy

WHAT’S IN THIS REPORT? This report includes new user survey data, eMarketer’s latest forecast for time spent on Facebook and fresh insights from marketers on how they feel about Facebook now. It’s been nearly three months since the Cambridge Analytica revelations. We share what’s changed—and what hasn’t—about how users and advertisers feel about Facebook. Users continue to express heightened concern about privacy, but few appear to have deleted their profiles. Facebook reported softness in user metrics in North America for Q1, but this was unlikely to be related to data privacy concerns. Facebook’s many recent crises—data privacy, fake news, Russian meddling, unsafe content—are negatively impacting users’ perceptions of the platform, a trend which bears further watching. In light of the above, we have moderated our growth forecast for time spent on Facebook among US adult users. We estimate they will spend an average of 42 minutes per day on Facebook, up 1.8% from 2017. That’s slower