Facebook is facing a major backlash, due to allegations of incompetency to safeguard user data.
With more than 2 billion accounts, Facebook is being accused of giving a third party “big data” company, Cambridge Analytica, access to millions of users’ personal information, through a proxy app.
Despite recent attempts by Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, to provide damage control and an apology, Facebook stock is down.
The trending social media campaign, #DeleteFacebook, indicates that many users are upset and fed up with the way their information is being used by the platform; they seem to forget the axiom, that when the product is free, you are the product.
Deleting one’s Facebook account isn’t as easy as it seems.
A few years ago, someone registered the domain DeleteFacebook.com to provide information on exactly that function. Registered in 2010, DeleteFacebook.com serves as a host of detailed information about deleting your Facebook account, a process that might not fully deliver the desired outcome.
How much is the domain DeleteFacebook.com worth?
As a domain name that incorporates a famous trademark, probably not much. Although Facebook could opt to pay a handsome sum in order to acquire it in secrecy, and under the light of the current controversy, there is an increased risk when using trademarks for anything other than “fair use.”
DeleteFacebook.com provides factual, helpful information, in the form of a protest against user privacy concerns. If its owner were to actively seek its sale, it’s quite possible that the domain would be hit with a UDRP by the Facebook corporation.
Photo by Igor Ovsyannykov on Unsplash
