What happens when your sails luff?

We generally love sailing metaphors, though it does require an audience to understand the terms. With a recent news article, we wonder if the author’s interest in sailing may have gone too far in his attempt at a catchy headline.

The story was about Facebook being under investigation after revelations how the data of millions of users may have been leaked to increase the potency of marketing campaigns. When someone knows what you want and don’t want, it’s easier for him/her to convince you to buy their product or vote for them.

Facebook offers its social media platform to users ‘for free’. What it gets in return is data about individuals logging in. This data is used by advertisers to push their products to potential consumers via sponsored links. These links can be set to apply for particular demographics such as gender, age, country, and region etc.

Commercial advertising is the business model for social media platforms. It’s how Facebook makes billions. However, as we learn how political campaigns are doing this too, it suddenly changes the mood on how consumers are getting used.

And the headline to get our attention to this story…
Facebook was sailing too close to the wind