Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal

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The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal involves the collection of personally identifiable information of 87 million Facebook users[1] and reportedly a much greater number more[2] that Cambridge Analytica began collecting in 2014. The data was allegedly used to attempt to influence voter opinion on behalf of politicians who hired them. Following the discovery, Facebook apologized amid public outcry and risen stock prices. The way that Cambridge Analytica collected the data was called "inappropriate".[3]

In December 2015, The Guardian reported that United States Senator Ted Cruz was using data from this scandal and that the subjects of the data were unaware that companies were selling and politicians were buying their personal information.[4] In March 2018, The New York Times, The Guardian and Channel 4 News made more detailed reports on the data scandal with new information from former Cambridge Analytica employee Christopher Wylie, who provided clearer information about the size of the data collection, the nature of the personal information stolen, and communication among Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and political representatives who hired Cambridge Analytica to use the data to influence voter opinion.[5][6]

The scandal was significant for inciting public discussion on ethical standards for social media companies, political consulting organizations, and politicians. Consumer advocates called for greater consumer protection in online media and right to privacy as well as curbs on misinformation and propaganda.

Cambridge Analytica stated that the data obtained from Kogan was not used in the 2016 presidential campaigns of Donald Trump, and Ted Cruz.[7]

According to the Associated Press, a company run by former officials at Cambridge Analytica, Data Propria, has been quietly working for President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election effort.[8]

Process

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Aleksandr Kogan, a data scientist at Cambridge University, developed an app called "This Is Your Digital Life"[9] (sometimes stylised as "thisisyourdigitallife").[6][10] He provided the app to Cambridge Analytica.[6] Cambridge Analytica in turn arranged an informed consent process for research in which several hundred thousand Facebook users would agree to complete a survey only for academic use.[6] However, Facebook's design allowed this app to not only collect the personal information of people who agreed to take the survey, but also the personal information of all the people in those users' Facebook social network.[6] In this way Cambridge Analytica acquired data from millions of Facebook users.[6]

Characteristics of the data

The New York Times reported that dataset has included information on 50 million Facebook users.[5] According to Facebook, up to 87 million users had their data shared,[11] with 70.6 million of those people from the United States.[12] Within the United States, Facebook estimated that California was the most affected U.S. state with 6.7 million impacted users; followed by Texas, with 5.6 million; and Florida, with 4.3 million.[13] While Cambridge Analytica says it only collected 30 million Facebook user profiles,[14] Facebook estimated that the number was around 87 million profiles.[10]

Facebook sent a message to these users believed to be affected, saying the information likely included one's "public profile, page likes, birthday and current city".[15] Some of the app's users gave the app permission to access their News Feed, timeline, and messages.[16] The data was detailed enough for Cambridge Analytica to create psychographical profiles of the subjects of the data.[5] The data also included the locations of each person.[5] For a given political campaign, the data was detailed enough to create a profile which suggested what kind of advertisement would be most effective to persuade a particular person in a particular location for some political event.[5]

The New York Times and The Guardian reported that as of March 17, 2018 the data was available on the open Internet and available in general circulation.[5][6]

News coverage

In December 2015, The Guardian reported that Cambridge Analytica used the data at the behest of Ted Cruz.[4][17] Cambridge Analytica also assisted with President Trump's campaigns.[18]

On March 17, 2018, The New York Times and The Guardian each published articles stating that they collaborated with each other to investigate and report the breach and to share details.[5][6] Both papers told the story of Christopher Wylie, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica turned whistleblower presenting information that The New York Times and The Guardian used as supporting evidence for various scandals which they described.[5][6][19][20][21]

Use of the data

Various political organizations used information from the data breach to attempt to influence public opinion. Political events for which politicians paid Cambridge Analytica to use information from the data breach include the following:

Responses

Facebook director Mark Zuckerberg first apologized for the situation with Cambridge Analytica on CNN,[27] calling it an "issue", a "mistake" and a "breach of trust". Other Facebook officials argued against calling it a "data breach", arguing those who took the personality quiz originally consented to give away their information.[28] Zuckerberg pledged to make changes and reforms in Facebook policy to prevent similar breaches.[29] On March 25, 2018, Zuckerberg published a personal letter in various paper newspapers apologizing on behalf of Facebook.[30] In April they decided to implement the EU's General Data Protection Regulation in all areas of operation and not just the EU.[31]

Amazon said that they suspended Cambridge Analytica from using their Amazon Web Services when they learned that their service was collecting personal information.[32] The Italian banking company UniCredit stopped advertising and marketing on Facebook.[33]

The governments of India and Brazil demanded that Cambridge Analytica report how anyone used data from the breach in political campaigning,[34][35][36] and various regional governments in the United States have lawsuits in their court systems from citizens affected by the data breach.[37]

On April 25, 2018, Facebook released their first earnings report since the scandal was reported. Revenue fell since the last quarter, but this is usual as it followed the holiday season quote. The quarter revenue was the highest for a first quarter, and the second overall.[38]

In early July 2018, the United Kingdom's Information Commissioner's Office announced it intended on fining Facebook £500,000 ($663,000) over the data scandal, saying Facebook "contravened the law by failing to safeguard people's information".[39]

Testimony to Congress

During his testimony before Congress on April 10, 2018, Mark Zuckerberg said it was his personal mistake that he did not do enough to prevent Facebook from being used for harm. “That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech.” During the testimony, Mark Zuckerberg publicly apologized for the breach of private data: “It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”[40]

Zuckerberg said that in 2013, researcher Aleksandr Kogan from Cambridge University created a personality quiz app, which was installed by 300,000 people. The app was then able to retrieve Facebook information, including that of the users' friends, and this was obtained by Kogan. It was not until 2015 that Zuckerberg learned that these users' information was shared by Kogan to Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica was subsequently asked to remove all the data. It was later rediscovered by The Guardian, The New York Times and Channel 4 that the data was in fact not deleted.[41]

See also

References

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External links

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  26. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/24/world/americas/mexico-election-cambridge-analytica.html
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