Problem of Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal

Discuss about the Data Breaches and Scandals System.

The data breaches and scandals has raised to an alarming rate in the current scenario that has devastated many organizations and people’s lives. The data breaches and scandals are explained in this report in terms of a recent scandal that happened. The recent scandal discussed in this report is Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal. Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal is the recent scandal that has affected huge number of people using Facebook (Keach 2018). The details of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal is discussed briefly in this report. The purpose of this report is to identify the scandal happened and propose possible solutions that can help to mitigate this type of scandals.

The structure of this report is problem of Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, causes, how it happened, consequences and possible solutions that can be taken to mitigate the scandal.

Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal is the biggest crisis of Facebook till date that started from 2014 however, identified recently in 2018. The problem originated in 2014 when Cambridge Analytica, a United States consulting firm for voting process, hired Aleksandr Kogan, an American researcher, for collecting information from Facebook (Adams, Clark and Craven 2018). The hiring of the researcher was to gather information from Facebook user’s profile along with their choice of like. Kogan developed an app called this is your digital life, that included a small survey to Facebook users. Approximately 300,000 users in Facebook were asked to fill the survey for which they were paid money. Kogan the collected data not only from the users who participated in the survey but also from their friends whose privacy settings allowed Kogan to collect data from their profile also (Cadwalladr 2017). The data related to personal information of Facebook users were collected through the survey. The terms of services in the app stated that it would gather and collect information on Facebook users and their respective friends (Yglesias 2018). This was done only due to allowance of Facebook to collect and gather information from user’s data back in 2007 when Facebook allowed external developers to introduce and offer application of their own within Facebook (Albright 2016). The data was collected to use it for United States presidential election process. Facebook was told by Kogan that he is using data for research however, when Facebook learnt about the breach, they asked Kogan to destroy the data. However, the traces of data were still there in Cambridge Analytica.

Causes of the scandal: platform, conductor, and users

The cause of the deemed data scandal can vary to different sources and hence they have been categorized in different categories. The categories can be stated as the platform, the conductor and the participant.

The platform: Facebook is the platform here because it is the platform where the scandal took place. The role of Facebook in the deemed scenario is vague but still it can be hold responsible for the scandal. It should also be quoted that the source that is the root cause of the discussed scandal is the platform (Confessore 2018). The reason for stating the above-made statement lays on the fact that the users have shared their personal information on the platform and they are responsible for safekeeping of the formers data. Additionally, their policies are also in question because they allowed the app to even visit their timeline and see the news feed which led to evaluation of the user’s social network and hence, such mass collection of data by privacy violation.

The Conductor: The conductor here is Kogan or Cambridge Analytica because they were the individual/organization that collected the data by using their app. The conductor also holds huge responsibility for the deemed scandal because they collected the data in the name of academic research and used it to fulfil their personal objectives and agendas (Doward et al. 2017). After conducting such unethical act, they use it to violate the democratic right of citizens which is far more concerning and without any question they are the cause of the discussed scandal.

The user: The reason for including the user here as the cause of the scandal is because they allowed the permission to the application without reading its policies. Additionally, they have shared so much of their information with the considered social networking app without reading its policies and hence, they are also responsible for the heinous act (Hern and Waterson 2018). Though, it can be stated that the users are the least responsible for the act but they cannot be reprieved of their role in the deemed act.

The consequences of the data scandal can be considered as vague because it no strong evidence or confessions have been made that the data collected from the scandal was used for political uses. However, the visible consequence of the deemed scandal is the loss of trust towards Facebook among the stakeholders is visible from its revenue (Johnson 2018). The question over associating data with the digital world has also emerged as key matter of discussion. Additionally, complaints have been registered against all the individual and organizations involved in the scandal in UK under the data protection law because the law their states that the use of personal data for commercial purposes is illegal. The privacy commissioner of Australia has also started their investigation in to the discussed matter (Lin 2018). The investigation is evaluating whether or not the scandal breached the Australia’s privacy act as reported by the ABC Board. The approach of the US towards this act is still unclear and will take time before any clear result can be determined. For Cambridge Analytica, Facebook has suspended its services and is blaming all the charges over them. On the contrary, Cambridge Analytica and Kogan claims that the policy of the Facebook allowed them to use the data for commercial purposes after which they proceeded with collection of the data (Meredith 2018). Additionally, the cloud service provider Amazon Web Services (AWS) also suspended their services to the Cambridge Analytica citing reference to the deemed act. So, as stated above, the clear consequence of the discussed act is unclear however, it can still be stated that the act has raised significant question over the safety of data on the digital platform.

Consequences of the scandal: loss of trust and legal actions

After the revelation of the deemed act both the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica are facing harsh responses from different sources.  The government of Brazil and India raised the question to Cambridge Analytica over how they were able to use the data for manipulating the political outcomes of certain scenarios (Williamson 2018). Additionally, lawsuits have been filled in different states of US over the deemed issue. As stated in the above section AWS suspended its services to Cambridge Analytica and Facebook is suffering from low revenue due to negative response of its stocks. Other responses by different sources are raising questions over the data security and privacy.

The deemed scandal is a huge perception changer for the people across the globe and they should plan accordingly to avoid any such instances in future. The following potential measures can assist in fulfilling the objective of preventing such incidents from happening again:

• The digital platforms that earn their revenue based on the advertisements and have access to the user’s information such as Facebook and other social networking sites should devise policies to test the legitimacy of any advertisement or application before they open it for the users. Additionally, the platforms should also communicate to the users about the legitimacy of the published ads and applications.
• The government should set adequate protocols to prevent any such incidents from happening again and should also formulate a monitoring team to monitor whether or not the digital platforms are abiding by the formulated law. If any organization or individual is identified breaching the law, then they should be imposed heavy penalty and in severe cases even jail terms or other severe actions.
• The government and the companies as well should run awareness campaign about the data protection. Another notable measure that the formers should do is that they should make the policies easily visible and understandable for the users.
• The users should also take adequate attention before sharing their personal details over a platform or sharing it with an ad or application. They should go through the privacy and other much needed policy of the source they are sharing their personal information with.

Conclusion

The devised report can be emphasized to state that the digital platforms are offering significant benefits and fun means to the users. However, in the recent years they have also emerged as a significant threat to the privacy of the users. The discussed case of Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal is one of the most prominent example of the privacy threat offered by the digital revolution. Hence, it is advisable that the discussed threats should be addressed direly and plans for mitigating the risks be devised and enforced in the minimum possible time to prevent any such incidents from happening. In conclusion, the discussed report will be concluded to state that privacy is one of the most prominent right of any individual and it is the responsibility of the organization and the government to keep it intact and do the needful.

References

Adams, B., Clark, A. and Craven, J., 2018. It is Free and Always Will Be-Trading Personal Information and Privacy for the Convenience of Online Services. arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.08491.

Albright, J., 2016. How Trump’s campaign used the new data-industrial complex to win the election. USApp–American Politics and Policy Blog.

Cadwalladr, C., 2017. The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked. The Guardian, 20.

Confessore, N., 2018. Cambridge Analytica and Facebook: The Scandal and the Fallout So Far. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-scandal-fallout.html [Accessed 2 May 2018].

Doward, J., Cadwalladr, C.C.C. and Gibbs, A., 2017. Watchdog to launch inquiry into misuse of data in politics. Sat, 4, pp.22-29.

Hern, A. and Waterson, J., 2018. Facebook in ‘PR crisis mode’ over Cambridge Analytica scandal. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/24/facebook-in-pr-crisis-mode-over-cambridge-analytica-scandal-outrage-hallow-aleksandr-kogan [Accessed 2 May 2018].

Johnson, C., 2018. Forbes Welcome. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/05/01/what-the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-means-for-the-future-of-facebook-marketing/#19cd5bda291c [Accessed 2 May 2018].

Keach, S., 2018. Facebook data breach – what happened with Cambridge Analytica and are you safe?. [online] The Sun. Available at: https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/5843838/facebook-data-scandal-cambridge-analytica-safe/ [Accessed 2 May 2018].

Lin, Y.W., 2018. # DeleteFacebook is still feeding the beast–but there are ways to overcome surveillance capitalism.

Meredith, S., 2018. Here’s everything you need to know about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. [online] CNBC. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/21/facebook-cambridge-analytica-scandal-everything-you-need-to-know.html [Accessed 2 May 2018].

Williamson, B., 2018. Why education is embracing Facebook-style personality profiling for schoolchildren. The Conversation.

Yglesias, M., 2018. The case against Facebook. [online] Vox. Available at: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/21/17144748/case-against-facebook [Accessed 2 May 2018].