March 26, 2018

Cambridge Analytica and Facebook show us what data is worth

located:	USA, United Kingdom, Russia
editor:	Gurmeet Singh

One of the surprising things about the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal is that it's not really a scandal at all. Of course in the obvious sense of the word it could be perceived as a scandal: Facebook facilitated and covered up its role in handing over the data of more than 30 million users to private app developers. However, it is also rather pedestrian: users have known throughout their use of social media and website browsing that their data is the primary value point, and is routinely packaged and sold to third-parties the world over.

I believe the outcry over the affair has much less to do with data-misuse, and much more to do with us all finally getting to grips with just how valuable our data really is.

The network of companies, dummy companies, politicians and (potentially) nations involved in the scandal has now been well-documented and publicised by The Guardian. But as facts begin to solidify, it's becoming apparent that the story is only beginning to increase in complexity. There are political personalities such as Nigel Farage who are implicated, as it seems that it wasn't just the 2016 Presidential Election in the U.S. that was targeted, but also the U.K. referendum on EU membership. It is still unclear how, and if, Russia was involved. Further to this point, the involvement of foreign States in elections and guerilla-social media tactics are worrying in themselves, but ultimately distract from more pressing issues: the concerns of voters, the dead-end nature of capitalism, and the heightened state of emotions in which our politics operates.

Facebook's involvement in the scandal could, however, be a watershed moment for digital privacy. Previously, as users we have always been aware – to some extent – that our data is being misused, if only in a very peripheral way, as there have been two decades' worth of stories indicating that multinational corporations, as well as nations, are buying big data from companies to finesse the craftsmanship of what we now call target advertising. Yet, we never took this concern to a critical mass, as individuals we found it hard to believe that in such a sea of data, a single drop could be isolated and targeted. In conjunction with the minor fact that many countries have laws in place that protect against the selling of sensitive personal data to third parties.

Despite our trust in the platforms we subscribe to and the laws that protect us, this is precisely what Cambridge Analytica with the help of Facebook did. The company built highly personalised profiles of individuals using rich, granular information from their Facebook profiles to build political advertisements and fake news carefully constructed to influence their votes. Basing their algorithms on studies, which indicate that cultural affiliation and consumer tendencies have a direct link to political inclination. It resulted in Donald Trump winning the election and what we call the never-ending Brexit story.

Users now have a chance to fully understand what data extraction and manipulation mean. Privacy settings and careful online use are no longer boring buzzwords or hypothesised myths, rather they protect users from predatory practices online. And you shouldn't be fooled: drops in the water will eventually cause the levels to rise, and your data is as valuable to companies as anyone else's.