Need to Know
8 4-17April 2018
What happened?
Therehave been plentyofdataprivacy
scandalsinrecentyears,but nonequite
like this:apink-haired whistleblower,
aRussianacademicand claims of
election fixing have made headlines
across theworld –and Facebookis
at thecentre of it all.
CambridgeAnalyticaisacampaign
consultancy that specialisesinusing
data to influencevoters. Data science
has legitimate applications in election
campaigns, butCambridgeAnalyticais
accusedofillegally harvesting data from
Facebookusers to target individuals
withpersonalisedpolitical messages
whilehidingits allegiance, thus creating
–aswhistleblowerand former CA
stafferChris Wileyput it –a
“psychological warfaretool”.
Facebookwas made awareofthe
‘breach’ back in 2015,but reports
suggest it merelysentaletterto
CambridgeAnalyticarequiringnothing
morethanaticked boxasconfirmation
that thecompany hadwiped thedata.
Even moreworryingishow thedatawas
obtained in thefirst place: Facebooknot
onlyallowedthird-party appdevelopers
to access user data,but also permitted
them to mine theprofiles of users’
friends, meaningaround50million
people were affected by thebreach.
In themosthigh-profileexample,
Facebookusers were paid to installand
complete apersonalityquizcreated by
RussianacademicAleksandr Kogan,
whichsecretlycollected data about
theirfriends in thebackground. Kogan
gave thedatatoCambridgeAnalytica,
breakingUKdata-protection rules and
Facebook’sown terms. FacebookCEO
and founderMarkZuckerbergtook five
days to apologise and promise that
Facebookwill limitthe data third-party
apps canaccess in future.
That maybetoo little,too late for
many Facebookusers,asa
#DeleteFacebook campaign took off
online. Howeffective it will prove
remainstobeseen, butinvestors have
takennote, wipingtensofbillionsof
dollarsfromFacebook’smarketvalue.Howwill it affect you?
If CambridgeAnalytica’sattemptsto
influenceFacebookusers have been as
successful as it claims in itsmarketing
material and in thehidden-camera
videosobtained by theObserver,the
companypotentially putDonaldTrump
in TheWhite Houseand influenced UK
voters to optfor Brexit.However, this is
nigh on impossible to prove,and
CambridgeAnalyticadeniesworkingon
theEUreferendum.
In response,one US academic has
filedarequest askingCambridge
Analyticawhether hisdatawas used.
But, morebroadly,the rising
pressureagainst Facebook
meansregulators on both
sidesofthe Atlantic may
finallytakeaction.
If you’ve hadenoughof
Facebook’sdevious data
dealings and want to jump on
the#DeleteFacebook
bandwagon,here’show to doit.First, download allyourdata, so you
don’t lose allyourpreciousphotosand
memories.Todothis, go to Settings,
General AccountSettings,then
‘DownloadacopyofyourFacebook
data’. Thedownloadwill take awhile to
prepare, so wait untilyou receivethe
notification,then download thedata.
Youcan either ‘deactivate’your
account–which allows youtoreactivate
it later–ordeleteitcompletely.The
settingtodeactivate is underGeneral
AccountSettings,while deletionhas a
dedicatedpage atbit.ly/fbdelete446.
Once youhave clicked that button,stay
away from thesite–ifyou revisitwithin
afew monthsofdeletion, your account
will automaticallybereactivated.What dowethink?
Considerthisalesson learned: allthose
warnings from privacy campaigners
aboutthe dangers of socialmedia are
true.Wecan heed thecalltodelete
Facebook, and learntoprotect ourown
privacy better online, butit’sclear that
thepowerinthisrelationshipdoesn’t fall
on ourside. Forthatreason, it’s high
time regulators steppedin–but what
cantheydowhen selling ourdatais
howFacebookmakes itsmoney?
Thoseofuswho love theweb
still believe that it canhelpbuild a
better world, butit’sonlythrough
participationand discussion–and
learning from mistakes –thatwecan
helptomakethishappen.Facebook promises changes
following huge data scandal
If you’ve hadenoughofFacebook invading your
privacy,downloadyourdataand delete your account
Credit:dolphfyn/Shutterstock.com