Cambridge Analytica, Facebook, and the Regulation of Our Private Data
The scandal surrounding Cambridge Analytica exposed a deep flaw with our mindless acceptance of data collection. Nearly all of us have accepted privacy and terms of service without even looking at it.
Cambridge Analytica is a political consulting firm that was involved with the 2016 Trump presidency campaign. The campaign was heavily focused on targeting ads to consumers. They created a quiz application on Facebook that took private data from 87 million Facebook users. While some of those users technically agreed to Cambridge Analytica being able to see their data, there was a far larger issue.
Due to a problem in Facebook API, not only was data on the quiz takers able to be collected, but also all their friends as well. They also sold this data, which was completely illegal. The scandal reflected poorly on both Cambridge Analytica and Facebook and brought up a discussion about the companies we share our data with.
All users of Facebook agreed to share their data with the company. What I find problematic is that Facebook seems to prioritize money over the protection of that data. Yes, we all agreed to the terms of service, but should the average person need a law degree to understand what they are doing when they sign up to be on a website? I personally don’t think so.
Facebook allowed a company access to user data that they shouldn’t have. Cambridge Analytica took and sold user data they shouldn’t have. We agreed to this, and we shouldn’t have. We are all responsible for this type of stuff happening. However, if social media companies want us as users, they should respect us.
Social media platforms should be responsible for keeping our data safe. Without this, we cannot trust in these companies. It takes both the users and the platform itself for social media to work. Not everything on social media should be regulated, but we should have regulations that keep out data private and safe from Cambridge Analytica and any other company willing to take out data.
