The Great Hack

has happened and it’s irreversible

As the Netflix documentary ‘The Great Hack’ rolled its credits, I couldn’t help but feel that the sordid saga of voter manipulation by the now infamous Cambridge Analytica was only the beginning of an ‘irrevocable’ new order of — connected consciousness — where human consciousness is simulated by actors in the world wide web.

To jog your memory: A big data company called Cambridge Analytica ‘CA’ was at the centre of a raging controversy alleging large scale rigging of the 2016 US presidential elections.

In theory ‘CA’ did what otherwise may be termed as an exceptionally well executed marketing campaign. Just that the product was a Presidential candidate, the data was questionably obtained and creatives were simply ‘fake news’.

Size of the prize

To put this in context, it was not the first time a large population was influenced to achieve time specific outcome. However it was the first time that the leader of the free world was decided on such an intervention. When the prize is the US presidency no wonder questionable techniques were used, ethics were stretched and laws were tested.

However the large scale influencing of the US elections was not conquering the last frontier of space travel but more like a rocket reaching escape velocity for the very first time. If the US election can be won what is next?

The digital contract

Much has been said about ‘you’ being the product for global digital companies. While you do not pay fiat currency to google, facebook and twitter to use their service, you do pay with your ‘data’. An incredibly rich data set for marketeers to ‘customize’ their offerings and ‘influence’ you into buying their product.

Interestingly after the very public and (sometimes amusing) congressional hearings there were no mass protests against mis-use of personal data, no en-mass deletion of social media accounts and no new laws written to prevent this from happening again.

The new order

In brief we have simply accepted the new reality of our consciousness plugged into and the world wide web via the plethora of apps on which we now spend a considerable part of our waking lives. Accepting the T&C seems to be a small price to pay for the like on our holiday photos, ability to get around on maps and expressing our views on the latest netflix release (ironical!). The knowledge that we can be actively influenced to vote for a certain candidate, support a certain ideology or reinforce certain biases is also not good enough to revoke our digital contract. Connected consciousness is here to stay.

Reigning in the monster

In the words of the key whistleblower in the CA saga a weapons grade communication tactic was used to influence the US population. The best option will be to regulate this weapon and create strict controls around its access and utilization. More laws such as Europe’s PDPA are required across major nations. However there is little incentive for major political parties whose elections have been helped by use of big data to reign it in. We can only hope that a few rounds of elections will level the playing field across parties and legislative sense will prevail.

There is no doubting the pursuit of more ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ will continue unabated. However an awareness that the post on the wall or that the alluring picture may be fake will go a long way in securing our free will.

The views expressed in this article are my own and do not in any way represent my organization.