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As of March 2018, the social media giant Facebook has been struggling to repair its damaged reputation as a resul of its most recent privacy scandal, involving the release of private information from as many as 87 million users. The scandal has renewed attention to the issue of social media privacy and consumers’ ever-growing concern for the protection of their data and acts as a central case study on the issue. In the uproar of media coverage on the issue and the admittedly heated interviews of the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, it may be difficult to tell exactly where the company went wrong, and how social media companies such as Facebook are working to prevent similar problems in the future.
Cambridge Analytica and Aleksandr Kogan
Cambridge Analytica and Aleksandr Kogan
The scandal involved the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Ted Cruz and Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election, and Global Science Research (GSR), a data processing company run by Aleksandr Kogan. Kogan and his company helped Facebook collect and analyze user data. CBS News contributor and Wired editor-in-chief Nicholas Thompson comments that GSR collected “a bunch of user data from Facebook that he was supposed to keep himself. That's the agreement he signed with Facebook. Instead, he [sold] that all to Cambridge Analytica" (1). Cambridge Analytica allegedly used the data to provide targeted ads to Facebook users to influence their vote in the 2016 presidential election. Christopher Wylie, a co-founder of the political data analytics firm, revealed that the data sold to Cambridge Analytica was used to develop "psychographic" profiles of people and deliver pro-Trump material to them online (2).
Anderson Cooper's interview with Aleksandr Kogan of Global Science Research (left), in which Kogan claims to have been "unaware" of how Cambridge Analytica used the data it had obtained.
The Larger Issue
The Larger Issue
The Facebook scandal is a microcosm of the larger issue of user privacy; currently, little regulations exist to prevent the collecting and selling of user information by social media companies. Facebook and other media apps have long operated under the assumption that users are tolerant of third party uses of their data, but recent shifts in societal attitudes towards privacy and the need for trust between the user and the developer call for updated policies that better protect citizens and keep them aware of how their data can be used.
Issues with the Current Business Model
Issues with the Current Business Model
Many social media companies issue vague terms of agreement and privacy policies to users (whom do not read them anyhow). Users are vulnerable in this way; companies can permit themselves to collect and sell data because the user will agree to any terms and conditions they set forth. The privacy policy for Kogan's app, for example, which he used to collect data from Facebook users and their friends, plainly reads, "If you click 'OKAY,' you permit [us] to disseminate, transfer, or sell your data" (3). As users did not read this line in the agreement but agreed to the terms and conditions, they unknowingly permitted Kogan to harvest their data without violating the law. Although dishonest modern social media corporations contribute to the abuse of user rights and privacy, the user can be held somewhat responsible for the issue as well.
In Conclusion
In Conclusion
Although Facebook promises to update their terms and conditions as a result of the scandal, it does not solve the larger issue of privacy malpractices in the social media industry. In coming years, social media giants will likely come to a new understanding of how their users value privacy, and other social media companies may take Facebook's slip-up as an opportunity to revise their own business models. Also, citizens will likely take initiative to pass and revise internet privacy laws through local and federal government.
For a discussion of current privacy laws regarding social media, See: Privacy Policy.
For a discussion of current privacy laws regarding social media, See: Privacy Policy.
Works Cited
1. “Where Did Facebook Go Wrong in the Cambridge Analytica Scandal?” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 20 Mar. 2018, Web.
2. Halpern, Sue. “Cambridge Analytica and the Perils of Psychographics.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 23 Apr. 2018, Web.
3. Stahl, Lesley. “Aleksandr Kogan: The Link between Cambridge Analytica and Facebook.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 23 Apr. 2018, www.cbsnews.com/news/aleksandr-kogan-the-link-between-cambridge-analytica-and-facebook/.
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