[Extra] Cambridge Analytica

Presentation about Cambridge Analytica

Above is the presentation, I'll be giving to share with my class about the Cambridge Analytica Scandal. 

Here is the rundown. 

What is the Cambridge Analytica Scandal? The Cambridge Analytica firm is a data-analytics firm founded in 2013. The scandal came to the public in 2018, after whistleblower Christopher Wylie told revealed the activities of the company and Facebook to The Guardian and The New York Times. 
    Facebook admitted to having given Cambridge Analytica over 50 million users' data. This was to create psychological profiles to influence political elections. It was later discovered to be around 87 million users' information. They were able to harvest data through an external app – a personality quiz. The “thisisyourdigitallife” quiz hired 270,000 people to take it and then went through those people’s friends list to harvest data. The app was designed by Russian psychology professor at University of Cambridge, Aleksandr Kogan. 
    This is a complete invasion of privacy. Yet, Facebook only had to pay a 5 billion dollar fine and answer questions from Congress. Furthermore, they didn't even take full responsibility for their involvement. Facebook released a statement in 2018, "People knowingly provided their information, no systems were infiltrated, and no passwords or sensitive pieces of information were stolen or hacked" (Business Insider). Emails from Facebook employees show mention of Cambridge Analytica from 2015. Wylie even stated that Facebook didn't thoroughly check to see if he actually deleted their involvement... "They [Facebook] waited two years and did absolutely nothing to check that the data was deleted. All they asked me to do was tick a box on a form and post it back" (Business Insider).
    Before this came to the public, Facebook took down Cambridge Analytica, their parent company, and Christopher Wylie's profiles.

    The best thing to do right now is to learn how to protect your privacy online. Here is a great article that goes into detail about protecting your privacy. Additionally, some tips from NPR are: create strong passwords, use two-factor authentication, and use security updates. Plus, delete apps you don't need or use. Some apps can be accessed through a web browser or incognito. Lastly, turn off ad personalization.
Below is a pictue with steps on how!


To learn more, view the video below!



Works Cited:

Ma, A. (2019, August 23). Facebook understood how dangerous the trump-linked data firm Cambridge Analytica could be much earlier than it previously said. here's everything that's happened up until now. Business Insider. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.businessinsider.com/cambridge-analytica-a-guide-to-the-trump-linked-data-firm-that-harvested-50-million-facebook-profiles-2018-3#and-now-the-latest-news-about-the-ongoing-controversy-is-that-facebook-was-aware-of-cambridge-analytica-far-earlier-than-it-previously-said-9.

Wamsley, L. (2020, October 13). Your technology is tracking you. take these steps for better online privacy. NPR. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.npr.org/2020/10/09/922262686/your-technology-is-tracking-you-take-these-steps-for-better-online-privacy.

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