Privacy & Democracy

The risk of data privacy and surveillance on democracy is that it can undermine fundamental human rights, and enable governments to manipulate public opinion and suppress dissent.

Political Micro-Targeting

Political micro-targeting is the practice of using data mining and psychographic profiling techniques to identify specific individuals or groups with tailored political messages, advertisements, and propaganda.

It involves collecting vast amounts of personal data, such as interests, preferences, and behaviors, and using this data to create highly personalized and targeted political ads and content.

Through social media platforms like Facebook, advertisers can collect vast amounts of data on users, including their interests, preferences, and behaviors.

This data can then be used to create highly personalized and targeted political ads, tailored to appeal to a specific group or individual.

The collection and use of personal data for micro-targeting purposes raise significant privacy concerns. Users may not be aware of how their data is being used, and may not have given their consent for it to be used in this way.

These profiles can be used to collect personal data and target individuals with false or misleading messages, often without their knowledge.

Micro-targeting has been also shown to create filter bubbles and echo chambers, in which individuals are exposed only to information that confirms their existing beliefs and biases.

This can lead to a polarized and fragmented political environment, where individuals are less likely to engage in constructive dialogue and compromise.

Cambridge Analytica: A Cautionary Tale

Cambridge Analytica collected a wide range of personal data from Facebook users without their consent, including their likes, interests, and other demographic information.

The data was collected through a third-party app called "This Is Your Digital Life", which was developed by a Cambridge University researcher named Aleksandr Kogan.

The app was able to collect data not only from users who installed it but also from their Facebook friends. This was possible because at the time, Facebook's API allowed third-party apps to access not only the data of the users who installed them but also the data of their friends.

This meant that Kogan was able to collect data from millions of Facebook users, even if they had never used his app or given their consent for their data to be collected.

Cambridge Analytica then used this data to build detailed psychographic profiles of users and to target them with political ads tailored to their interests and personality traits.

The scandal also revealed that Facebook had allowed third-party developers to access vast amounts of user data through its API without proper oversight or controls. This led to calls for greater regulation of tech companies and for stronger protections for user data.

Following the scandal, Facebook made changes to its API to limit the amount of data that third-party developers could access. It also faced multiple investigations and was fined by regulators for its role in the scandal.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal highlighted the potential dangers of data sharing and the need for greater transparency and control over how personal data is collected and used.

It also raised important questions about the responsibility of tech companies to protect user privacy and the role of regulation in ensuring that they do so.

The fallout from the scandal was significant. Facebook faced multiple investigations and was fined $5 billion by the US Federal Trade Commission for its role in the scandal. Cambridge Analytica filed for bankruptcy and was dissolved, and its executives faced legal action.