The Cambridge Analytica scandal isn’t a scandal: this is how Facebook works
This is a scandal, and we should not blur lines here.<p>Facebook engages in surveillance capitalism. Cambridge Analytica engages in Orwellian practices of deliberate and targeted mass manipulation, actively deceiving users from the outset about it&#x27;s intentions, and using lies as a means to an end.<p>From the Facebook report on the reason CA was suspended:<p>&gt; Like all app developers, Kogan requested and gained access to information from people after they chose to download his app. His app, “thisisyourdigitallife,” offered a personality prediction, and billed itself on Facebook as “a research app used by psychologists.” [0]<p>Cambridge Analytica&#x27;s CEO also espouses complete deceit as a strategy core strategy for using data to manipulate outcomes and advocates for using &quot;behaviorally targeted language&quot; to create an outcome. Like say you have a &quot;private beach.&quot; If you really want to keep people out, why not say &quot;sharks sighted&quot; instead?<p>His example, not mine: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;q1zYP" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;q1zYP</a>, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;n8Dd5aVXLCc" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;n8Dd5aVXLCc</a>, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=6bG5ps5KdDo" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=6bG5ps5KdDo</a><p>The scandals for me are two fold. First, we have a data repository (Facebook) that&#x27;s powerful enough to assist in this type of weaponized manipulation that&#x27;s entirely unprotected. Even if you think Facebook is some type of benevolent overlord that you trust with your data, it&#x27;s a scandal that nothing has stopped any number of third-parties from doing what Cambridge Analytica did.<p>Second, we have a sitting president who actively made use of these &quot;targeted information strategies&quot; during his election in a blatantly unethical fashion. (For the record, so did Ted Cruz.) I for a long time laughed off the Antifa crowd as being an overreaction to Trump, but it&#x27;s now blatantly clear to me that he deliberately used authoritarian tactics to win the election.