The Cambridge Analytica Scandal: Difference between revisions
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==Data theft== | ==Data theft== | ||
===Harvesting=== | ===Harvesting=== | ||
:In 2013 Aleksandr Kogan, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, developed a Facebook app | :In 2013 Aleksandr Kogan, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, developed a Facebook app, ''This Is Your Digital Life,'' under his company, GSR.<ref name=":2" /> The app was presented as a personality quiz and paid users to take psychological surveys. It collected their Facebook data including their friends' information due to Facebook’s permissive API policies at the time. Approximately 270,000 users directly took the quiz , accessing an estimated 87 million profiles because of Facebook’s Open Graph platform.<ref>{{Cite news |date=July 30, 2020 |title=Facebook data privacy scandal: A cheat sheet |url=https://www.techrepublic.com/article/facebook-data-privacy-scandal-a-cheat-sheet/ |url-status=live |access-date=25 Jun 2025 |work=TechRepublic}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Cadwalladr |first=Carole |last2=Graham-Harrison |first2=Emma |date=March 17, 2018 |title=Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election |url-status=live |access-date=25 Jun 2025 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> The collected data included likes, location, birth dates, friend networks, and some users' private messages.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cambridge Analytica |url=https://dig.watch/trends/cambridge-analytica |url-status=live |access-date=25 Jun 2025 |website=dig.watch}}</ref> | ||
===Transferred to Cambridge Analytica=== | ===Transferred to Cambridge Analytica=== | ||
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*Brexit Referendum (2016): Analytica was linked to the pro-Brexit group, Leave EU, though investigations later found no direct evidence of significant involvement. | *Brexit Referendum (2016): Analytica was linked to the pro-Brexit group, Leave EU, though investigations later found no direct evidence of significant involvement. | ||
===Whistleblower revelations=== | ===Whistleblower revelations=== | ||
:In March 2018, former Analytica employee Christopher Wylie exposed the scandal through The Guardian and The New York Times, revealing that Facebook had known about the breach since 2015 but failed to notify affected users or enforce data deletion.<ref name=":0" /> | :In March 2018, former Analytica employee Christopher Wylie exposed the scandal through ''The Guardian'' and ''The New York Times'', revealing that Facebook had known about the breach since 2015 but failed to notify affected users or enforce data deletion.<ref name=":0" /> | ||
===Responses=== | ===Responses=== | ||
*Facebook dismissed the incident as a | *Facebook dismissed the incident as a violation of terms rather than a data breach claiming, "...Mr.Korgan misled us all."<ref name=":4" /> | ||
*CA claimed it was not aware that the data from GSR violated Facebook's | *CA claimed it was not aware that the data from GSR violated Facebook's terms of service and deleted it after insistence from Facebook.<ref name=":4" /> | ||
===Outcome=== | ===Outcome=== | ||