Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm, allegedly harvested private information from the Facebook profiles of over 50 million users without permission, making it one of the largest data leaks in the social network’s history. This data was used to create a system that could target individual US voters with personalised political advertisements. The firm, which was hired by Donald Trump’s election team and the winning Brexit campaign, used the data to build a powerful software programme to predict and influence voter choices.
Christopher Wylie, a Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, revealed that the company used personal information taken without authorisation in early 2014 to build a model that could profile individual US voters. This process was reportedly carried out in order to influence their voting decisions. Wylie claims that Facebook did not do enough to prevent this and that many users were unaware that their data was being used in this way.
This revelation raises questions about the role of social media in influencing elections and highlights the potential for misuse of personal data. It also puts pressure on Facebook to improve its data protection measures and raises concerns about the regulation of political advertising online.
Go to source article: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election