Cambridge Analytica Case Analysis

Running Head: CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA CASE
0
IT Write Up
Academic & Business Research
(Student details :)
5/25/2019

Cambridge Analytica Case
1
Cambridge Analytica Case Analysis
In order to analyze the case of the Facebook data breach in the context of Cambridge
Analytica this paper is going to answer some major questions raised on this issue as follows:
Answer 1
In the context of Facebook-Cambridge Analytica Scandal, a number of concerns are there on
the connection of these two big firms. A company GSR (Global Science Research) made by
Aleksandr Kogan harvested Facebook data through an app thisisdigitallife (CNBC, 2018).
Then the data has been sold to Cambridge Analytica which was working for Brexit and
Trump campaign. In addition, the whole scandal came out with the help of a whistle-blower
Christopher Wylie. The connection between these two firms revealed when Prof Kogan
blamed by Facebook for the act of violating ToS (BBC News, 2019). In this context, the
connection between Facebook and Cambridge was totally illegal and unfair. In August 2016,
when Facebook came to know about the data breach involvement then Facebook lawyers
asked every party to delete the breached data which did not happen. Although everyone
certified deletion yet they did not delete it actually. Therefore, Facebook kept refusing data
breach until March 2018 (ABC News, 2018). The above results in Facebook’s legitimacy was
threatened.
In this case, Facebook, being the social media giant, has launched a new platform known as
Open Graph that enabled third-party developers reaching Facebook users as well as access
their personal info along with their peers, family and friends’ personal data (ABC News,
2018). The main concern about Facebook’s relation with Cambridge Analytica (CA) is that
being a social media platform Facebook should not have allowed the third-party application
developers for reaching Facebook users while accessing their personal data (Winder, 2019).
The above was the main reason that GSR could breach the Facebook user’s data with
thisisdigitallife app. Thus, if Facebook would not have been allowed CA for accessing their
users’ personal data at large level then election campaign could not have been utilized
people’s psychological profiling activities in order to manipulate election results. In this way,
the connection between the two companies CA and Facebook was totally unethical and
illegal because it provided open access to all of the third-party app developers to breach info
of the users and their friends as well. The breached info was utilized for the presidential

Cambridge Analytica Case
2
campaigns which are highly unethical, immoral act from the perspective of liberty and
democracy within the country (The Conversation, 2018).
References
ABC News, 2018. Facebook says up to 87m people affected in Cambridge Analytica data-
mining scandal. [Online] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-05/facebook-
raises-cambridge-analytica-estimates/9620652.
BBC News, 2019. Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data breach. [Online] Available at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46822439?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/
news/topics/c81zyn0888lt/facebook-cambridge-analytica-data-breach&link_location=live-
reporting-story.
CNBC, 2018. Facebook-Cambridge Analytica: A timeline of the data hijacking scandal.
[Online] Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/10/facebook-cambridge-analytica-a-
timeline-of-the-data-hijacking-scandal.html.
The Conversation, 2018. Cambridge Analytica scandal: Facebook’s user engagement and
trust decline. [Online] Available at: http://theconversation.com/cambridge-analytica-scandal-
facebooks-user-engagement-and-trust-decline-93814.
Winder, D., 2019. Facebook Privacy Update: Mark Zuckerberg's Response To Cambridge
Analytica Scandal One Year On. [Online] Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2019/03/17/facebook-privacy-update-mark-
zuckerbergs-response-to-cambridge-analytica-scandal-one-year-on/#220818821980
[Accessed 25 May 2019].
Answer 2
Yes, Facebook clearly breached the trust and faith of their users by getting involved in this
data breach scandal. As per the reliable sources, around 90 million users had been logged out
of their Facebook account either from their mobile phone or laptop post hearing the news on
this scandal (Finance Yahoo, 2018). Besides, Facebook users are now greatly frightened that
they are not even using Facebook Messenger for sharing confidential or private information
with each other. It can be said that an idea of controlling over one’s Facebook data or privacy