Cambridge Analytica: Business Opportunity and Controversies

This article discusses the business opportunity for Cambridge Analytica and how they captured it. It also delves into the controversies surrounding the company's actions, including the misuse of personal data and its impact on brand trust. The article explores the role of data in influencing decision making in business and politics, considering corporate social responsibility, ethics, and legislation. It also examines the work and services provided by Cambridge Analytica to Trump's campaign and discusses the interrelation between public goodwill/license to operate and data-driven technology companies.

MK7040 – Marketing
Digital Age and
Corporate Social
Responsibility

Table of Contents
What was the business opportunity for Cambridge Analytica? How did the company capture
it?.................................................................................................................................................3
Stand in the shoes of CEO Alex Nix: What could have been done better BEFORE the scandal
in 2017 and earlier? What could have been done better AFTER the scandal broke (early
2018)? (Consider the following areas: marketing communication strategy and message,
corporate social responsibility and corporate reputation, the impact on brand awareness and
brand trust)...................................................................................................................................4
How do you judge the value of data for influencing decision making, in business as well as in
politics? (consider the corporate social responsibility, impact on society, ethics and
legislations)..................................................................................................................................5
Explain the work and service Cambridge Analytica provided Trump’s campaign. Apart from
the legal side, in your perspective, was it right for Cambridge Analytica to provide this work
for Trump?...................................................................................................................................6
How do public goodwill/license to operate and data-driven technology companies interrelate?7
Facebook continues to face major ethical and legal challenges. What challenges Facebook
brand is facing today? And what implications these challenges and the case of Cambridge
Analytica have for the future of Facebook from your perspective?............................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

What was the business opportunity for Cambridge Analytica? How did the company capture it?
Cambridge Analytica is a British firm that is a political consulting firm which combines
misappropriation of digital assets, data analysis as well as data brokerage with the strategic
communication at the time of electoral process. Cambridge analytica was started in the year 2013
and this was an offshoot of SCL group. This company is partly owned by Robert mercer who is
an American hedge fund manager. He is involved in supporting various political conservative
causes. Office of this form is located in London. These companies involved in various political
races in the year 2014. Moreover, this company has performed data analysis services for
presidential campaign of Ted Cruz. They have also worked in the presidential campaign of
Donald Trump and they supported leave European union referendum. The role that this company
played bile supporting these two campaigns was controversial (Etter, Fieseler, and Whelan,
2019). This company faced multiple media outlet case after the claim of effectiveness of its
method for targeting voters in Donald Trump's presidential voting. this company had various
opportunities for establishing good reputation among market and helping the presidential
campaigns in positive manner but it was used its power for helping the upcoming presidents.
This company was claimed for using personal data of approximately 87 million Facebook users
for developing a Facebook app naming “this is your digital life”. When this app got permission
from users for acquiring their data, this data was used for making psychological profiles of
people and knowing what they want from president voting. This profile help them to analyse the
needs and demands of various users and this influenced their voting. Campaign of Trump was
claimed for misusing data of various Facebook users and plane of this was on Cambridge
analytica. In the year 2014, employees and contractors of this company e were selling
psychological profiles of various American voters 2D political campaigns. Please data was taken
from Facebook and this was the largest leak of data in the history of Facebook company.
Cambridge analytica also worked for leave EU on the brexit referendum. They have supported
the voting against staying in in European union. Business director of Cambridge analytica
naming Britney keiser was the whistleblower and informed media as well as the whole world
about the whole misconduct of data of millions of people (Elden, Cakir, and Bakir, 2016). For
any organisation, especially the data analytical companies must focus on rules and regulations
given by government for not misusing the data of people. Cambridge analytica was charged for

misusing data of people and influencing their decisions for presidential voting as a leave EU
campaign.
Stand in the shoes of CEO Alex Nix: What could have been done better BEFORE the scandal in
2017 and earlier? What could have been done better AFTER the scandal broke (early
2018)? (Consider the following areas: marketing communication strategy and message,
corporate social responsibility and corporate reputation, the impact on brand awareness and
brand trust)
What could be done before 2017
Alexander Nix is known as heart of the data mining scandal that happened while Trump's
presidential voting. He could have worked effectively and properly by not violating the business
ethics. It is important for every executive and manager to operate business by following all
regulations and rules of business (Kasemsap, 2017). The business of data is a very challenging
business and it must be handled with full responsibility and care. Alexander Nix misused the data
of several people for influencing their presidential voting. According to the perspective of
business, Alexander Nix was able to make money by using the data of various people. But this
was against the business ethics. It was a good marketing strategy to make people provide the data
easily but this was against the regulations for or companies working for data. It was very
important for this person to work by following all the business rules and regulations. He should
not have used data of various people just for the sake of making profits and money. It is
important for Alexander Nix to work by following various business ethical norms as well as
laws. This will help in enabling good market image and the company to higher profits.
What could be done after 2018
After the scandal was done it was important for Alexander Nix to involve in various corporate
social responsibility activities for developing the market image and attracting the clients to to use
free strategic marketing it provide (Cui, Jo, and Na, 2018). It is important for this businessman
to manage the functioning of business operations. Data analysis methods used in Cambridge
analytica able to attract silver clients towards the psychological profile development. Alexander
Nix never tried to accept that he has done something wrong against business ethics. He should
have taken all this in a responsible way by apologizing in front of all people and ensuring that

this will never happen in future. He could have started donating huge amount of money to poor
people in conduct of corporate social responsibilities. It is essential for a business manager to
operate the business in positive manner by solving all the problems in effective manner.
How do you judge the value of data for influencing decision making, in business as well as in
politics? (consider the corporate social responsibility, impact on society, ethics and
legislations)
Data is one of the most essential information that is used by several individuals for taking
decisions related to business or politics both. there are various phases of digital insights which
are present at fingertips and embrace the power of business intelligence. it is possible way to use
informed decisions for reading a commercial growth and increased bottomline. Accuracy of data
is measured by implementing right kind of reporting tools in analysing the need of data. There
are various people who analyse facts and figures before making any decisions which are related
to political factors. Moreover, there are various businessman who believe only data given by the
marketing team before launching a new product or service in market. Please provide an
estimation of how successful will the product be. Data driven decision making is defined as a
process which includes collection of data and this is based on various measurable goals. This
data pattern of facts from insights and it is used for developing strategies and benefiting business
in various areas (Grayson, and Hodges, 2017). It is difficult to verify logic that a person uses
while taking any decision. If the data provided on internet or any other platform is wrong there
are cases of people getting wrong information and doing work according to the given
information. This was the case in Donald Trump’s presidential voting in which Cambridge
analytica helped this person to influence the decision of voters. This company hacked the data of
various Facebook users and develop a psychological profile of these people for knowing what
are the demands and names of them from the the president or leader. The same information is
provided to Donald Trump and he organised release and political presidential campaigns in those
areas where people are more in favour of his winning. there are various people who need
importance of data driven decision making and search for the right kind of information provided
on internet. Online data analysis tool enables customers and clients to get the right information
and data for visualising it in a meaningful manner. One of the best example of influence of data
on decision making of voters Donald Trump's winning. In the Cambridge analytica data scandal,

there was leak of personal data of various Facebook yourself for influencing their decision for
voting Donald Trump. Which analytical worked under ted cruze and he used data harvesting
from millions of Facebook accounts. Corporate social responsibility is a concept that defines that
organisations must work in a good manner by following all the business ethics. It is essential for
different businesses to work by not having in individual's life. Only doing business and making
money should not be aim of any businessman. Mast care and consider about the working of the
company and it should ensure that it is not harming society or any community. Moreover, editors
important for the companies to follow all the rules and regulations given by government while
operating their business (Uzunoğlu, Türkel, and Akyar, 2017). The data circulated on internet
should not be misused by any company and personal data keeping websites like Facebook must
ensure that they are able to protect personal details of any individual and they are not used for
any e work without the permission of that person.
Explain the work and service Cambridge Analytica provided Trump’s campaign. Apart from the
legal side, in your perspective, was it right for Cambridge Analytica to provide this work
for Trump?
Cambridge analytica is a company which was offshoot of SCL group. 10 companies involved in
in providing food security research, narcotics as well as political campaigns. This company was
started in 2013 by the aim of us elections and it has 15 million dollar from billionaire Republican
donor Robert Merser. This company is involved in providing consumer research, advertising
and other data related services for different corporates and political clients (Choongo, 2017).
These companies involved in managing various political rallies such as Kenya president Uhuru
kenyatta and US President Donald Trump. The CEO of Cambridge analytica, Alexander Nix
who was involved in approaching WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for exploiting images of
Hillary Clinton which have questions related to trump’s rally in 2016 campaign. Cambridge
analytica what for both trump’s campaign and Trump aligned super PAC. Cambridge analytica's
staff provided useful data analysis regarding the American electro rate to Donald Trump. They
provided raw data including demographic information, personal data, contact information, email
address through which analysis can be done for knowing their perspective for voting. The plan
was to influence people for voting Donald Trump. Cambridge analytica developed extensive
personality profiles of different Americans and it was used as psychographic targeting. Some of

the liberal voters have inform that their data was harvested without their permission and
knowledge. This was used for electing Trump. This company helped campaign of Trump by
persuasion online media buying.this company helped to find the potential donors and how to
influence them to vote for Trump. This company provided a visualisation tool which helped in
analysing various states in areas for finding the potential voters that care about winning of
Donald Trump. The process used by Cambridge analytica for helping Trump first through the
harvesting of personal data of various Facebook users. This company obtained data of
approximately 50 million Americans who are using Facebook. This data was harvested by using
an application that was made by Alexander kogan. this application was circulated among the
individual so that they will login this application by using their Facebook usernames and through
this they will gather data about them and their friends. The Trump campaign provided a total of
5.9 million dollars to federal election commission data for responsive politics. According to the
Facebook they have pressing Cambridge analytica for providing answers about this incident.
When Facebook did the investigation it was clear that it there was deletion of data by koger.
Facebook hired forensic auditors from straw Street book for helping in knowing what was the
exact that Cambridge analytica used for or selecting data of individuals. this was against the
business ethics and regulations provided to the data driven companies (Minhas, 2019). Amazon
shot by government that personal data of any individual is not used by third party for any reason
without getting permission from that individual. According to me, this is a major achievement
for this company to influence the potential people who can vote for Trump. Apart from the legal
issues, this data analysis shows that this company has the best resources which are able to tell
about the exact expectations of people from politics. This company played a major role in the
formation of a successful leader for the country. This is not an easy job. It takes efforts for the
company to make this happen for changing a political voting.
How do public goodwill/license to operate and data-driven technology companies interrelate?
It is essential for the data driven companies that they are working effectively and managing
the data of people in proper manner. Data and analytics are essential operational excellence for
fostering of good customer relations. Good maintenance of customer relation will help in
increasing the business relations. There are various challenges faced by the data driven

companies. The main thing which has to be done by the companies while developing data driven
companies are mentioned below –
Privacy regulations – There is development of transparent world in which there are data driven
organisations. There is need of building of trust and belief between the business and customers
for increasing the profits.. it is essential for the companies to develop privacy of data in effective
manner for enhancing the productivity of the company. It is essential for the company to take
care of user’s personal data (Tran, 2019). There are various regulations and rules developed by
the company for managing privacy of people and build trust among the customers. In this way,
there is development of good customer development. The data driven organisations have to
create good trust in order to sustain in business.
 Persistent silo thinking – data is the most important thing that a company has for
conducting various operations. It is essential for the company to enhance it’s abilities for
securing data and not siloing it. This will help in managing the data in effective manner.
Sharing of data with third parties without informing user is a crime and this should not be
done by organisations. Lack of data integrity – there are various companies that have data for making insightful
decisions. The information of data must be secured effectively and it is important that the
data is not exploited. There is demand and need of proper data management and
governance. Having the right skills – it is essential to have proper skills that a company will use in
meeting the skill requirement. The companies hire data savvy people for providing
effective service to the clients and customers.
 Identifying the right technology - It is essential to fit into the space of different
individuals who are provided service. In order to achieve the success, it is essential that
new and latest technologies are used for maintaining the data privacy and management.
Facebook continues to face major ethical and legal challenges. What challenges Facebook brand
is facing today? And what implications these challenges and the case of Cambridge
Analytica have for the future of Facebook from your perspective?
Challenges Facebook brand is facing today
There are various challenges that Facebook is facing some of these are mentioned below-

 Antitrust- the acquisition of WhatsApp is considered as anti competitive. According to
new reports, it is informed that documents of Facebook are leaked which includes email
change of Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives. In these mails, it was clearly
mentioned that WhatsApp is a big threat to Facebook. People are using more WhatsApp
Messenger then their own Facebook Messenger. This creates a threat for this company as
people are more prone towards WhatsApp then Facebook.
 Content moderation – there are several political advertisers who are targeting users of
Facebook. The advertising of political rallies and voting on social media platform is not
appropriate. Facebook involved in in political advertising which became a major threat
for this company. Facebook was involved in scandal of winning of Donald Trump in
political winning. After this scandal, there is a new role is developed in the company
which mandate internet platforms for notifying individuals and people the company will
use their personalised content.
 Data privacy - Facebook is facing financial penalties for privacy violations. It is
involved in failure of completing request from the state government. A lawsuit was filed
against Facebook for the use of third party access to user data.
Effect of case of Cambridge Analytica on the future of Facebook
The Cambridge analytica-Facebook scandal includes various layers which include
buzzwords, angles and stolen data. Cambridge analytica and a moderate level of disrespect after
serving the Trump campaign. This company used data of approximately 50 million Facebook
users and violated their privacy policies which was given by Facebook. Scandal has dominated
new cycle and it affected reputation of Facebook in a negative. After the scandal of Cambridge
analytica, Facebook was affected badly. The policy of Facebook is to protect and secure privacy
of data of its users. After this scandal, people were against Facebook and they were not able to
believe that this company is not safe and it can use their data and provide it to other companies.
Facebook has encrypted messages of users whose data was used in the American voting of
president (George, 2017). This helped in enhancing privacy of various people and their personal
messages across the globe.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Minhas, R., 2019. Does Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Translates into Sales: A
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Tran, B., 2019. Corporate social responsibility. In Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in
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George, E., 2017. Corporate social responsibility and social media corporations: Incorporating
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