Data Collection: “Harvesting” Personalities Online

Social Media

SOCIAL MEDIA 1
Data Collection: “Harvesting” Personalities Online
Social Media is a platform which is developed to provide the benefits to users. There
are several facilities offers by the social media to users. It is founded as the best place to
explore the new things and interact with the people beyond the boundaries. The new
entrepreneurs can also establish their business on the online websites or social media
applications. There are numerous benefits of social media that supports to develop the
economy (Fuchs, 2017). But there are many scandals happened due to which the society has
to face some challenges. Like in the scandal of Cambridge Analytica, the company used the
collect the personal data to predict the voting preferences of users. In this report, the scandal
of “Cambridge Analytica” will be analysed by implementing the ethical theories.
Deontology theory is the ethical theory that defines the actions of an individual which
is analysed as per the obligations whether it is right or wrong. According to the deontology
theory, the Facebook has the duty to perform the right action in the favour of people by
satisfying their needs and desire (Baron, 2017). In the scandal of leakage of personal data, the
decision taken by Cambridge Analyitca Company is illegal as they use the personal
information to deliver its services to political parties. It has been evaluated that the decision
taken by the Facebook is wrong and which is also illegal as they use the personal data of the
people. The company took the wrong step to fulfil their tasks to provide the advice to
political parties.
Utilitarianism theory is an ethical theory which defines the unit of happiness. The
organisation has the responsibility to bring the happiness in the life of users (Mill, 2016). But
as per the case, it collected the personal data of users for analysing the voting preferences of
the people for the elections of America. The user of Facebook does not happy with the step of
the company and also their trust towards the Facebook is also broken. In the case, Cambridge