Business Report: Facebook's Cambridge Analytica Data Privacy Scandal

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, which involved the misuse of user data and significant ethical and governance failures. The report begins by outlining the introduction of the scandal, detailing how Facebook exposed data of 87 million users. It then presents relevant facts, including the development of the open graph process and the collection of user information by third-party applications. The report highlights the role of Christopher Wylie, the whistleblower who revealed the data's use in identifying potential voters for Donald Trump. It explores the impact on stakeholders, including people, users, shareholders, and the government. Key ethical issues are identified, such as the collection of data without permission and the misuse of data to influence elections. Governance issues, including conflicts of interest, oversight, accountability, and transparency, are also discussed. The report applies the deontology ethical theory to understand the scandal and proposes how Facebook and users should have responded. It concludes by referencing relevant sources and emphasizes the importance of data privacy and ethical conduct in business.

FACEBOOK WHISTLE-
BLOWING

INTRODUCTION
• The Facebook Cambridge analytical was one of
the political scandals that occurred in the year
2018.
• In which Facebook exposed data of 87 million
users.
• The Cambridge analytical CEO reached out to
WikiLeaks founder and observed that hackers
hacked the servers and networks.

RELEVANT FACTS
• In 2010, Facebook developed an open graph
process that enables third party developers to
access users accounts.
• This application collects users information and
produces a psychological profile.
• This application also collected the data of their
friends by using the open graph algorithm In the
year 2017, it is evaluated that the personal
information of 50 million consumers was collected
by Cambridge analyitca.

RELEVANT FACTS
• This information and data were provided by the
whistle blower Christopher Wylie.
• This whistle blower also analysed that this data
and information used to identify the potential
voters that supported Donald trump.
• According to Facebook CEO, it was a mistake of
organization and they were not able to secure
users data.

RELEVANT FACTS
• After this issue, the corporation sent a notification
to users regarding their data security and privacy
(Tarran, 2018).
• The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
imposed a penalty of £500,000 on Facebook for
maintaining the privacy of users data.
• It is one of the serious issues faced by the users
and the government.

RELEVANT FACTS
• In the year 2018, the Facebook organization also
involved in another attack and scandal in which
criminals collect and store the login information
of 50 million consumers.
• Mainly, they used the concept and principle of
malicious attack. With the help of this issue users
lost their private details like photos, name, mobile
numbers and so on.

PRIMARY STAKEHOLDERS IMPACTED
• There are many stakeholders impacted due to
Facebook Cambridge analytica issue which are
following:
• People and users
• Shareholders
• Government
• Facebook
• All these are stakeholders that affected due to
this attack and also affected their shareholder of
Facebook.

ETHICAL ISSUE
• The first ethical issue is that Facebook developed
and launched the Open Graph application.
• Moreover, they collected and stored the data of
users without their permission.
• They used these data and information in order to
identify potential voters that supported the trump
and vote for him.

ETHICAL ISSUES
• It is observed that the Cambridge Analytica utilize
the user's data to try to help president trump.
• Cambridge purchased voter information and data
from political data firms which is also an ethical
issue
• The Cambridge Analytica misused private details
of around 50 million Facebook consumers.

ETHICAL ISSUE
• The Open graph application take permission from
users in order to access their accounts and they
also collected information of their friends as well
as.
• Due to this problem many users lost their privacy
and Facebook impose £500,000 penalty.

GOVERNANCE ISSUES
• The Cambridge analytica collected the names of
users in order to identify the voters that support
Donald trump.
• There are major five governances issues raised in
the Cambridge analytica which are following:
• CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
• OVERSIGHT ISSUES
• ACCOUNTABILITY ISSUES
• TRANSPARENCY

GOVERNANCE ISSUES
• CONFLICTS OF INTEREST:
• Facebook did not priories the privacy of stakeholders data
and they conflicted the data and information of users
without their permission.
• OVERSIGHT ISSUES:
• The developer team of open graph did not oversight and
monitor the data of users which is very common
governance issue
• They did not take any permission from users in order to
collect their private details