Case Study: Strategies for Growth & Excellence - Cambridge Analytica

This case study examines the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a major political event in 2018 involving the misuse of personal data from Facebook profiles. Cambridge Analytica gathered data from approximately 87 million users without their consent, using it for political purposes. The report highlights the strategic significance of the scandal, including its impact on Facebook's market position and public relations. It also explores mitigation procedures that Facebook could implement to regain user trust and maintain its competitive advantage. The analysis covers the misuse of personal data, the strategic implications of the scandal, and the actions needed to restore user confidence, emphasizing the importance of adapting to internal changes and strengthening security policies. The report concludes by discussing potential future strategies for Facebook to thrive as a market leader by developing robust software and security policies.

Running head: STRATEGIES FOR GROWTH AND EXCELLENCE
Strategies for Growth and Excellence
Name of the university
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Strategic position of chosen industry.........................................................................................2
The misuse of personal data.......................................................................................................4
Strategic significance of the scandal..........................................................................................4
Mitigation procedure..................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The following paper intends to elaborate the case of Cambridge Analytica scandal
which is considered one of the major political scandal of 20181. The blame is Cambridge
Analytica was able to gather personal data of people from Facebook profiles (no less than 87
million) without their consent and used it for satisfying political agenda2. Realising the
loopholes within the system, Cambridge Analytica was the first to report this issue stating the
case as violation of human rights. Moreover, some of the cross party groups complained
regarding their practice of spying on competitors information which was filed under
“intentionally and knowingly violation of both data privacy and anti-competition laws”. The
trend of circulating fake news and the amount of those over authentic news has been growing
day by day. Acknowledging the matter, political parties and government thought to take
actions as fake news were circulated throughout the social media pages regarding elections,
campaigns and political opinions. This report will elaborate the issue its strategic significance
over the firm and the action to mitigate the issue to regain former trust of users.
Strategic position of chosen industry
It is known across the world that Facebook is the most used social media platform
which was founded in 2004 with the agenda of connecting people from different parts of the
world. With the users of 1 billion people, Facebook has easily conquered the place of market
leader acquiring social platforms like Whatsapp and Instragram. It has not only widened their
1 Confessore, Nicholas. "Cambridge analytica and facebook: The scandal and the fallout so far." The New York
Times 4 (2018): 2018.
2 Kang, Cecilia, and Sheera Frenkel. "Facebook says Cambridge Analytica harvested data of up to 87 million
users." New York Times (2018).

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market presence but also help them to achieve a financial excellence within a very short
period of time. While deciding the audience base, Facebook targets people with minimum
technological knowledge and who are able to afford a phone or computer whichever supports
the program. Therefore, it takes minimum economic and technological competence to be a
part of Facebook. People uses security tools to keep their information within their known
sphere yet with digital help authority can actually go through all the data provided over a
social media platform. Hence, the application helps to know various information from various
regions of world yet pull people inside the system by inviting them to various surveys or
keeping an eye to their likes and dislikes3. Facebook has positioned itself as a market leader,
as they believe on value based positioning strategy and engaging people within the system
giving them power to gain knowledge and the chance to know people from global
background.
The goal is to target different communities, culture and provide posts and videos.
Based on that people communicate and get to know each other’s’ background and current
situation. It has gained its competitive advantage being a global platform of communication
and business as well. Business organisations are being consistently dependable upon
Facebook for online marketing and generating feedback from customers. The competitive
edge has been achieved as it has been engaging massive global population not only with the
interest of communicating but also their budding interest over business and mobile trends.
3 Bbc.com. 2019. "Facebook Security App Used To 'Spy'". BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-
47281906?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c81zyn0888lt/facebook-cambridge-analytica-
scandal&link_location=live-reporting-story.

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The misuse of personal data
Cambridge Analytica was the first organisation to report the issue of misusing data
through esteemed daily The Guardian. The organisation is considered as master regarding
targeting its demographics and handling huge amount of user data4. However, despite of such
security system the organisation was alleged to be involved into a data privacy scandal after
political consulting and strategic communication firm realised they can actually access
personal information of people without taking consent of them. Being responsible for the pro
Brexit campaign they felt it their responsibility to disclose such cases of violation5. The
impact of such issue had deep impact over the audience and company’s competitive
advantage as well.
Strategic significance of the scandal
It has been acknowledged by the founder and scandal solving committee that rather
than attracting media attractions positively, the scandal has led them towards a crisis
regarding maintenance of public relations. The founder, in order to amend the part of brand
strategy and reputation organised press conference and asked for apology. However, the fact
cannot be ignored that an apology or public interview cannot really make the matter simple.
Apart from communicative platform, Facebook has been used as marketing tool as well.
Form the perspective of marketers, how Facebook will deal with advertising partners to gain
4 Wagner, K. "Here’s how Facebook allowed Cambridge analytica to get data for 50 million users." Recode.
www. recode. net/2018/3/17/17134072/facebook-cambridge-analytica-trump-explained-user-data (accessed
Mar. 25, 2018)(2018).
5 Kitchgaessner, S. "Cambridge Analytica used data from Facebook and Politico to help Trump." The
Guardian (2018).

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back consumers’ trust6. Although they started with the apology yet their operations were
smart and fast too in terms of balancing the needs of advertisement and experience of the
consumer base. Providing consistent value to the marketers and third party vendors Facebook
realises to imply policies regarding security and maintain both the customers’ and marketers
trust over organisation.
Mitigation procedure
Although it was declared as data breach by Cambridge Analytica, Facebook denies to
admit the same. On the other hand, they have presented it as lack of understanding the
privacy policy among consumers and application of unethical practices over their
regulations7. Acknowledging the power of third party advertising in terms of continuous
growth, Facebook must find new ways to finance the sector as most of the income depends
on advertisement. In order to regain the reputation and make significant changes to the
current policy, the company has to take measured approach to implement new advertisement
and security policies. Continuous supervision can help to develop the policies and correlate
defects while execution as well. Facebook will be successful to overcome such loopholes
within system and continue to thrive as a market leader if they are quickly adaptable enough
to internal changes. Incidents of using the number of ‘likes’ to predict the poll and organizing
political campaign over such social media created political tension between civilians8. That is
why, the issue regarding violation of human rights occurred.
6 Forbes.com. 2019. "Council Post: What The Cambridge Analytica Scandal Means For The Future Of
Facebook Marketing". Forbes.Com. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/05/01/
what-the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-means-for-the-future-of-facebook-marketing/#890fdc4291c0.
7 Zunger, J. "Computer science faces an ethics crisis. The Cambridge Analytica scandal proves it." Boston
Globe 22 (2018).

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The scenario can be changed within a short period of time if the organization can
develop different software for conducting such surveys in different fields of business
including, surveys of commercial organizations or different department government bodies.
The security policy must be strong enough to make the target market realize that they should
use filters and privacy policies if they do not intend to share private information like sexual or
political orientation that will be helpful to avoid such allegation of data breaches.
8 Cadwalladr, Carole, and Emma Graham-Harrison. 2019. "How Cambridge Analytica Turned Facebook
‘Likes’ Into A Lucrative Political Tool". The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/17/facebook-cambridge-analytica-kogan-data-algorithm.

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References
Bbc.com. 2019. "Facebook Security App Used To 'Spy'". BBC News.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47281906?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/
news/topics/c81zyn0888lt/facebook-cambridge-analytica-scandal&link_location=live-
reporting-story.
Cadwalladr, Carole, and Emma Graham-Harrison. 2019. "How Cambridge Analytica Turned
Facebook ‘Likes’ Into A Lucrative Political Tool". The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/17/facebook-cambridge-analytica-kogan-
data-algorithm.
Confessore, Nicholas. "Cambridge analytica and facebook: The scandal and the fallout so
far." The New York Times 4 (2018): 2018.
Forbes.com. 2019. "Council Post: What The Cambridge Analytica Scandal Means For The
Future Of Facebook Marketing". Forbes.Com.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/05/01/what-the-cambridge-
analytica-scandal-means-for-the-future-of-facebook-marketing/#890fdc4291c0.
Kang, Cecilia, and Sheera Frenkel. "Facebook says Cambridge Analytica harvested data of
up to 87 million users." New York Times (2018).
Kitchgaessner, S. "Cambridge Analytica used data from Facebook and Politico to help
Trump." The Guardian (2018).
Wagner, K. "Here’s how Facebook allowed Cambridge analytica to get data for 50 million
users." Recode. www. recode. net/2018/3/17/17134072/facebook-cambridge-analytica-
trump-explained-user-data (accessed Mar. 25, 2018)(2018).

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Zunger, J. "Computer science faces an ethics crisis. The Cambridge Analytica scandal proves
it." Boston Globe 22 (2018).