University Assignment: ICT Professional Ethics and Cambridge Analytica

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, focusing on its ethical implications within the realm of ICT professional practice. It begins with a background of the scandal, detailing the misuse of Facebook user data for political purposes. The report then applies the "Doing Ethics Technique" to dissect the ethical issues, identifying stakeholders affected and the core ethical concerns, such as data privacy violations. It further examines the scandal through the lens of the ACS Code of Ethics, evaluating Facebook's actions against the code's principles. The analysis explores the breaches of user trust and professional responsibility. The report concludes by suggesting mitigation strategies to address the ethical problems, emphasizing the importance of data security, transparent data analysis policies, and user awareness. The report highlights the need for stricter regulations and ethical guidelines in the use of big data and social media platforms, emphasizing the importance of protecting individual privacy and upholding ethical standards in ICT practices.

Running head: ICT Professional Practices and Ethics
ICT PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES AND ETHICS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

1Cambridge Analytical Scandal
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Background of Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal:.................................................................3
Doing Ethics Technique Analysis:.............................................................................................4
What is going on?...................................................................................................................4
What are the facts?.................................................................................................................5
What are the issues?...............................................................................................................5
Who is affected?.....................................................................................................................5
What are the ethical issue?.....................................................................................................6
What can be done about it?....................................................................................................6
What are the options?.............................................................................................................7
Which option is the best and why?........................................................................................7
Analysis of the Situation form the perspective of ACS Code of Ethics:...................................7
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................9
Bibliography:............................................................................................................................11

2Cambridge Analytical Scandal
Introduction:
The fundamental aim of this report is to successfully elaborate the case scenario of
Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal. In order to support the mentioned elaboration in this
report it has effectively discussed the background of the mentioned case scenario by relating
it with the possible ethical concern. Followed by this it has also successfully elaborated the
ethical scenario with the perspective of Doing ethics technique analysis in order to effectively
analyze the ethical issues related to the activities of the stakeholders present in the mentioned
case scenario. Followed by this it will also discuss about the case scenario by relating it with
the ACS codes of ethics as well as the ICT professional ethics. Along with that it will
conclude by stating the ethical issue as well as it will effectively recommend the possible
mitigation process which will surely help to mitigate the raised issue.
Background of Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal:
After successfully analyzing the case scenario of the Cambridge Analytica Scandal it
has been noticed that this scandal was one of the most popular political scandal that has
happened in the past years. The fundamental objective of this scandal is to analyze the big
data set related to the political view of the citizens which has been gathered by from the
Facebook. Considering the impact of the bigdata analysis it has been observed that the
analysis of the bigdata holds significant impact towards determining the statistical results.
With the purpose to analyze the large set of data the most targeted medium is the social
media platform as by considering the rapid growth of the technology and internet most of the
people are on the social media platform. However, the social media authorities must hold the
responsibility to not share the user information with the others as this can reveal several
personal contents of the user. Thus, it is highly essential for the authorities to seek permission
from the users to utilize their social media data. Followed by this aspect it has been noticed

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that in the year 2018 a very significant scandal has been noticed name Cambridge Analytica,
in Cambridge has effectively analyzes the political view of the individuals in order to support
the campaign of the Trump during the election of 2016 in the United States. Since, the
Facebook is one of the most impactful and vast social media platform thus Cambridge has
targeted the Facebook platform in order to get a large set of data with the purpose to get the
most accurate result. Cambridge Analytica is one of the largest data mining and analysis
organization which has been collaborated in the trump campaign in order to effectively
complete the desired survey. This process has termed as a scandal when the stakeholders of
those information has expressed that Facebook has violated its privacy policy and concern by
providing the access of the user data. However, the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has
stated that Facebook has taken the concern of the user for accessing their data at initial stage
of Facebook login. Thus, from the analysis it has been noticed that this scandal has
effectively elaborated the risk related to the bigdata analysis as this can lead a significant
ethical concern as well as the privacy concern of the individual data.
In order to effectively elaborate the ethical issue related to this scandal in the below
section it consist a detail discussion about the scandal by relating it with the “Doing Ethics
Technique”.
Doing Ethics Technique Analysis:
The fundamental purpose behind this analysis id to effectively identify the risk related
to the mentioned case scenario. This process is initiate with answering several ethical
questions related to the Cambridge Analytica Scandal. As a result of this analysis several
important aspects has been identified which are listed below:

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What is going on?
While answering to this question it can be stated that the case scenario is based on the
bigdata analysis. This scandal has been raised as the authorities of Facebook has provided
the access of the customers personal data to the organization Cambridge organization
which is collaborated with the trump campaign to support him in the 2016 election.
However, by covering up the issues Mark Zuckerberg has said that they have taken the
permission of the users while it they have logged in into the Facebook that there
information can be analyzed for any purpose, followed by these arguments a significant
issue has been bought termed as Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal.
What are the facts?
After successfully analyzing all the aspects of this Cambridge Analytica Scandal it
has been noticed that there is a significant issue related to the data security and bigdata
analysis as in this case scenario it has been noticed that Cambridge Analytica has
effectively analyses the user data for political use which is highly unethical. Thus, from
the analysis it has been noticed that this case is fundamentally based on the bigdata
analysis as well as on the social media data security.
What are the issues?
In the mentioned case scenario it has been noticed that the major issue is related to the
data security concern and the rules of bigdata analysis as it has been identified that
Facebook has violated the rules of the customer data protection as it has provided the data
access to the Cambridge Analytica organization for their own purpose.
Who is affected?
After successfully analyzing the case scenario it has been noticed that due to this
mentioned activity the Facebook users as well as the Facebook authority has been highly

5Cambridge Analytical Scandal
effected as in this scenario facebook has utilized the user data thus, it is one of the ethical
concern and on the other hand facebook authority had been accused to share the
accessibility of the customer data to the Cambridge Analytica organization in order to
support the trump campaign for 2016 election.
What are the ethical issue?
According to the case study it has been noticed that one of the most impactful ethical
concern is the data privacy of the Facebook user as the Facebook authority has allowed to
access those data to the Cambridge Analytica organization to support Trump in the 2016
election which raises a significant ethical issue related to the data privacy as using any
one’s personal data without concerning with that person. Whereas Facebook has
mentioned that they have taken the permission from the users to analyze their data which
has raised another professional ethical to the customers as according to the ethical
concerns while using any website or any other resources the users must be aware of the
terms and conditions which will effectively provide them the detail of the rules and
regulations of that platforms. Hence, it can be stated that there are two major ethical
problem related to this case scenario which has been discussed above.
What can be done about it?
After the successful analysis of the case scenario there are several major ethical issues
has been identified which needs to be mitigated for the betterment of the process of
bigdata analysis. Furthermore those mitigation approaches are briefly described by relating
it with the identified issues. As it is very significant that the concept of bigdata holds a
major impact on the current industrial field thus, now it is essential to mitigate the ethical
problems related to the data manipulation and accessibility. Followed by this objectives it
is very essential to provide effective data security methods to all the organizations in order
to provide protection to the individual data. Along with that is it also essential to

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incorporate the data security and accessibility policy which will restrict the data
misleading. Along with these it is also essential to spread awareness to the users about the
data, which will educate them about which data needs to published on which platform and
which is not.
What are the options?
The incorporation of advance security process can help to protect the individual data
along with that the incorporation of a proper data analysis policy and regulation will also
help to mitigate those problems. However, the incorporation of the effective data
awareness process holds significant impact on this. Followed by all these options it is also
essential to being honest about the actions which will help to enhance the impact of
Bigdata Analysis.
Which option is the best and why?
Incorporation of the advance security process and the authorization process holds
significant impact towards the betterment of the data analysis process as this can
effectively restrict the unauthorized data breach in any organization.
Analysis of the Situation form the perspective of ACS Code of Ethics:
Considering the case study of Cambridge Analytica it has been seen that there was a
huge data breach of the Facebook users which was ethically not a good thing. There was a
flaw in the internal system of the Facebook due to which this case of data breach is happened.
This issue in the Facebook was discovered by the Cambridge Analytica due to which they
were able to gather personal information of the users from the Facebook and for that privacy
of those peoples were compromised.
Considering this incident from the point of view of an ICT professional it can be seen
that there was a major flaw of Facebook in this case. Here Facebook failed to provide a

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secured account to its user as the Cambridge Analytica was able to access personal data of the
users using a 3rd party application. This created a big privacy related issue which cannot be
support as an ICT professional. In this context the case of this data breach will be analysed
with the respect of ACS code of ethics which is consisting total six code of ethics.
The first ACS code of ethics demonstrates the primacy of the public interest. As per
this code of ethics public must be always the highest above of the sectional, personal and
business interests. In the case of the Cambridge Analytica this code of ethics this code of
ethics is not followed. There was a no priority of the publics. Facebook given higher priority
for their business rather than their customers and due to the fact there were several of 3rd
party applications was integrated with the Facebook without proper verification how they can
affect the operations of the Facebook. Thus for this first case ACS code of ethics was not
maintained.
The second ACS code of ethic is regarding enhancing the quality of the peoples. This
code of ethics describes that quality of the life need to be enhance for those who were
affected by any type of issues in this case. In this aspect the Facebook was responsible for
creating the privacy related issues of their users so it was their responsibility to improve the
life quality of their users as the privacy of the users was in danger. Facebook resolved the
issues regarding the data breach but quality of the life never enhanced for the victim users.
So, this second also not followed here.
The third ACS code of ethics was the Honesty. The code of honesty defines that
honesty should be maintained while representing knowledge skills and services. The
Facebook also failed to satisfy this code of ethics as they were not honest while provided the
services. Facebook never mentioned that their backend security is not capable of resisting this
type of data breach issue. As the Facebook also never assessed their security against this type

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of data breach they provided false claiming of ensured data privacy to its users which they
failed to manage and for that the third code was also not addressed by Facebook.
The fourth ACS code of ethics is the Competence. As per this code competence and
diligent work is required for the stakeholders. For the Facebook the biggest stakeholders of it
is its users. To satisfy this code of ethics Facebook needed to provide competence and
diligent works to its users but the Facebook failed to provide a competence work to the users
as there was a flaw in the work of the Facebook due to which the Cambridge Analytica
gained to privacy access millions of user of the Facebook. Thus in this case also Facebook
failed to satisfy the requirement of ACS code of ethics.
In this aspect the fifth ACS code of ethics was the personal development. As per this
code employees need to enhance their own professional development. There was a
professional development opportunity in the workspace of the Facebook but issue regarding
the Cambridge data beach was never noticed.
The last ACS code of ethics is the professionalism. As per this code integrity of the
society need to be maintained and there should be respect for each other. This ACS code was
also not satisfied by the Facebook. Cambridge Analytica raised this flaw of data breach
which was true and it actually helped the Facebook to identify its flaws, but not respect has
been shown by the Facebook to Cambridge Analytica regarding this issue. Instead of it
Facebook claimed violated policy of data transfer and banned the application.
Conclusion:
After the completion of this paper it has been noticed that in the case scenario of
Cambridge Analytica Scandal it has been determined that with the purpose to analyze the big
data set related to the political view of the citizens which has been gathered from the
Facebook. Considering the impact of the bigdata analysis it has been observed that the

9Cambridge Analytical Scandal
analysis of the bigdata holds significant impact towards determining the statistical results
which has help Trump in the 2016 election. Followed by this aspects several significant
impact has been identified which holds major influence in the field of data security. While
elaborating the aspects of the case scenario it has been also noticed that there are several
ethical and professional issues present as the bigdata was the social media data of around
870000 people which has gathered by taking a quiz in which facebook login was necessary.
Thus the questions has been raised related to the responsibilities of the facebook authorities
on the data privacy concern. Followed by these aspects one Doing Ethics techniques analysis
has been conducted which has helped to identify the several relevant aspects on this case
scenario. Those aspects includes the identification of the actual problem as well as the
identification of the stakeholders followed by which it has determined that most influenced
stakeholder. Along with the identification of the stakeholders it has also helped to gain the
knowledge about the important facts which needs to be considered in order to proceed
further. Along with these it has also mentioned that in the current case scenario the major
problem has been identified from the facebook authority. Along with that it has also
effectively discussed about the mitigation approach as well as the incorporation of the
advance technology. Along with that in order to support the above analysis this paper also
consists a detail elaboration of the ICT ethics by relating it with the ACS codes of ethics
which has effectively identified the ethical problems related to the data privacy, honesty and
transparency of Facebook as well as Cambridge Analytica organization as they has violated
the rules of the above discussed aspects. Thus, from the above analysis it has been noticed
that in this case scenario of bigdata analysis the major concern has been raised related to the
authorization of the data accessibility and honesty towards the organizational end as it has
repeatedly accused facebook about misusing the customers data for some individual reason.
Hence, it is recommended that the organization must include effective data security protocol

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into their database in order to protect the customer’s data from unauthorized access by
incorporating effective data protection process as well in order to protect the organizational
data. Along with that while working with the organizational data authorities must be honest
to the organization before proceeding further. Thus, after completion of this paper it can be
concluded that it has effectively elaborated the scenario of the Cambridge Analytica Scandal
as well as it has also provided some mitigation plan by which the identified problems can be
mitigated in future.
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