Examining Social Media Ethics: The Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal

This case study delves into the ethical implications of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, examining the company's use of personal data and its impact on society's trust in social media. The analysis employs ethical theories such as utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, and contract theory to evaluate the actions of Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. The study reveals that the company's actions were unethical, as they prioritized profit and political gain over the privacy and well-being of individuals. The report recommends stricter government regulation of online data practices, increased corporate investment in cybersecurity, and greater public awareness of data privacy issues to mitigate the risks of similar incidents in the future. It concludes that while social media offers numerous benefits, its ethical use is paramount for maintaining public trust and ensuring responsible technological advancement.

Social Media

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Data Collection: “Harvesting” Personalities Online
Introduction
Social Media is a platform which is used by the people to build the social networks or
social relations with the other people and they can share their personal information, career
interest and their activities to each other. Social media provides the platform to new
entrepreneurs to share their ideas and information to the millions of people (Reamer, 2018).
Social media is internet based software which offers the online communication facilities to
the people so they can communicate easily and very fast with each other’s. Instead of
travelling here and there and wasting time; people can easily do their work and communicate
with the each other with the help of social media. It is a faster network from which people
can easily communicate and share their interest. Not only communication and interest is
share; even the people starts operating on social sites by uploading the pictures. The
companies can attract the customer towards their goods and services through uploading the
pictures. It can be said that the emerging technology has many advantages but it raises many
issues such as privacy, cyber-crime, security and others (Reamer, 2018). Like in the case of
Cambridge Analytica, it is a consultancy firm for political parties that is why it uses the
personal data of users and predicted the American elections (Raicu, 2018). In this report,
Cambridge Analytica case study will be discussed. By using the ethical theories such as
utilitarianism, deontology, contract, and virtue; the whole case is analysed. As per the
analysis of the case, the recommendation will be provided at end of every theory.
Ethical theories
Utilitarianism theory

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Utilitarianism theory defines an action which brings the happiness in the life of people
or in the society. According to this theory, an organisation has a responsibility to serve the
services to the society which brings the happiness in their life or make their life comfortable.
An online organisation has a responsibility to deliver the facilities to users from which they
can entertain and reduces their stress (Mulgan, 2014). In this case, Facebook provides the
services to the users to communicate with the millions of people. But it leaked the
information to the Cambridge Analytica which disappointed the society. The users of
Facebook and the rest of people discourage with this scandal and getting scared of the online
communication. This scam discourages the society instead of being happy. It is an unethical
behaviour to use the personal data of users to analyse their preferences for voting. According
to this theory, it can be said that the political party and the company itself got the maximum
utility but the society faces the challenges due to leaked their personal data. It has been
analysed that the company fails to perform the responsibility of the company (Mill, 2016).
It has been recommended that the government should take steps to control these
crimes at the initial stage. The government should take the strict action towards the
cybercrime. The government can make the new rules and regulations for the online
organisations. The government should make the law of budget for the online companies, in
which it is compulsory for the companies to make the provision for the strong security system
or it is compulsory to install the security system in the company. The government can also
provide the subsidies to those companies who install the security system which can easily
detect the hacking software. It should also provide the higher education to people so more
and more people help the big organisations to control the cyber-crimes (Mill, 2016).
Deontology theory

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Deontology theory defines an action whether it is right or wrong under any rules and
regulation or under some consequences. According to this theory, it is the responsibility of
the organisation to take the decision for the benefit of the society and it should be the right
step for them. An online organisation has the responsibility to deliver the facility to the users
which is beneficial for them like it provides the platform from which the new and small
entrepreneurs expand their business by sharing their information with the millions of people
and earns the revenue which is also beneficial for the growth of the economy. In this case,
Cambridge Analytica used the personal data instead of providing the facilities to the users.
The step taken by the company is not beneficial for the society, it disturbs the lives of people.
The company spread the fear in the mind of users for the online communication or for social
media. According to this theory, it has been seen that the step is taken by the company is
unethical for the society. The company fails to take the right step for the society (Broad,
2014).
To secure the data it is necessary that the people should aware and protect their
personal data itself. To secure the data, people should install the intrusion system in their
smartphones to detect the hacking software. It can also install the cybersecurity system from
which they get the notification at the time of any errors or hacking. People can also on the
privacy mode in these websites from which only they can see their own profile (Leukfeldt, &
Yar, 2016).
Virtue theory
Virtue theory defines the role of a character which performs the good or bad actions
for the society. According to this theory, an organisation has a duty to do the good things for
the development of the society by maintaining their core and moral values. An online
organisation has the responsibility to provide the services with the trust and surety so the

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society can easily communicate with each other without any fear. But in this case, Cambridge
Analytica cheated the society by using their personal data just because of knowing their
preferences for voting. It can be said that the company fails to maintain its more and core
values. The company broke the trust of the users which is not an ideal behaviour; it states the
unethical behaviour of the company towards the society (Hooft, 2014).
It is suggested that the online organisations can reduce these cyber-crimes by using
the security system. It is recommended that the online organisation has to appoint the experts
and hackers which can easily detect the hacking software. It can also install the machines
which help the company to detect the errors and hackers by providing the notification. The
company has to invest in the security because secure and safe data is the responsibility of the
company (Allcott, & Gentzkow, 2017).
Contract theory
Contract theory defines an agreement which is made by the people who live together
in an economy. The agreement made by the people might be an oral or written agreement.
According to this theory, the company has the responsibility to give returns against the
benefits provided by the society to the company. Society provides the many benefits to the
company such as high revenue and many other profits. So it is the responsibility of the
company to gives the return to the society by providing the facilities. An online organisation
has an agreement with the society that it provides the high communication facility with the
agreement that it cannot leak the data with the third party. But in the case of Cambridge
Analytica, it has been seen that the company leaked the personal data of the users which
disturb the personal lives of people. This scam affected the society not only people but also
the other social websites because it broke the trust of users for social media. Instead of giving
the return the company cheated the society by telling lie with them and making the fake

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agreement. The company fulfil the agreement of political party but it fails in performing the
agreement with the society. The political party got the maximised utility because data used by
the company for the election prediction. According to this theory, the agreement fulfil by the
company is unethical or it is bad for the society (Koszegi, 2014).
To reduce these issues the government should make the new policy of penalty and
punishment. The government should charge the high amount of penalties to the companies by
taking the wrong advantage of the power. It can also punish the companies for the illegal
work. The companies and the society have the responsibility to take care of itself of these
crimes by installing applications or hacking machines (Ruths, & Pfeffer, 2014).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that social media is useful for the
society but with the emerging technology, it raises the many issues which are faced by the
society as well as the companies. In the case of Cambridge Analytica, the company cheated
the society from which the users got disappointed with their services. Society getting afraid
of this scam; it thinks several time before using the social sites. The ethical theories state that
the steps and decision taken by the company are unethical. It did not show an ideal behaviour
towards the society. To reduces these crimes; the government should take steps and stop
these crimes at the initial stage. Not only government, it can be reduced by the companies as
well as the people by installing the applications or machines. It can be said that the social
media will reach at each corner of the earth in the near future.

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References
Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017). Social media and fake news in the 2016 election.
Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(2), 211-36.
Broad, C. D. (2014). Five types of ethical theory. Oxon: Routledge.
Hooft, V. S. (2014). Understanding virtue ethics. Oxon: Routledge.
Koszegi, B. (2014). Behavioural contract theory. Journal of Economic Literature, 52(4),
1075-1118.
Leukfeldt, E. R., & Yar, M. (2016). Applying routine activity theory to cybercrime: A
theoretical and empirical analysis. Deviant Behavior, 37(3), 263-280.
Mill, J. S. (2016). Utilitarianism. In Seven Masterpieces of Philosophy. Oxon: Routledge,
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Mulgan, T. (2014). Understanding utilitarianism. Oxon: Routledge.
Raicu, I. (2018). Data Collection: “Harvesting” Personalities Online. Retrieved from:
https://www.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/internet-ethics/resources/data-collection-
harvesting-personalities-online/
Reamer, F. G. (2018). Evolving standards of care in the age of cyber technology. Behavioural
sciences & the law, 36(2), 257-269.
Ruths, D., & Pfeffer, J. (2014). Social media for large studies of behaviour. Science,
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