Cambridge Analytica Scandal changes social media - The company called Cambridge Analytica specializes in analyzing political data and their projects involved in collecting and analyzing the personal data of 87 million Facebook users in 2014. This truth was announced by a in Facebook executives and it makes millions of users doubt whether their personal information can be securely shared.
Even before this announcement, there was an earlier report on the number of accounts Cambridge Analytica used in their projects. They estimate that the company has gathered information from more than 50 million Facebook users. As Mike Schroepfer, Facebook's technical director, said the information was collected mainly from people living in the United States and was misrepresented on the platform.
Another announcement informs people that Facebook will send notifications to users whose data is collected by Cambridge Analytica, starting April 9. Andy Stone, social media manager, said 87 million is only a rough estimate of the maximum number of accounts Cambridge Analytica can collect information from.
This is where Dr. Aleksandr Kogan falls into the picture, a professor of psychology at Cambridge University. He is the person behind the Facebook application called '#thisisyourdigitallife', who plays a huge role in the work of Cambridge Analytica.
What Facebook did was they added the number of people who used the app and all their Facebook friends. This is how they ended up with 87 million results. Therefore, only Cambridge Analytica knows exactly how many users they have collected their data. However, we already know that the software that gathers information is ‘#thisisyourdigitallife’.
Mark Zuckerberg has also spoken on this topic. He said that because they did not have accurate information on the number of customers affected, Facebook announced the maximum number to let people know the worst case.
What is Cambridge Analytica?
All large businesses and political parties can greatly benefit from the services provided by Cambridge Analytica. Their service revolves around collecting data from various sources and using derivative data to manipulate the behavior of their target audience.
Their team of experts specializes in big data research and applied behavioral science to results. In this way, they can choose a large number of people most likely to respond positively to marketing campaigns. After all, showing ads to an audience more likely to buy a particular product or voting for a specific political party is much easier and more effective.
The main sources that Cambridge Analytica collects for its data are Facebook and their own polls, mainly through applications. Because Facebook is about to change their platform after the lawsuit, they will probably need to find another source in the future.
The London-based company is part of a larger company called SCL Group, which also specializes in behavioral science and strategic communications. It was founded in 2013 and provides its services in many countries around the world.
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Cambridge Analytica rejected the numbers
Cambridge Analytica does not agree with the numbers published by Facebook. And claims that up to 30 million accounts have been used to collect information. This figure is published by Kogan's team, Global Science Research, which specializes in marketing.
Many people suspect that the data is used to facilitate Donald Trump's campaign and ensure he has the highest opportunity in the election. Cambridge Analytica states that the data collected has nothing to do with the campaign. As the company stated, people who used ‘#thisisyourdigitallife’ on Facebook provided information with their own will.
They were not forced and the company did not hack these accounts nor steal their login information. Since then, they ensure that all raw data is deleted along with the information they get from complete analysis.
This is done as a response to Facebook's directive to delete data, which is entirely in accordance with their rights. Unsurprisingly, the incident greatly damaged Mark Zuckerberg's reputation, as their system allowed Cambridge Analytica to commit a complete privacy breach against millions of people.
Cambridge Analytica behind Donald Trump's election
Robert Mercer is known to be one of Trump's most loyal supporters. He gave a generous $ 15 million to Cambridge Analytica to support their work. Robert Mercer is also the man behind Breitbart, the right-wing website has published a lot of content that is conspiracy theories, articles or false news based on false information.
He was introduced by Steve Bannon to Cambridge Analytica, who was responsible for the final phase of Trump's election campaign. But this is not the time when the company works to facilitate the election of candidates. They have worked on three different campaigns so far, collecting data from millions of people each time.
On the Cambridge Analysis's official website, they clearly describe what their method is and how they use the data collected to achieve their goals. By analyzing millions of user accounts, they can find the most likely voters. At the end of the analysis, they know exactly which issues these people are most interested in.
As a final step, they send them messages that increase their chances of voting for the political party. Cambridge Analytica also makes sure to regularly poll voters in 17 US countries to follow their opinions. They also promote in the campaign through various online channels and attract people through social media platforms.
This is highly effective, and Alexander Nix, founder of Cambridge Analytica, mentioned in many of his speeches about how well they did in the election campaign and how they attracted many donations. for the case.
The main problem is that they have collected data from Facebook, a source that shouldn't even provide information.
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Facebook wants to protect user information
As the incident grew into a major controversy, Facebook had to find something. They decided to calm the audience by announcing the changes we will see on the platform. These major fixes help Facebook protect their user data so that no company or application can access it on its own accord.
They have been working on the changes and according to their plan, all fixes will be applied in the next few months. Mark Zuckerberg must also appear before Congress and answer many questions related to the case. Since then, Cambridge Analytica and all individuals working to collect data have been banned from the platform during Facebook's attempt to find out exactly what happened.
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