The Cambridge Analytica scandal has brought one thing into sharp relief for Brisbane woman, Erin Quinn.

“Privacy is a complete illusion,” Quinn said.

Quinn, a paralegal, was one of 311,127 Australians who had her Facebook data harvested in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Cambridge Analytica has disputed some of the reporting of the data harvesting, which took place in 2014 and 2015. It has published a statement to this effect.

Facebook contacted Quinn on Monday to warn her that her likes, public profile, city of residence, and date of birth were likely harvested.

Play Video 0:48 Only 53 Australians used Facebook app in massive data breach – video

She described the feeling as one of “unease”. But she also has a sense of anger that her data could have been used for an underhanded strategy to manipulate voters.

“I didn’t agree to that; I’d never agree to that,” she told Guardian Australia.

“You accept that when you sign up to these things you are giving away your data, you accept that to a certain extent. And you accept that for the sake of convenience.



“But that doesn’t necessarily mean I agree that they should be able to know who I am and what I’m doing all the time.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Erin Quinn, of Brisbane, is one of the 311,000 Australians who had her data harvested in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Photograph: Erin Quinn/Supplied

Facebook this week began contacting 311,127 Australians who were affected by the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting. Globally, about 87m people are thought to have had their personal information harvested through a third party application, a personality quiz, known as “This Is Your Digital Life”. The quiz allowed data to be taken from the accounts of participants and their friends, which was later used by Cambridge Analytica.



Guardian Australia revealed on Monday that just 53 Australians actually used the personality quiz app. That means the vast majority of the 311,127 Australians had their data harvested because their friends, whether in Australia or abroad, had used the app. It also shows the vast majority gave no real consent for their data to be harvested.

The affected Australians also included, Glen Luff, a student from Perth. He told Guardian Australia he checked his Facebook account on Monday to find his data had been exposed.



Luff’s public profile, all of his page likes, his birthday, and his current city were harvested.

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But he was less shocked.

Luff had, perhaps pessimistically, always expected his Facebook data would be misused for some purpose. So much so that he uses a fake Facebook moniker of “Spuddy Spud Gil Galati” and regularly makes joke posts.

“I was like ‘yeah, well what else was I going to expect, I’m using Facebook’. It’s kind of funny, and it was very interesting and kind of exciting for it to pop up and get some information,” Luff said.



“I don’t feel violated or anything, really. It’s like ‘well shit, what am I doing on Facebook if I don’t want my data being harvested I guess’.”

But Quinn said the scandal raised broader questions about Facebook and the scale of third-party access to user data. She wants to know whether Australians are able to launch a class action against the companies involved.

“I also think that the only reason that Facebook is apologising or trying to do anything about it is because they’ve been caught,” she said.

“Yes, we’re all making a big fuss about Cambridge Analytica, but that’s only because we know the name of the company. How many others are there?”

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Quinn is despondent about the prospects of protecting her data in the modern age. Even if she deleted Facebook, what then?

“I think unfortunately the answer is: ‘I don’t know.’ I think it doesn’t actually matter what I do, it doesn’t necessarily change the system. If I delete my Facebook, all the other apps that are connected to it will still have my historical data,” Quinn said.

“Does that mean I delete my Instagram as well? Does that mean I can’t use Google? Does it mean I should turn off all location services on my phone?

“I think it actually doesn’t matter what I do; my data is gone, and I don’t think there is a way to ever get it back.”







