Data is a valuable asset in today’s economy. Companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter and others are in the data business. They give their end-users free stuff in return for personal information. But as all of us have realized, nothing in this world is free. Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal shows that data is a force that can not only impact people’s personal lives, but it can change public discourse and create a threat to the fabric of society. The worst part of this story is that the centralized models that Facebook and others have created have left the general population helpless.

What Happened with Facebook and Cambridge Analytica?

The story is still developing. So all the details are still not clear and more information will be revealed as time passes. However, the current storyline is as follows:

Aleksandr Kogan, a Cambridge University professor who is the head of Global Science Research (GSR), created a personality quiz that was taken by few hundred thousand people via their Facebook pages. However, the application collected information about the “friends” of that individual without any consent of the users. It wasn’t a breach because the process didn’t break any rules, rather bent the rules a little. The recent estimate given by Facebook is that 87 million user’s data was collected.

Facebook was aware of the situation three years ago but never informed the public. The collected data was then used by Cambridge Analytica (through a contract with GSR) to create targeted ads on various platforms for both Brexit and 2016 US elections.

The scandal started to take shape when whistleblower Christopher Wylie came forward. Wylie joined SCL Elections in 2013. There he worked on a research project with GSR. SCL Elections is the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, a London-based firm that works with governments, political campaigns, and non-governmental agencies to provide data-driven ad campaigns to influence consensus. Wylie remembered parts of the slogans used in the 2016 US election being tested out during his time at SCL.

In 2015, The Guardian reported about the GSR data. Facebook took legal action against GSR and reached a settlement. By March 2017, GSR certified to Facebook that all collected data and its derivatives have been deleted.

The biggest point of discontent is Facebook not being transparent about what happened. Even though it was aware of the huge data collected by GSR, it didn’t take any steps to inform its end-users. Currently, Facebook earns an average of $84.41 for each North American user and $27.26 for each European user. It seems like Facebook valued its advertising money over the personal manipulation and breach of trust that followed due to the unauthorized use of the data.

Facebook is in the middle of a PR nightmare. Besides the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal, there is also the issue of fake news stories and studies showing that Facebook usage can lead to diminished happiness.