Cambridge Analytica: Stop worrying, because you can’t escape being a pawn
In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Ashley Ringrose provides a satirical take on the situation, by asking us to think about the data every company that isn't Facebook has on us.
If you’re worried about your personal information on Facebook being mined without your permission, then I hope you never think about what’s happening to your credit, medical, Google or shopping data.
In fact, in the grand scheme of things, companies knowing that you’re a fan of a certain obscure band, visit certain sites and chat about Hot Wheels cars a lot is nothing compared to hackers having all your credit information, or worse still your medical records.
Equifax was hacked and I thought nothing of it. Never heard of that company. I didn’t even know they had all my credit information until my credit card was blocked thanks to a report from them. No opt-in or opt-out there. It took four months until I could use my credit card again.
Supermarkets, along with retailers like Amazon, collect a lot more granular information on you via loyalty cards. In fact, there’s a wealth of information on almost everyone based on the recent Australian census, but we prefer to assume that this too is secure.
What are the data sharing policies for this data? I dunno I don’t read the fine print, who does? Are they secure? I hope so.
Here’s an article from 2014 on Fly Buys and data sharing. The SMH revealed that customers’ personal details were sent to up to 30 other companies and to third parties in at least 23 other countries. There was no outrage then, yet it’s essentially the same thing.
What the recent Facebook scandal shows is that nothing is secure. What is does show even more is a perfect example of big data, and the level of targeting afforded through digital marketing.
I mean, if you can influence an entire election, you should also be able to persuade people to buy your brand of cereal or get a new car, right?
I bet some huge marketers were angry. “Why didn’t my agency bring me this power!” or maybe it’s: “Damn I hope Facebook doesn’t shut down the data sharing we have access to after this disaster!”
Your data on Facebook is relatively harmless (compared to credit, medical and shopping data), yet the outrage was huge as it was tied to the US election, right wing-politics and Russia. It felt like a spy movie, and we were all the pawns.
But we’ve always been pawns – just consumers trained to buy more things. This is not new and it won’t change.
Will people leave Facebook? A small amount of people will, but the majority won’t, because there is a huge social value to being on the platform.
Your friends, your photos, the ability to connect, to share with thousands of niche groups like Hot Wheels Collectors you can only get on Facebook right now. Just like there’s a value for using Google, loyalty cards and shopping on Amazon.
So I say stop worrying and get woke. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet (or the papers or TV or even what your friends say), and just enjoy being a pawn.
Ashley Ringrose is studio head at SMG Studio and founder of Soap Creative.
“Hey, get used to bending backwards and taking it”
What an agency way.
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can’t escape being a pawn… unless you reach the other side of the board!
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Good counterpoint.
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Are companies like Quantium shitting themselves or do they have data showing people are more worried about what Dean said on MAFS
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This was going so well, until he/she wrote “get woke”. Oh dear.
That’s try-hard, very 8 months ago and sad. Gone now.
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‘Your data on Facebook is relatively harmless’
Written by someone who doesn’t understand psychometrics.
Every piece of data is valuable.
No-one in a media agency should be calling consumers ‘ pawns ‘
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You mean like the term ‘try-hard’?
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Hey Really, “relatively harmless” compared to your census, medical and credit data then yes.
“Every piece of data is valuable” value is relative. A single data point isnt worth much without more context or comparable data. And if that data such as I’m a male is public and easily accessible, it’s worth less than something much more abstract and hard to know (my credit limit for example)
RE “pawns” arent we all pawns though in this capitalistic world we live in? I wrote this mainly with tongue in cheek.
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It’ll come back you wait 🙂
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Exactly: put up with it and control the controllable.
– No I will not put up with it and I will do better than that.
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You can always change your credit card number. Much harder to change your personality.
https://mumbrella.com.au/did-a-short-research-paper-just-unlock-facebooks-psychometric-blackbox-484800
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A very very lazy argument Ash; because other companies have the ability to do wrong does not make Facebook & CambridgeAnalytica’s actual wrong ok.
Seriously mate. With this level of ‘disinformation’ you should get a gig writing copy with CA.
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Classic disinformation tactic Ash, very Trump, we’ll done.
Highlight other companies that have personal data and might be able to do something wrong with it – to distract readers from Facebook and Cambridge Analytica who actually did.
Or are you just trolling Mumbrella readers?
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Lazy argument? I’m pointing out that there is a lot more to be worried about than your Facebook data. What CA did was wrong, I’m not sure said it was OK?
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Hey Sam, just trying to say that there’s more to be worried about and expect more of these type of scandals with more bad actors using data for nerfarious reasons.
It came out today that CA’s parent company operates in countries where government data is accessible due to lax privacy laws… you cant delete that account.
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To be clear: I always like flirting with satire and asking what if advertising was even more evil?
Here’s my 5 min talk from 2013 on what if we go really far.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0ztjR0Un_M
Please take this piece with the same grain of salt.
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“…Your friends, your photos, the ability to connect…
Pssst. The middle bit is wrong.
Once you post a photo it belong to Facebook. Oh, videos as well. And not to mention your name.
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Nice to see an article writer coming back on the comments. Too often the comments simply turn into a bitch-fest. This makes it discussion.
Well done
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About time this side of the argument was published, now to have it in the public domain because little do they know… If the world is freaking out about Facebook imagine if they knew what was going on everywhere else.
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I really don’t understand the big fuss.
The major political parties in Australia have been running private databases on Australians for at least 25 years, based on publicly and semi-publicly available data like land records, telephone addresses (including mobile which they special access to), private polling and electoral records.
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So, where’s the satire?
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