The Great Hack is a timely reminder: We didn’t learn anything from Cambridge Analytica
Netflix’s new doco, The Great Hack, lifts the hood on the Cambridge Analytica scandal. And while sharing data isnt anything new, the documentary is proof that we haven’t learnt anything from it, argues Spinach’s Richard Taylor.
New Netflix documentary The Great Hack tells the story of what went on inside the Cambridge Analytica scandal. And while it may not come as much of a surprise to those of us in the business of working with data, for your everyday consumer, there’s plenty to be shocked by. Perhaps the greatest shock comes from the realisation that populations can be so easily manipulated by targeted messages. Again, this isn’t really news for those of us in the ad industry (or some might even say politics – looking at you, Hitler), but the scale is what makes this stand out.
Because the collection and use of our data is nothing new – we know it’s being used by companies and often hand data over easily, for no real reward. But the scale of the data collected and analysed by Cambridge Analytica, specifically in regards to the US presidential election, was unprecedented (that we know of) and, in most people’s minds, wasn’t ‘opt-in’, even though they agreed to Facebook’s terms and conditions.
The doco raises the question of whether we own our data on platforms such as Facebook.
Sure, we own it. We always have. But we allow all sorts of people to have non-exclusive rights to it.
That’s a very interesting article Richard and one that continues to tell me that people who say, “Who cares who has information on me – I’ve got nothing of value for them to know!”, continue to be misguided.
For that product that allows for real-time lookups on personal information, how does that get around what should be existing privacy requirements on identifiable information? What source is it looking at?