The Great Hack - Quite a few lessons learnt in PR ethics.

 
 
 
The Netflix documentary explores and explains the depth of the Cambridge 
Analytica scandal and its long-term repercussions. Over the course of two hours, 
the documentary directs at how Cambridge Analytica, a data research group, 
obtained private information on citizens in the United States and Great Britain 
with the purpose of creating marketing and public relations content during the 
2015 Brexit Vote and 2016 U.S. presidential election. 
 
To simply, Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer highlights how our personal data 
has become a commodity that is collected, analyzed and then spit back at us in 
the form of targeted messaging, with the hope of changing our behavior, as one 
of the movie’s subjects puts it. Furthermore, the film spoke about how such 
tactics might have played a role in the 2016 presidential election. The target is 
squarely on Cambridge Analytica, the defunct political data firm backed by the 
Republican donor Robert Mercer. According to Brittany Kaiser, a former 
Cambridge Analytica executive turned turncoat who emerges as the 
documentary’s principal figure, the firm’s strategy was to target voters whom it 
called “persuadables” in swing states and then to bombard them with content 
supposedly pushing them to vote for Donald J. Trump. 
 
With advanced technology and continuous involvement of tech. companies, it 
becomes more and more difficult to draw a line between what's really ethical 
and what's not, since there's clearly no law that is sitting and evaluating each 
aspect. But if I'm to look at it from a simple humanitarian perspective, quite a lot 
of ethical red flags are raised, that PR Professionals must address. 
Here's a few: 
  
● Failing to keep a check on data mining and profiling while creating social 
media ads, miserably. The co. was able to access data on 87 million 
people, which helped them target "persuadable voters".  
 
● The communication/information rendered, after reaching out to them 
were, thus, not authentic as it was completely and absolutely personalised 
content to influence their feelings on issues and candidates.  
  
● Mining data that violates personal privileges to benefit business is 
unethical, to begin with.  
Digital media is used by millions of people to stay connected and should 
be considered as their private space. Getting into that private space to 
extract information about one's liking and preferences is an unforgivable 
sin. 
 
● The concept of democracy goes for a toss, when people are manipulated 
despite their unwillingness and disinterest, during "free and fair elections". 
The process/act thus becomes an oxymoron in itself. 
 
● Dissemination of fearful messages to persuade a voter to choose a 
candidate, is again something that should be strongly condemned, let 
alone the fact, that it was mainly and mostly misinformation.  
 
● Company's top management deliberately involved and indulged itself in 
unethical behavior. Not even the CEO, Alexander Nix, could keep himself 
away from making such a grave sin.  
 
● Moreover, not taking accountability, constantly denying/justifying the 
wrongdoing, despite all his employees' verification, is enough to be tagged 
'unethical'. 
 
● Mark Zuckerberg's blame game on Cambridge Analytics was rather funny, 
besides being unethical. He was in complete denial (or at least pretended 
to be), that his employees had major roles to play in this scandal.  
 
● Unethical (and sarcastically funnier) as it gets, CA rebrands itself as a 
'behavior change agency'. It's difficult to rub off one's mind around these 
points, because questions like 'Are the information safe and in the right 
hands?' keeps lurking. 
 
From an ethical PR perspective, representing a company involved in a scandal 
can be difficult, and the majority would choose not to align or associate 
themselves. And while it may seem impossible to represent a company during a 
scandal without violating an ethical code, I feel, it still can be done.  
 
As a PR professional, I would then take responsibility for every detrimental 
action, avoid making excuses and keep from spinning a situation. Then, 
maintaining brand positivity still stands a chance. Of course, it takes some time 
to recover, but as the saying goes 'Better late than never'.  
 
In a situation like this, as dicey as it gets, it then becomes a necessity for a 
professional to call out employers when something seems unethical. Everything 
was wrong, right from the Head of the Co. being straight up dishonest, to them 
being constantly involved in wrongdoings at multiple layers, to even the 
employees admitting to it at the end. As a PR professional taking up this 
challenge, it becomes my religion to stand up for what is right, and diss what is 
not. We owe ourselves, our clients, and our profession, utmost honesty and 
integrity.  
 
The involvement of the third party app to log into a social media account (to gain 
personal information) is yet another problem that needs to be addressed. As PR 
professionals we have an obligation to protect those rights of clients, businesses 
and stakeholders. Proper communication of terms and conditions needs to be at 
the forefront of websites, landing pages and other areas where personal data is 
being obtained. And we, as PR can ensure that. 
 
Knowing how challenging and damaging it can be, this needs and has to be 
addressed based on core principles of 
a) Honesty 
b) Transparency 
c) Inclusivity 
d) Continuity