Team 1

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Facebook - Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal
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CIS 201 NO1

Summer 1
Mr. Bacic
5/27/2019

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 Description

The Facebook - Cambridge Analytica data scandal was a political scandal that

happened in early 2018. In this scandal, up to 87 million Facebook users’ data was

exposed to a researcher who worked at Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm

that worked for the Trump campaign. Facebook is one of the largest companies in the

world and is the largest social media website on the globe. It also owns other major social

media companies, such as Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook was founded by the

company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. According to the company’s first quarter of 2019

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earnings presentation, the number of daily active Facebook users worldwide is 1.562

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trillion users while monthly active users are 2.375 trillion (Facebook).

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This scandal has dominated news headlines for years now, as it is seen as a major
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contributing factor in the 2016 election. Cambridge Analytica is accused of improperly

using Facebook data as part of the Brexit campaign as well. This data seems to have
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been collected from nearly 200,000 users “voluntarily.” It is unclear if these participants
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knew what their data was being collected for, or how much of their data was being

collected, but they agreed to the app that was used to collect the data in this incident.
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Facebook’s Zuckerberg says that no more than 87 million Facebook users were affected

by this scandal, so the vast majority of the data collected was without any agreement or
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knowledge to those whose data was collected.

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Analysis

Cambridge Analytica was created when Steve Bannon approached conservative

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mega-donors Rebekah and Robert Mercer to fund a political consulting firm. Bannon

became Vice President of Cambridge Analytica, and during the 2016 election, he reached

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 out to Trump, and eventually became a senior adviser to Trump before he was fired in

August 2017. According to a former Cambridge Analytica employee, the firm got its data

from Facebook through Aleksandr Kogan, a Russian-American researcher who worked at

the University of Cambridge.

Under the guise of a personality quiz, Kogan constructed a Facebook application

with the intention of building a depository of the psychological profiles of American

voters. It not only was used to covertly collect the personal information of the quiz takers,

it also exposed a loophole in Facebook API that allowed it to collect data from the

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Facebook friends of the quiz takers as well. Facebook prohibited the selling of data

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collected with this method, but Cambridge Analytica sold the data anyway (Chang,

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Alvin).
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This type of attack is incredibly hard to defend against for a number of reasons. A

major contributor to the powerful impact that this data breach had was the sophistication
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of the attack. The attack was as successful as it was due to the intelligence involved
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during the conception of the application. A second contributing factor was user

confusion; however, it could be classified more as user deception as the users were
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tricked into believing that the quiz was non-malicious. The majority of the data was

collected not from single profiles, but the many groups of interconnected friends that
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Facebook does an outstanding job at creating. The quiz did not show that it was able to
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collect info from those who had not agreed to the quiz, so both the sophistication of the

attack and user confusion of the unclear terms helped lead to this widespread collection
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of data. While Facebook may have had the products and people in place to try and

prevent such an attack, the most vulnerable piece of the security process are the policies

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 that allowed the collection of data through apps on Facebook. The attackers in this case

do not cleanly fit into one category of attackers. The attackers could be considered

insiders, since they gained access to the data through quizzes developed for use on

Facebook. The attackers themselves could see themselves as “hacktivists”, but those

opposed to them would likely see them as a form of state-sponsored attackers since they

were funded by political donors.

Damage

In regard to Facebook, the company was fined US$645,150 over the Cambridge

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Analytica scandal (Woollacott, Emma). In addition, Facebook lost the trust of it is many

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investors. Following the report of the scandal, Facebook’s stock price began to

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experience a downward trend. At first, since the company participated in such a large
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scandal, many investors sold their position in the company because they did not want to

be part of a business that does not work ethically. As a response to the data breach, the
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company decided to heavily invest into security. Unfortunately, this increased the
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company’s expenses and reduced profit margins, ultimately disappointing valuable

investors.
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Richard Allan, Facebook’s Vice President of Policy Solutions for Europe, the

Middle East and Africa, told the parliamentary committee that Facebook was continually
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attempting to refine the controls used by its users to protect personal data and privacy.
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"Our intention is that you should not be surprised by the way your data is used," he said.

"It's not a good outcome if you are" (Vlessing and Szalai). A top Facebook policy
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executive told a U.K. parliamentary committee that the actions of Cambridge Analytica

app developers to gain access to data from Facebook users before the 2016 U.S.

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 presidential election had underestimated trust in the social media giant (Vlessing and

Szalai).

Prevention

On March 21, 2018, Facebook released a statement that addressed the security

issues revealed in this scandal. This statement included a six-step list of items the

company would do to prevent future issues. The first item on that list is to review all

apps that had access to user’s info before a policy change in 2014. Facebook also said

the company would alert users affected by data misuse in the future. It encourages users

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to monitor the apps that access their data. Facebook will also take steps to prevent apps

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from collecting data themselves, by limiting the data that an app can request without

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review by Facebook as well as automatically stopping apps that users have not used for
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three months from collecting data. Facebook will also now offer rewards for those that

find and report apps that misuse data (Facebook).

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This statement shows that Facebook plans and has worked towards changing their
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policies to help prevent data collection like this in the future. These changes can help

prevent quizzes and apps like those used in this scandal from gaining access to users on
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Facebook. That being said, possibly the biggest changes needed do not come from

Facebook itself, but from its users. This data seems to have been collected largely from
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users interacting with the attack. While one cannot personally prevent part of their
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Facebook network from interacting with such apps and quizzes, he or she could protect

the data that is collectable by such an attack. So, while Facebook has adjusted their
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policies to help prevent such attacks, user alertness is probably the best way to prevent

attacks like this on Facebook.

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 Personal Connection

As a group, we have differing experiences with Facebook. Two members of our

group continued their Facebook use, but noted that they keep a closer watch on the

possibilities for data theft and misuse. Our other two members both said they were light

users of Facebook and saw this scandal as the tipping point to deactivate their accounts.

One of these members says he now rarely uses social media. The other says that he is

still active on non-Facebook owned social medias, but as a way to keep up with personal

interests and not as a way to supplement relationships. One of the members that

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continues to use Facebook also saw the scandal as an opportunity to invest in the

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company while stock was low. Overall, the members of our group, like everyone else

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exposed to this scandal, had to weigh the decision if the ease of communication provided
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by Facebook is worth the risk of one’s data being exposed and misused. In our group, we

are split on the balance of that ease of communication and data risk.
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Conclusion
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The Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal was a large political scandal that leaked

87 million Facebook user’s personal information. The personal information was gained
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from Facebook users who had taken a quiz, but this quiz exposed a loophole which

allowed information of the quiz takers friends to also be leaked. The damage from the
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scandal not only affected the company financially but they also lost the trust from many
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of their users. In our group we have members that have deactivated their Facebook

profiles all together in part because they just don't trust the social media platform. Since
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this scandal Facebook has adjusted their policies to help prevent future attacks, but that

does not change the damage and the fear this scandal brought to Facebook users.

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 Works Cited

Chang, Alvin. “The Facebook and Cambridge Analytica Scandal, Explained with a

Simple Diagram.” Vox, Vox, 2 May 2018, www.vox.com/policy-and-

politics/2018/3/23/17151916/facebook-cambridge-analytica-trump-diagram.

Facebook. “Cracking Down on Platform Abuse.” Facebook Newsroom, Facebook, 21

Mar. 2018, newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/03/cracking-down-on-platform-abuse/.

“Facebook, Inc. (FB) Stock Price, Quote, History & News.” Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo!, 27

May 2019, finance.yahoo.com/quote/FB?p=FB.

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Facebook. “Investor Events.” Facebook, Facebook, 25 Apr. 2018,

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investor.fb.com/investor-events/default.aspx.

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Langone, Alix. “What to Know About Facebook's Cambridge Analytica Problem.” Time,
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Time, 20 Mar. 2018, time.com/5205314/facebook-cambridge-analytica-breach/.

Vlessing, Etan, and Georg Szalai. “Facebook Executive Says Cambridge Analytica Data
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Harvesting ‘Damaged Public Trust.’” The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Nov. 2018,

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www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/facebook-executive-cambridge-analytica-

scandal-damaged-public-trust-1163627.
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Woollacott, Emma. “Facebook Fined $645,150 Over Cambridge Analytica Scandal - And

Is Told It's Getting Off Lightly.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 25 Oct. 2018,
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www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2018/10/25/facebook-fined-645150-over-
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cambridge-analytica-scandal-and-is-told-its-getting-off-lightly/#e5998f12c344.

Yurieff, Kaya. “Facebook Removed 2.2 Billion Fake Accounts in Three Months.” CNN,
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Cable News Network, 23 May 2019, edition.cnn.com/2019/05/23/tech/facebook-

transparency-report/index.html.

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