Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and Why Your Data is Still for Sale

Author: Karis Hustad

Date: June 7, 2018

Link: https://www.digitalethics.org/essays/facebook-cambridge-analytica-and-why-your-data-still-sale

First Impression: The essay probably talks about how Facebook and Cambridge analytica is using our data in different ways.

Quote: “The tech industry saw the bill in a different light. Industry groups expressed concerns about the impact on the development of location-based services, given the bill also required companies to get customer consent before sharing location information with third parties. ”

Reflection: 

It recently came to light that Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have been working together to influence people’s votes during the 2016 U.S Presidential Elections. With the recent events of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg had a testimony with the Congress, and it was definitely embarrassing for the Congress due to their lack of knowledge when asking Mark questions about Facebook and data privacy. People of the Congress should be more knowledgeable of the current trends in technology or at least someone could explain to them what it is, or if they can’t be knowledgeable, then they should be replaced with people who know more about the current trends in technology, data security, and privacy. So that intelligent questions would be asked and we would get to know more about how Facebook is using our data. The US should take a look at Europe’s laws and come up with similar ones. The US government should stop living in the past and start living in the present to be updated with the current advancements of technology. This comes to show how the US is afraid of new advancements and does not know what to do in the event of problems with tech.

5 Things I Learned

1. The Location Privacy Act isn’t different when it comes to opposition from the tech industry.

2. Data privacy and protection is considered a fundamental right in Europe.

3. Social Media Privacy Protection and Consumer Rights Act of 2018 covers a host of privacy updates, such as requiring websites to inform users of their data collection practices, provide users control over privacy settings and alert users within 72 hours if their data has been compromised.

4. While data privacy laws were developing around the world, the power of corporate lobbying in the US was beginning to take hold.

5. Stalkerware still continues to thrive.

5 Integrative Questions

1. Why do applications such as SPYERA and FlexiSpy exist even though data privacy is a very important topic in the tech industry?

2. How should consumers react to being constantly tracked by big companies?

3. Why are we being constantly tracked by different companies?

4. How can a person who is unfamiliar with spyware find out that he is being tracked?

5. What data is Facebook getting from us?