Watching the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal unfold begs the question, where does the blame fall?
Get up to speed the whole situation here and learn more about Facebook's role.
To recap....
Cambridge Analytica, run by Alexander Nix, spearheaded the digital marketing operations for the 2016 Donald Trump campaign. This was the brainchild of Steve Bannon and Christopher Wylie, funded by Robert Mercer. Thanks to a viral Facebook app called 'thisismydigitallife,' (built by Aleksandr Kogan), Cambridge Analytica was able to get their hands on personal information that they morphed into data-backed psychological profiles of potential voters. Whether or not Kogan or any of the other parties were allowed to use the data the way they did is up for scrutiny.
The Guardian sums it up well:
"It was Bannon’s interest in culture as war that ignited Wylie’s intellectual concept. But it was Robert Mercer’s millions that created a firestorm. Kogan was able to throw money at the hard problem of acquiring personal data." link
The players:
Christopher Wylie - whistleblower and millennial data scientist who worked for Cambridge Analytica
Robert Mercer - US hedge-fund billionaire, Republican donor and Cambridge Analytica’s investor
Steve Bannon - former executive chairman of Breitbart News and White House Chief Strategist
Alexander Nix - CEO of the SCL Group and Cambridge Analytica
Aleksandr Kogan - Owns Global Science Research (GSR) and amassed data on millions of Americans from a Facebook app called thisismydigitallife
Mark Zuckerberg - CEO of Facebook
Who do you think is to blame?
- Facebook for their questionable data privacy policies?
- Kogan for his supposed unethical harvesting of personal information?
- Cambridge Analytic for their shady business practices?
- Bannon? Wylie? Others?
Let us know in the comment section.
