The networked sphere, as it is termed in with jargon-heavy fondness by some academics, has seen the accumulation of data all set and readied for the “information civilisation”. Mark Zuckerberg’s response has entailed vigorous hand washing. By watching documentaries such as The Great Hack or reading articles and books on surveillance capitalism and/or the Cambridge Analytica scandal, we … ‘Surveillance capitalism’ was the term coined in 2015 by Harvard academic Shoshanna Zuboff to describe this large-scale surveillance and modification of human behaviour for profit. 4, 2019). Additionally, the company collected “Facebook User ID; name; gender; birthdate; location (“current city”); and ‘likes of public Facebook pages” of “Affected Friends.” Id. at 5. See, e.g., Garett Sloane, Facebook Exec Says Cambridge Analytica Sold ‘Snake Oil, and We Knew It’ in Leaked Memo, AdAge (Jan. 7, 2020); The Great Hack (Netflix 2019). A broader data set of profiles were thereby created and quarried. The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued Cambridge Analytica’s epitaph in late November 2019, when it published its settlement opinion. Id. But make no mistake, every tactic employed by Cambridge Analytica was part of surveillance capitalism’s routine operations of behavioural influence. It’s likely because Americans have a tight hold on their First Amendment rights, even if they haven’t quite grasped onto their privacy rights. On the one hand, he would like to take credit for the company’s product – the swaying of a US election. Facebook, Cambridge Analytica And Surveillance Capitalism – OpEd . At that time, Cambridge Analytica was a data analytics and consulting company “that provide[d] voter-profiling and marketing services.” Id. Zuboff defines this market concept as “the unilateral claiming of private human experience as free raw material for translation into behavioral data.” John Laidler, High Tech is Watching You, Harv. In 2018, Cambridge Analytica was revealed to have obtained data of up to 87 million Americans to psychographically target voters. The Facebook / Cambridge Analytica scandal has launched surveillance capitalism into the global consciousness. Data protections – most of them, at least – were already being put in place. In 2017, the Equifax breach compromised credit information for 143 million Americans. It rejects notions that it peddles fake news. “What we’ve read about when it comes to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, that’s really sort of a garden variety day in the life of a surveillance capitalist,” says Zuboff. It walked into the space created when social media … Since personal data has been commodified, it has become one of the most valuable resources on earth. An instructive lesson here would be to run the counter-factual: had Hillary Clinton won, would this seething discontent be quite so enthusiastic? Outrage and uproar has been registered, much of it to do with a simple fact: data was used to manipulate, massage and deliver a result to Trump – or so goes the presumption. Cambridge Analytica manipulated the democratic process and the ultimate form of American speech—the right to vote. Surveillance Capitalism is the term used to describe this new market which claims human experience as a free source of raw material for hidden commercial practice of extraction, prediction, and sales,’ as defined by Dr. Shoshanna Zuboff. Surveillance capitalism describes a market driven process where the commodity for sale is your personal data, … So it’s really easy to look at Cambridge Analytica and think of it as this dramatic story, this one-off. Ultimately, RTB allows companies to go deeper into the minds of consumers than ever before. It was, in fact, used elsewhere in a 2014 article in The Monthly Review by John Bellamy Foster and Robert McChesney. On the latter, it is boastful, claiming to have supported over 100 campaigns across five continents. “We can set up fake IDs and Web sites, we can be students doing research projects attached to a university; we can be tourists.”, The company has also attempted to debunk a set of what it sees as flourishing myths. Hopefully, the re-opening of Cambridge Analytica’s tomb will help shift the discussion from one of blame to one of remediation and targeted regulation. Certifications were duly provided that such data had been deleted, though the crew at Facebook evidently took these at unverified face value. However, it’s wrong to view Zuboff as the originator and sole owner of the concept. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. at 4. The clincher here is the link with Facebook, though the company insists that it “received data from a contractor, which we deleted after Facebook told us the contractor had breached their terms of service.”. at 6. While the app requested consent to Facebook user data, it stated that it did not download the user’s name or any other personal information, even though “the GSRApp collected the Facebook User ID of those App Users who authorized it.” Id. The Facebook - Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal was another disturbing example. Id. What has been exposed here is not some unforceeable aberration, but an ordinary consequence of what Shoshana Zuboff calls “surveillance capitalism”. Cambridge Analytica and SCL Elections’ businesses were intertwined through “common business functions, ownership, officers, and employees.” Id. ... Democracy slept while surveillance capitalism … Facebook, for its part, has been modestly contrite. So why is Cambridge Analytica the only villain in the eyes of the media? According to the researchers, the algorithm “could potentially predict an individual’s personality better than the person’s co-workers, friends, family, and even spouse.” Id. Progressive campaigners and activists (and yes the platforms that serve them) should reflect on how they are complicit, what steps should be taken to reduce the harm to their supporters, and continue to lead their movements by example. There are discussions that political data mining designed to manipulate and sway elections be considered in the same way political donations are. As a user of such freely provided services, users are before a naked confessional, conceding and surrendering identities to third parties with Faustian ease. Id. Not so, as matters transpired, leading to the claim that trust had not only been breached between Facebook, Kogan and Cambridge Analytica, but with the users themselves. The full extent of Facebook’s surveillance capitalism remains secret. Be that as it may, the spoliations of Cambridge Analytica are embedded in a broader undertaking: the evisceration of privacy, and the generation of user profiles gathered through modern humanity’s most remarkable surveillance machine. Now, the unsurprising role played by Cambridge Analytica with its Facebook accessory to politicise and monetise data reveals the tenuous ground notions of privacy rest upon. This process allowed Cambridge Analytica to ascertain personality scores for the “Affected Friends, from whom [the app] collected Facebook data but had no survey responses.” It also enabled the company to match this data to United States voter records and roll the app out on a wider scale. Brittany Kaiser, former Cambridge Analytica business development director, blew the whistle on the company back in 2018 and now has begun leaking internal documents on Twitter under the username @HindsightFiles, stating that “democracy has been hacked.” @HindsightFiles, Twitter (Jan. 1, 2020). Real-Time Bidding (RTB): The Complete Guide, SMAATO (last visited Jan. 8, 2020). Blinded by the capabilities and speed of technological advancements, our new societal norms have created the real villain we should all fear: surveillance capitalism. In total, the app obtained Facebook user profile data from approximately 250,000 Facebook users who directly interacted with the app, as well as data from more than 50 million additional users who were “friends” with those who interacted with the app. The Cambridge Analytica scandal. Shoshana Zuboff. The Edward Snowden disclosures of 2013 demonstrated the complicity and collusion between Silicon Valley and the technological stewards of the national security state. A Death on the Anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, China, Papua New Guinea and Australia’s Backyard Blues, When It Seemed as If the World Took Notice, Why I Wrote “Educational Strategies for Youth Empowerment in Conflict Zones”, On the Relative Vileness of George W. Bush and Donald Trump, Liz Cheney and Marjorie Taylor Greene, The Drive for a Wealth Tax in Washington State, Hidden in Plain Sight: The “Unimpeachable” Offenses, Loujain al-Hathloul Released After Over 1000 Days in Prison, Rich Farmers, Global Plots, Local Stupidity, The Clash Between the UK and EU Over Northern Ireland is a Precursor to Confrontations That will Last Decades. By Amy Goodman & Juan González, Democracy Now! at 7. Hence the pogroms in Myanmar. Id. Now, what we learned in the year 2018 when Cambridge Analytica entered the global consciousness was that these same methods and mechanisms, which are the bread and butter of every self respecting surveillance capitalist, can be pivoted just a few degrees to political objectives. Further, this type of consent and data collection is similar to that which is currently used by ad targeting companies in a process called Real Time Bidding (“RTB”). Often, there is a misunderstanding regarding the difference between the two. That showed how surveillance capitalism can be used by political marketing businesses to influence and manipulate voters by using their data. Surveillance capitalism is the rope which binds the actors of this latest drama in the annals of privacy’s demise. But while Cambridge Analytica was rightfully charged with deceptive practices under the Federal Trade Commission Act, their actions are not unique. Rapid technological changes have spurred a new set of cultural norms, and things that were once taboo—such as sharing personal information with virtual strangers—are now the status quo. Surveillance Capitalism is the manifestation of George Orwell's prophesied Memory Hole combined with the constant surveillance, storage and analysis of our thoughts and actions, with such minute precision, and artificial intelligence algorithmic analysis, that our future thoughts and actions can be predicted, and manipulated, for the concentration of power and wealth of the very few.
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