{"id":11653,"date":"2018-03-21T18:12:04","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T18:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=11653"},"modified":"2018-03-21T18:12:04","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T18:12:04","slug":"facebook-is-killing-democracy-with-its-personality-profiling-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/facebook-is-killing-democracy-with-its-personality-profiling-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook is killing democracy with its personality profiling data"},"content":{"rendered":"

Timothy Summers<\/a>, University of Maryland<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

What state should you move to based on your personality? What character on \u201cDownton Abbey\u201d would you be? What breed of dog is best for you? Some enormous percentage of Facebook\u2019s 2.13 billion users<\/a> must have seen Facebook friends sharing results of various online quizzes. They are sometimes annoying, senseless and a total waste of time. But they are irresistible<\/a>. Besides, you\u2019re only sharing the results with your family and friends. There\u2019s nothing more innocent, right?<\/p>\n

Wrong.<\/p>\n

Facebook is in the business of exploiting your data<\/a>. The company is worth billions of dollars because it harvests your data and sells it<\/a> to advertisers. Users are encouraged to like, share and comment their lives away in the name of staying connected to family and friends. However, as an ethical hacker, security researcher and data analyst<\/a>, I know that there is a lot more to the story. The bedrock of modern democracy is at stake<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You are being psychographically profiled<\/h2>\n

Most people have heard of demographics \u2013 the term used by advertisers to slice up a market by age, gender, ethnicity and other variables to help them understand customers. In contrast, psychographics measure people\u2019s personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests and lifestyles. They help advertisers understand the way you act and who you are.<\/p>\n

Historically, psychographic data were much harder to collect and act on<\/a> than demographics. Today, Facebook is the world\u2019s largest treasure trove of this data. Every day billions of people give the company huge amounts of information about their lives and dreams.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a problem when the data are used ethically \u2013 like when a company shows you an ad for a pair of sunglasses you recently searched for. <\/p>\n

However, it matters a lot when the data are used maliciously \u2013 segmenting society into disconnected echo chambers, and custom-crafting misleading messages to manipulate individuals\u2019 opinions and actions.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what Facebook allowed to happen.<\/p>\n

Quizzes, reading your mind and predicting your politics<\/h2>\n

Recent reports have revealed how Cambridge Analytica, a U.K.-based company owned by an enigmatic billionaire<\/a> and led at the time by candidate Donald Trump\u2019s key adviser Steve Bannon, used psychographic data from Facebook to profile American voters in the months before the 2016 presidential election. Why? To target them with personalized political messages<\/a> and influence their voting behavior<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A whistleblower from Cambridge Analytica, Christopher Wylie, described in detail how the company exploited Facebook users by harvesting their data and building models to \u201ctarget their inner demons<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did Facebook let this happen?<\/p>\n

The company does more than just sell your data. Since the early 2000s, Facebook has provided access to academic researchers seeking to study you<\/a>. Many psychologists and social scientists have made their careers analyzing ways to predict your personality and ideologies<\/a> by asking simple questions. These questions, like the ones used in social media quizzes, do not appear to have obvious connections to politics. Even a decision like which web browser you are using to read this article is filled with clues about your personality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2015, Facebook gave permission to academic researcher Aleksandr Kogan to develop a quiz of his own<\/a>. Like other quizzes, his was able to capture all of your public information<\/a>, including name, profile picture, age, gender and birthday; everything you\u2019ve ever posted on your timeline; your entire friends list; all of your photos and the photos you\u2019re tagged in; education history; hometown and current city; everything you\u2019ve ever liked; and information about the device you\u2019re using including your web browser and preferred language.<\/p>\n

Kogan shared the data he collected with Cambridge Analytica, which was against Facebook policy \u2013 but apparently the company rarely enforced its rules<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Going shopping for impressionable users<\/h2>\n

Analyzing these data, Cambridge Analytica determined topics that would intrigue users, what kind of political messaging users were susceptible to, how to frame the messages, the content and tone that would motivate users, and how to get them to share it with others. It compiled a shopping list of traits<\/a> that could be predicted about voters. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n A shopping list of personal traits.<\/span>
\n Provided to the New York Times by Christopher Wylie.<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then the company was able to create websites, ads and blogs that would attract Facebook users<\/a> and encourage them to spread the word. In Wylie\u2019s words<\/a>: \u201cthey see it \u2026 they click it \u2026 they go down the rabbit hole.\u201d <\/p>\n

This is how American voters were targeted with fake news, misleading information<\/a> and contradictory messages<\/a> intended to influence how they voted \u2013 or if they voted at all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is how Facebook users\u2019 relationships with family and friends are being exploited for monetary profit, and for political gain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Knowingly putting users at risk<\/h2>\n

Facebook could have done more to protect users.<\/p>\n

The company encouraged developers to build apps for its platform. In return, the apps had access to vast amounts of user data \u2013 supposedly subject to those rules that were rarely enforced<\/a>. But Facebook collected 30 percent of payments made through the apps, so its business interest made it want more apps, doing more things.<\/p>\n

People who didn\u2019t fill out quizzes were vulnerable, too. Facebook allowed companies like Cambridge Analytica to collect personal data of friends of quiz takers, without their knowledge or consent. Tens of millions<\/a> of people\u2019s data were harvested \u2013 and many more Facebook users could have been affected by other apps.<\/p>\n

Changing culture and politics<\/h2>\n

In a video interview with the Observer, Wylie explained that \u201cPolitics flows from culture \u2026 you have to change the people in order to change culture<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what Facebook enabled Cambridge Analytica to do. In 2017, the company\u2019s CEO boasted publicly that it was \u201cable to use data to identify \u2026 very large quantities of persuadable voters \u2026 that could be influenced to vote for the Trump campaign<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

To exert that influence, Cambridge Analytica \u2013 which claims to have 5,000 data points on every American<\/a> \u2013 used people\u2019s data<\/a> to psychologically nudge them to alter their behaviors in predictable ways<\/a>. <\/p>\n

This included what became known as \u201cfake news.\u201d In an undercover investigation, Britain\u2019s Channel 4 recorded Cambridge Analytica executives<\/a> expressing their willingness to disseminate misinformation, with its CEO saying, \u201cthese are things that don\u2019t necessarily need to be true, as long as they\u2019re believed<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. society was unprepared: 62 percent of American adults get news on social media<\/a>, and many people who see fake news stories report that they believe them<\/a>. So Cambridge Analytica\u2019s tactics worked: 115 pro-Trump fake stories were shared<\/a> on Facebook a total of 30 million times. In fact, the most popular fake news stories were more widely shared on Facebook than the most popular mainstream news stories<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For this psychological warfare<\/a>, the Trump campaign paid Cambridge Analytica millions of dollars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A healthy dose of skepticism<\/h2>\n

U.S. history is filled with stories of people sharing their thoughts in the public square. If interested, a passerby could come and listen, sharing in the experience of the narrative. <\/p>\n

By combining psychographic profiling, analysis of big data and ad micro-targeting<\/a>, public discourse in the U.S. has entered a new era. What used to be a public exchange of information and democratic dialogue is now a customized whisper campaign: Groups both ethical and malicious can divide Americans, whispering into the ear of each and every user, nudging them based on their fears and encouraging them to whisper to others who share those fears. <\/p>\n

A Cambridge Analytica executive explained<\/a>: \u201cThere are two fundamental human drivers \u2026 hopes and fears \u2026 and many of those are unspoken and even unconscious. You didn\u2019t know that was a fear until you saw something that evoked that reaction from you. Our job is \u2026 to understand those really deep-seated underlying fears, concerns. It\u2019s no good fighting an election campaign on the facts because actually it\u2019s all about emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The information that you shared on Facebook exposed your hopes and fears. That innocent-looking Facebook quiz isn\u2019t so innocent.<\/p>\n

The problem isn\u2019t that this psychographic data were exploited at a massive scale. It\u2019s that platforms like Facebook enable people\u2019s data to be used in ways that take power away from voters and give it to data-analyzing campaigners.<\/p>\n

In my view, this kills democracy. Even Facebook can see that, saying in January that at its worst, social media \u201callows people to spread misinformation and corrode democracy<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheMy advice: Use Facebook with a healthy dose of skepticism.<\/p>\n

Timothy Summers<\/a>, Director of Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Engagement, University of Maryland<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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