MK7040 Marketing in the Digital Age and Corporate Social Responsibility

Introduction

This report aims to identify the role Cambridge Analytica in political issues such as Brexit and the US elections of 2016. This report also gives insight into what could have been done better by the CEO of Cambridge Analytica before the 2017 scandal and after the situation, the role of Cambridge Analytica and illegal services provided to the Trump campaign, and present ethical challenges of Facebook due to the involvement of Cambridge Analytica. The Cambridge scandal has been a popular scandal, and British organization Cambridge Analytica has involved in it with Facebook who have leaked the personal information of users without their consent. The information of millions of Facebook users has been taken for the political purpose to support the Trump campaign by the third-party app called ‘This is your digital life’. This app consisted of various questions related to the psychological knowledge of the users and obtained these details of users. Further Cambridge Analytica has analysed the data of more than 80 million users to provide assistant to the Trump campaign in 2016 (Illing, 2018). Similarly, the organization has also been involved and accused of interfering with the Brexit referendum, however, an investigation shows that the company was only involved in the basic investigation and inquiries. Expert says that if the CEO of Cambridge Analytica had taken the required measures then the scandal and data breach could have been prevented. The scandal has been caught when an employee of Cambridge Analytica has interviewed and revealed the scandal to the media. Mark Zuckerberg has apologized for the involvement in data harvesting, however, it has left the mark on Facebook that is still a concern for the organization. Many advertising agencies are alert after the scandal and the security of Facebook has questioned (Rehman, 2019).

Method

This is secondary research based on the existing data and available information on the internet related to Cambridge data scandal. This research has been done on by the analysis of news articles that involved the complete scenario of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, conversation, and statement of Facebook’s CEO and Cambridge. These resources have been used to develop the argument of discussion, and to gather the information that is essential for the analysis. In this report the news articles, data from scholarly articles and books have been utilized to reach the conclusion of the discussion and discovering the answers. Scholarly articles and literature have been reviews for the analysis. The collection of data is utilized for the secondary research to identify the role of Facebook, and Cambridge Analytica in the Trump campaign. The scholarly article gives insights into the social media marketing and ethical use of the user’s data (Johnston, 2017).

Discussion

Facebook and Cambridge Analytica both have been equally involved in the scandal, however, ECO of Cambridge Analytica Alex Nix has paid more price for it. He has been suspended soon after the allegation has proved against the firm. In order to show the strong action toward the situation, the board of members has suspended the CEO as he was the main character behind this game. Experts also said that the scandal would have been prevented if CEO could have done better, means if Cambridge would have put extra efforts rather than privacy steps, then scandal could be prevented, and they could have also taken the required precautions after the scandal. European firms have been recognized due to the strong privacy rule and strict guidelines, and after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, many firms of Unites States have started to follow the footsteps of Europe in terms of security and privacy. For instance, The Electronic privacy information centre of the United States has recently announced that they need a separate dedicated privacy and security firm to prevent these types of scandals (Castro, 2018). The use of social media for marketing and political context is not new and can be essential to know the choices of citizens. However, it must be followed and use in ethical ways. In the instance of Cambridge Analytica, the organization had the option to collect by and by recognizable data through a character test application, in view of the OCEAN character model (Ekdale, and Tully, 2019). Data retrieved from the Facebook by the application has contain enough details for building a psychographic profile of the users. This information incorporates the interest of clients and their companions. Hence, the use of Facebook data for analysis purposes was not legal, however, it could have been followed by taking all required measured and covering the precautions. The CEO could have use ethical ways to obtain the required details, however, they have breached the data without the consent of users which was illegal. There are many ethical and legal ways for the data analysis that could have been followed by Cambridge Analytica (Kozlowska, 2018).

The situation for CEO Alex has been tough, one side he has accused for data breaching and on another side he needs to perform the analysis for the political pressure. Alex could have deal with the situation better if he had done the analysis of the situation and thought of the future. Facebook data can be analysed without involving in scandals, and there are multiple ways of running campaigns and advertisements on Facebook (McKee, 2018). While retrieving the data and perusal information of users it is necessary to inform them that the data is being taken for the analysis, in these cases if a user is interested in the campaign then they will approve and allow the third-party applications to use their data, however, if some users are not interested they can deny the permission. This could have been used for running the campaign on Facebook (Bloomberg, 2018). It is possible that this could have decreased the number of interested users, however, it would have been a safe method. The application and Facebook advertisement of the Trump campaign could have been followed the disclaimer. The advertisement disclaimer is essential that appear on the top of advertising or campaign on Facebook. It contains information and details about types of data it may take from the users with or without their permission. Putting the disclaimer means that the advertiser is not hiding anything from the users and they have followed the ethical ways, in some social media platforms a disclaimer is necessary to get the approval of advertising. The research done on the scandal has revealed that the collected data from Facebook by Cambridge was critical user information that could have been manipulated in the context of sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious details, and political views of the citizen, however, the allegation says that the data have been used to monitor the political interest of the people (Colliander, 2019).

Alex and his organization could have used the marketing communication strategy to reach the target market, they could have communicated to the groups of people to know more about them rather than stealing the details without their permission. Facebook can be a good communication channel where an organization or political leader can communicate to the entire population. Considering corporate social responsibility the data breaching can be avoided. CSR help the organizations to provide accurate data on the advertisement and campaign about the organization and what types of information they are collecting from the users. Hence, the advertisement should have shown that Cambridge Analytica is retrieving the user’s data (Kreiss, Lawrence, and Lawrence, 2018).

Cambridge Analytica is a British organization that provides consultation to politicians and political parties. Cambridge has provided similar service to Trump and his campaign before the 2016 election. The firm has worked privately and used the intelligent agents who have worked on the data and analysed it for the political context to provide useful information and suggestion to politicians. Trump has given the responsibility to Cambridge for collecting the user’s data and analysing it. Cambridge turned out to be a key player for both the Trump campaign and Super PAC aligned by Trump. In June 2016, Cambridge sent three staff members, driven by boss item official Matt Oczkowski, to the mission's San Antonio office. This group in the long run developed into 13 individuals, working under Trump computerized Chief Brad and close by his staff and outside experts. As indicated by Brad, the Cambridge staff gave a valuable examination of information about the American electorate. They did not, in any case, give the crude information things like segment data, contact data, and information how electors feel about various issues on which that investigation was finished (Lapowsky, 2017).

The Cambridge and Trump campaign has used a third-party application that has utilized to retrieve the personal information of Facebook users including their age group, interest, gender, and other personal details. These details have been captured by asking the physiological questions through the application that has collected the political interest and insights of users which further manipulated by Trump to target these populations and attract them. Cambridge proceeded to direct a huge number of elector studies for the Trump lobby to more readily comprehend the probable Trump citizen and sent a full-time staff member to the New York base camp, who could transfer these discoveries to ranking staff, including Parscale. In view of these overviews, RNC information, information the Trump group gathered itself, and financially accessible data from information handles, Oczkowski's group fostered a warmth guide of the nation to pinpoint where Trump should visit to expand his effect on conceivably persuadable citizens (Lapowsky, 2017).

Since the arrest of Alex and the Facebook data scandal, it has been the topic of debate that what was wrong in the service of Cambridge provide to the Trump campaign. Considering the laws and privacy it was completely wrong practiced and was against the rights of users. Apart from the legal context, it was still wrong what Cambridge has done for the Trump campaign. In my perspective the collected data from Facebook and the involvement of Cambridge in the Trump campaign was completely wrong as Cambridge did not collect the data through a quiz, however, they have manipulated the exposed loophole in the API of Facebook which helped Cambridge to take the details of the friends of the participants. If it can be believed that somehow it does not completely wrong to take the details of participants, however, no proof can justify the collection of data of the people who were not involved in the campaign (non-participants). It has been found that Facebook has prevented and restricted to use of the data collected by the loopholes and errors of APIs, however, Cambridge has still sold the data. It has been estimated that only 2700000 people have participated in the quiz, however, Cambridge has taken the data of more than 80 million people (Chang, 2018).

In my opinion, it is not ethical to use data of participants without their consent, however, Cambridge has sold the data to Trump without looking at the ethical concern and threat associated with it. The responsibility of data breaching of non-participants lies on the CEO, however, researchers show that this scandal is more related to Facebook than Cambridge. While analysing the situation it has been found that Facebook has already aware of the existed loopholes in the system, and they have warned the third parties to avoid misusing the loopholes, however, when Cambridge have collected the data they have not stopped them. Thus, being aware of the whole situation Facebook was equally involved and responsible for the scandal. Late examination affirms that organizations need to confront the new typical whereby corporate notorieties endure after disasters with information under their influence. The present organizations should see the value in that their utilization, abuse and administration of data can affect their altruism and coming about valuation. The worth of an organization's image name, client records, and positive client collaborations qualify as certain emotional components of goodwill. There is no time-breaking point to goodwill since it is inseparably connected to a business itself, and it cannot be sold or moved independently and separated from the whole business. In the cutting-edge professional workplace, immaterial resources can here and there considerably trump the worth of unmistakable resources and are basic segments affecting an organization's fruitful future. All things being equal, an organization's standing is progressively perceived as a significant segment of an organization's general valuation (Wagner, 2021).

It has been revealed and clear by the employee of Cambridge that CEO Alex and the organization has been involved in the unethical practice of data breaching. However, the image of Facebook has been affected more than any other involved parties. The face has been aware of the loopholes in the system, and errors related to the system API, they have even warned Cambridge to restrict the data collected through a third-party applications. Facebook has restricted the use of data and prohibited the third party application to use these data without the consent of users, however, this step could have been taken before the scandal. More than half a million fine has been imposed on Facebook soon after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The fine has been issued in October 2018 after the investigation of ICO as Facebook has used the data of users for political purpose and sold it to politicians. Facebook has agreed to pay the issued penalty and agrees that it has been somehow the part of the scandal, however, it has affected and changed views of Facebook users which is a concern for Facebook and its future as a social media platform. As Cambridge Analytica collected the information in 2015, the ICO says it could not force a more extreme discipline. Under the new regulation of data protection passed in 2018 in the UK, Facebook would confront a greatest fine of up to 22 million for the same offense (Zialcita, 2019).

It is hard to recall the promises, expressions of remorse, and pronouncements that Facebook has released upon us throughout the course of time, yet when the story of Cambridge scandal broke, Mark Zuckerberg's underlying reaction was a long and stunning quietness. It required nearly 7 days for the organizer and CEO of Facebook the man with all-out command over the world's biggest social media platform to rise up out of his Menlo Park orders and address people in general. Being the leader of one of the world’s largest organizations Cambridge data scandal has become a question for both Facebook and the CEO that are they really care for the public. The response to the Cambridge scandal was the so-called pivot to privacy that put Facebook in one of the greatest crises since the foundation. After almost a year since the scandal took place, the response of Facebook has been seen to the public demanding privacy. When it is about Facebook, the Cambridge scandal did not uncover anything new, the fundamental realities had effectively been accounted for in a similar distribution 16 months before (Wong, 2019).

Facebook had allowed the third-party applications to separate immense measures of private data about huge quantities of individuals from its framework, and that substance had given the information to another person, who had utilized it for political finishes. That changed was the manner by which we saw those realities. Pretty much every organization has endured major information penetrate now; just Facebook has persevered through particularly existential retribution. That is on the grounds that what occurred with Cambridge Analytica was not a question of Facebook's frameworks being penetrated, but rather of Facebook's frameworks functioning as planned, and information was amassed, information was removed, and information was abused. Thus, Facebook has been on the top of the list of users when it comes to the threat of data and security. It has been believed that nothing can throw Facebook out of the competition, however, such issues could be a threat to the future of Facebook (Wong, 2019).

Conclusion

Basis on the above analysis it can be concluded that use of technology such as the internet and social media has increased in all aspects of life. Political campaigns are not left behind in this race, many politicians and parties are using the digital media platform to communicate and knowing the citizens and their interests. The use of social media such as Facebook is more popular in the political context, however, the concern of ethical use has become issue since the Cambridge data scandal. A British firm Cambridge Analytica that provide political consultation have manipulated the Facebook’s system API and misuse the data collected through a third-party application. This was not the first time, they have been also accused of involving in Brexit. The campaign run on Facebook involved 2700000 participants, however, due to the lack of API stability they have managed to retrieve the data of more than 80 million Facebook users who were not participants. This has been an illegal step taken by Cambridge and Facebook was equally responsible for the scandal. There are ethical ways to collect the user's data by informing and showing the disclaimer on social media advertisements that have not followed by Cambridge. The scandal of data breaching has left the mark on the biggest digital media organization, and users are still afraid of using the Facebook.

References

Colliander, J., 2019. “This is fake news”: Investigating the role of conformity to other users’ views when commenting on and spreading disinformation in social media. Computers in Human Behavior, 97, pp.202-215.

Ekdale, B. and Tully, M., 2019. African Elections as a Testing Ground: Comparing Coverage of Cambridge Analytica in Nigerian and Kenyan Newspapers. African Journalism Studies, 40(4), pp.27-43.

Illing, S., 2018. Cambridge Analytica, the shady data firm that might be a key Trump-Russia link, explained. Vox. Last modified April, 4.

Johnston, M.P., 2017. Secondary data analysis: A method of which the time has come. Qualitative and quantitative methods in libraries, 3(3), pp.619-626.

Kreiss, D., Lawrence, R.G. and McGregor, S.C., 2018. In their own words: Political practitioner accounts of candidates, audiences, affordances, genres, and timing in strategic social media use. Political communication, 35(1), pp.8-31

Kozlowska, I., 2018. Facebook and data privacy in the age of Cambridge Analytica. Seattle, WA: The University of Washington. Retrieved August, 1, p.2019.

Rehman, I., 2019. Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data harvesting: What you need to know. Library Philosophy and Practice, pp.1-11.

Wagner, P., 2021. Data Privacy-The Ethical, Sociological, and Philosophical Effects of Cambridge Analytica. Sociological, and Philosophical Effects of Cambridge Analytica (February 9, 2021).

Bloomberg. 2018. Cambridge Analytica-Facebook scandal: CEO Alexander Nix suspended but here’s how his dubious work live on. [Online] Available at: https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/technology/cambridge-analytica-facebook-scandal-ceo-alexander-nix-suspended-but-heres-how-his-dubious-work-live-on/1110343/ [Accessed June 8, 2021]

Castro, D. 2018. It would have taken more than privacy laws to prevent the Cambridge Analytica scandal. [Online] Available at: https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/382443-it-would-have-taken-more-than-privacy-laws-to-prevent-the-cambridge?rl=1 [Accessed June 8, 2021]

Chang, A. 2018. The Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, explained with a simple diagram. [Online] Available at: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/23/17151916/facebook-cambridge-analytica-trump-diagram [Accessed June 8, 2021]

Lapowsky, I. 2017. What Did Cambridge Analytica Really Do for Trump's Campaign?. [Online] Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/what-did-cambridge-analytica-really-do-for-trumps-campaign/ [Accessed June 8, 2021]

McKee. 2018. Alexander Nix, Cambridge Analytica CEO, suspended after data scandal. [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/20/cambridge-analytica-suspends-ceo-alexander-nix [Accessed June 8, 2021]

Wong, J., C. 2019. The Cambridge Analytica scandal changed the world – but it didn't change Facebook. [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/17/the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-changed-the-world-but-it-didnt-change-facebook [Accessed June 8, 2021]

Zialcita. 2019. Facebook Pays $643,000 Fine For Role In Cambridge Analytica Scandal. [Online] Available at: https://www.npr.org/2019/10/30/774749376/facebook-pays-643-000-fine-for-role-in-cambridge-analytica-scandal

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