Facebook Controversy: How A Data Firm CEO's Bragging Led To A Chain Of Crises

Recently when UK's Channel 4 recorded Cambridge Analytica's CEO Alexander Nix, in a secret tape, boasting about the company's role in Donald Trump's victory in 2016 elections, the top executive didn't have inkling that the pretentious outburst will trigger a chain of events, even drawing rap from the federal government across the globe, and would set off a debate over data breach allegedly orchestrated by Facebook. Besides Nix, another person who has allegedly been made a "scapegoat" is psychologist Aleksandr Kogan, an academic at Cambridge University, who ran a survey app on Facebook.

What he did was in fact quite interesting. He ran a survey app and only 3,00,000 facebook users responded to the quiz. But what had happened was that he managed to get the access to those people's facebook friends as well. Critics say that it was indeed a breach because the data of unsuspecting friends was taken while those friends did not agree to share information. However, Kogan managed to lay his hands on the details of 50 million users. Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have blamed Kogan for data misuse.

Facebook has said it that it made changes that prevent people from sharing data about friends and maintains that no breach occurred because the original users gave permission. Critics say that it essentially was a breach because data of unsuspecting friends was taken.

What is the controversy: According to Christopher Wylie, a whistle-blower, Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed user information to build profiles on 5,00,000 American voters that were later used to help elect U.S. President Donald Trump in 2016.

What Is Facebook's stand: Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg apologized on Wednesday for mistakes his company made in how it handled data belonging to 50 million of its users and promised tougher steps to restrict developers' access to such information. "This was a major breach of trust. I'm really sorry this happened. We have a basic responsibility to protect people's data," Zuckerberg said in an interview with CNN.

Comments

Governments stand worldwide: Facebook is facing government scrutiny in India, Europe and the US about the allegations that Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed user information to help elect Donald Trump in 2016. India's IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Abuse of social media including Facebook cannot be allowed to impact the fairness of elections," The German government said Facebook must explain whether the personal data of the country's 30 million users were protected from unlawful use by third parties, according to a report in the Funke group of German regional newspapers. The whistleblower who launched the scandal, Christopher Wylie, formerly of Cambridge Analytica, said on Twitter he had accepted invitations to testify before U.S. and UK lawmakers, reported Reuters.

Facebook in Wall Street: The company has lost more than $45 billion of its stock market value over the past three days on investor fears that any failure by big tech firms to protect personal data could deter advertisers and users and invite tougher regulation. Facebook shares pared gains on Wednesday after Zuckerberg's post, closing up 0.7 percent, Reuters reported.