A Different Perspective to Transparency

The Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018 was a major political scandal when it was discovered that Cambridge Analytica was using the personal data of millions of peoples Facebook profiles and using it without their permission for political marketing purposes. This information was used for purposes of building a system that could profile US voters in order to be able to target them with political advertising that suited their personal preferences (Cadwalladr, 2018).

The data was collected through an app called “This Is Your Digital Life” built by Aleksandr Kogan in collaboration with Cambridge Analytica. Users were paid to take a personality test and actually agreed to have their data collected for academic use (Cadwalladr, 2018). What the test takers didn’t agree to though, was the collection of data from their Facebook friends, which is exactly what the application took. This resulted in the data collection being tens of millions strong (Cadwalladr, 2018). Check out this video to learn more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrnXv-g4yKU

Throughout the establishment of the world wide web there have been many technological, social and political changes which have created an influx of opportunities for individuals to communicate and exchange information (Brevini, 2017). This has heightened the rise of participatory culture resulting in public disclosure on the net becoming a more common phenomenon to be aware of in digital marketing practices.

Public disclosure is defined as “the act of making information or data readily accessible and available to all interested individuals and institutions. Some examples of the different forms that public disclosure may take include: verbal or written statements released to a public forum, to the news media, or to the general public; publication in an official bulletin, gazette, report, or stand-alone document; and information posted on a website.” (OECD, 2004).

Additionally, the introduction of Wikileaks in 2010 has been acknowledged to have contributed significantly to a shift in what and how people can share things online. It’s purpose was to publish information which otherwise would have been “censored by public authorities and private actors” (Brevini, 2017) in order to encourage higher levels of transparency within government organisations.

So you may be wondering how public disclosure and the Cambridge Analytica scandal can be related to our role as digital marketers?

As digital marketers, there are many lessons we can take away from the Cambridge Analytica case study.

The news of the way in which 50 million Facebook user profiles were leaked in the Cambridge Analytica Scandal serves as a hefty warning to marketers on the importance of transparency with consumers about how their info is used, as discussed in our Privacy post.

In summary, it is therefore possible to identify themes of security, trust, credibility, privacy and transparency in relation to this case study, which links us back to many other themes we have already discussed in reference to ethical digital marketing. It is vital for marketers to be TRUTHFUL, TRANSPARENT, and TRUSTWORTHY in the data collection processes. Because no one wants to end up being busted through the course of public disclosure.