The fallout from the Facebook privacy controversy continues. After it was revealed that a firm of political consultants carried out a data-harvesting exercise disguised as a personality quiz, the latest developments include a lawsuit and a Mozilla-led petition for privacy changes to the app …
From what we know so far, it is data-mining political consultancy Cambridge Analytica which was responsible for the misuse of data, and Facebook inadvertently permitted it rather than being actively involved. Cambridge Analytica – either directly or via a Cambridge professor – took paid ads on Facebook, presented users with what was claimed to be a personality quiz and then used the data gathered to help Trump’s election campaign.