Why the Data Breaching from Facebook is such a Big Issue!

Before proceeding, do you know what is meant by data?

Data, in computer terminology is any sequence of one or more symbols, given meaning by specific acts or interpretation. This 'data' requires interpretation to become information.

Let me elaborate all of it in a simple language. We all have been using social media for a long time. Facebook, being the most popular of them. We spend most of our time online in our virtual life than in our real one. We also take extra care to edit and furnish those profiles to make it look attractive. We upload photos and videos relating to various life events and wait for the innumerable reactions and comments from our friends. We comment on various posts to give our personal opinions regarding politics, society and various other issues too. And as many of you would know, these activities are stored in these platforms as data.

Now the problem arises when you use some third party apps in or through these platforms. Knowingly or unknowingly you give permission to these apps to use these data, which could be used by different agencies for various purposes. In the recent data breaching event, a political consultancy by the name of 'Cambridge Analytica' collected the data through a 'Personality Quiz' app in Facebook and used it to influence the elections in American recently and also in some African countries earlier, according to the whistleblower. This is quite shocking!

Go to settings in Facebook and click on the 'Apps' tab on the left hand side. Click on any app you use through Facebook. You can clearly see the 'info' you provide to the app. In the 'Public Profile' section, look at the 'other public info' part, which can be your friends list and followers.

How does this actually work?

Let me give you an example. Suppose you are an active Facebook user. You effectively voice your opinion against the violent atrocities carried out by some radical Hindutva groups. As your activities are being timely monitored, your news feed will be filled with posts relating to your political taste. You will be diverted to sites and news portals via sponsored ads and posts, which will further lay emphasis on your opinions. This data becomes extremely vulnerable if any party consultancy gets their hand on it. On one hand, algorithms will predict your political sensitiveness according to the psychographics shown from the data. On the other, political campaigns of the party, for which the consultancy works, will specifically target those issues that can swing your choice to vote for them in the elections. This is just an example.

This means that the outcome of an election wasn't decided by the general public but might have been shaped into it by a certain private company. As an Indian, the concerning thing here is that the Indian arm of 'Cambridge Analytica', Ovleno Business Intelligence had this on their homepage before the site was taken down.

The misuse of data doesn't just stop with Facebook. The ever famous 'NaMo' app has a surprise for you too. The data collected from that app were apparently sold to a firm in the USA. Congress supporters needn't jump in bewilderment. An app by the name of 'With INC' was removed from Google PlayStore when the Congress were accused of sending the data collected from that app to firms in Singapore. This is the justification they gave for the app's removal. Hilarious! (Source)

Data collection isn't new. When you visit any site and log into it using your email id, gmail account or even your Facebook account, you're directly giving your personal details to that site. While you are being logged in, any activity elsewhere on the web is being tracked. Don't believe me? Well, while still logged into Facebook, try to browse items in an e-commerce site like Flipkart, Amazon or eBay in a new tab. When you return to Facebook, your news feed will be flooded with ads of those specific items and related to it which you have just browsed. From one point of view, this has many benefits. Like for example, target audiences can be build to show only those specific ads which they are really interested in, instead of showing ads to a large mass blindly, without knowing their interests. But the drawbacks of this are immense. As the saying goes, 'With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility'. So, the next time you visit any site or use any app through Facebook or any other social platform, don't just click 'Allow' everywhere without knowing exactly what you are allowing the app to collect from your profile. 

Jai Hind!