Zeeshan Ashraf
CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA SCANDAL
What Is Cambridge Analtyica?
CambridgeAnalytica (CA) is a British political consulting firm which combines data mining, data brokerage, and data analysis with strategic communication for the electoral process. It was started in 2013 as an offshoot of the SCL Group. The company is partly owned by the family of Robert Mercer, an American hedge-fund manager who supports many politically conservative causes. The firm maintains offices in London, New York City, and Washington, D.C.Data mining company, Cambridge Analytica (CA), was instrumental in supporting elections in the US as well as affecting the Brexit campaign in the UK. Similar news is coming from India where both BJP and Congress are blaming each other for using services of subsidiaries of CA to affect perceptions of voters. Data mining is the process of discovering patterns in large data sets involving methods at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and database systems. With the ‘Facebook Leaks’ hitting the headlines in western media and disclosures by a whistle blower, data mining and psychographics has reached a new level in Non Kinetic Warfare.
How all this started?
A researcher at the Cambridge University developed an app named "thisismydigitallife". This was a personality quiz, asking questions
about how outgoing a person is, how vengeful one can be, whether one finishes
projects, worries a lot, likes art, or is talkative. Kogan the founder of this
app was contracted to do it by a company called Cambridge Analytica. Because Kogan's app was circulated via Facebook, it reaped far more than
just the information on those who took the test. At the time, in 2015, such
apps could scrape up all the personal details of not only the quiz-takers but
all their Facebook friends. That ultimately became a horde of data on some 50
million Facebook users — their personal information, their likes, their places,
their pictures, and their networks. Kogan and CA using the Psychometric
profiling of US voters, created a wider vote bank for US
president. using the psychometric profiling CA breached the personal
information of users.
HOW THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR US?
This is really important for us to understand this massive disaster
related to data breach. As election are ahead in our country, there is news
that a famous Pakistani politician hired this company to manipulate the
results. by the method of psychometric profiling, this company will hit its
target through facebook. it will use the data of a user without its consent. So
it is very important for us to understand the game of our enemy. Like Americans
we should not be so lineated for this company to become their
target. We should read the terms and conditions of various online applications
before using them. Social media is becoming dominant in the next decade some
control measure and awareness campaigns are necessary. Pakistan also needs to develop a capability to own indigenous
Social Media platforms and use of Satellites, we may think of training a cabal of patriots to support Pakistan’s
cause. This is important to ward of threats from Indian and some hostile cyber
warriors, who can create chaos in times of crises.
xyand majid is now friends with Hassan Naeem.
Awais hameed is now friends with Hassan Naeem.
Hassan Bashir is now friends with Hassan Naeem.
Zeeshan Ashraf is now friends with Hassan Naeem.
sami-uz-zaman Abbasi is now friends with Hassan Naeem.