THE GREAT HACK.docx
- 1. THE GREAT HACK Summative Essay Data protection itself isn’t a topic that naturally lends itself to glamorous thriller treatment, of course. No amount of slick editing can transform the close and careful scrutiny of political committees into seat-of-the-pants viewing for anyone not already intimately familiar with the intricacies being picked over. And yet it’s exactly such thoughtful attention to detail that democracy demands. Data privacy has become an increasingly huge issue offshore. Here in the Philippines, it rarely gets a few minutes’ worth of discussion. It’s understandable. The country has a lot of other things to worry about. Regardless, the pioneers and leaders in this country’s business sector must be one step ahead when it comes to this matter. Entrepreneurs have the responsibility to protect their customers against any future exploitation from malicious organizations and even from themselves. The Great Hack is a Netflix special documentary about the effect of unethical data mining during the United States’ 2016 presidential elections. It focused on the company Cambridge Analytica, a UK-based data analysis, brokerage, and mining service provider. Cambridge Analytica was investigated, and faced a class-action lawsuit together with Facebook. After the scandal erupted, Facebook suffered a major revenue loss and Cambridge Analytica filed for insolvency proceedings. There are two things entrepreneurs can learn from The Great Hack. One, make it a priority to keep your, your family, and your business’ information safe from data harvesting. Two, dealing with another person’s data, particularly your customers’, is serious business. he storyline encompasses one of the greatest challenges of this day and age and calls into question the power of big tech companies, as well as their lack of accountability in harmful data abuse cases. The business model of social media companies like Facebook, where access and services seem to be free at the point of use, is actually a cash cow leveraging on information about its users that can be commercialised to anyone willing to pay the right price. While judgements on the conduct of Cambridge Analytica’s CEO Alexander Nix and the ‘propaganda machine’ deployed by his team require further reflections, the documentary plainly shows the wide array of data that technology companies have access to, and the dearth of ethical
- 2. protocol around how they intend to use it. It confronts us with the uncomfortable realisation that we are constantly being watched, and that our own behaviour can be used to manipulate our decisions. The Cambridge Analytica scandal marked a turning point in the history of big tech: before the scandal, the big tech companies had an image of being cool, made by young people who enable connectivity and free information to billions. Since the revelations, however, this feeling of awe has started to dissipate, alongside a general realisation that the alleged free services provided by social media and technology companies actually come at a price. If, on the one hand, hyper-connectivity can bring us closer and provide fast and unpaid access to information, a quick flip of the coin shows us the other side, where users feel cheated and violated. The scandal prompted a wake-up call for users and authorities alike, raising questions over the kind of regulations needed in a time when data has become the most valuable asset on the planet. The real question arising from the scandal was about how much information people are giving away to social media and technology companies without their consent or even knowledge. Still, despite the important message it endeavours to get across, the documentary neither offers us real solutions towards finding justice, nor suggests any alternative with which to fight the big tech companies that have invaded every aspect of our lives. There is a clear urgency in recognising data rights, establishing boundaries between public and private, and clarifying terms and conditions for users so that, when using social media, they can be fully aware of the information they would be giving away. If nothing else, the Cambridge Analytica scandal has highlighted the need to set up an inclusive, comprehensive and global regulatory framework to regulate uses of data and establish stricter privacy rules. “Data protection is a structural problem. We don’t have effective ways to hold companies accountable and to enforce when they commit data crimes because we don’t even have a way to define, let alone prosecute, these data crimes. We can see that the existing tools we have are not succeeding at what they’re supposed to do,” said professor Carroll in an interview for Business Insider on the documentary and the aim of raising awareness about the blurred lines between privacy and use of social media. The reality is indeed worrying and the clock is ticking. The debate about data rights, privacy and accountability is long overdue. John Marshall, CEO of World Ethical Data Forum (WEDF), the only platform to embrace the full range of interrelated issues around the use and future of data, commented : “We’re fortunate
- 3. such excellent work has been done since the outcry over Facebook and Cambridge Analytica to bring the issues around data and privacy to public awareness. The civil liberties implications of the new data technologies are very serious, and rightly or wrongly Cambridge has come to symbolise a tendency we may have caught just in time. But these questions go deep. We need to explore the ethical and practical questions arising from the uses and control of information quite generally too. It’s very easy to overlook the fact that we’re still struggling with the ethical implications of even apparently very basic technology, such as the press, let alone what Zuboff calls ‘behavioural futures markets.’ How we decide these questions will define our epoch.” By addressing these concerns and encouraging the collaboration of apparently competing worlds, from technology and big business, government and security agencies, policy makers and the media, to human rights lawyers, whistleblowers, and privacy and transparency advocates, the World Ethical Data Forum offers a unique and crucial perspective for the future. Data will likely become more valuable than oil. As its valuation increases, its extraction will extend far beyond the personal accounts of social messaging platforms. Tech companies need to make proactive data security a top priority, especially as they try to expand into industries that also deal with sensitive information, like finance. It is hard to be sure, but if both businesses and consumers continue to use these platforms, they are voluntarily offering their personal data to be manipulated.