Excuse me if I’m not up in arms like many about the latest Facebook data harvesting scandal. Check any media source and you’ll see that Cambridge Analytica, a U.K. based political data firm, harvested the data of approximately 50 million Facebook profiles using a personality app promoted on the social media site. Facebook users would take the personality survey via the downloaded app, which would then scrape their private information and the information of their Facebook friends. The data would then be used to identify political leanings and target ads to benefit CA clientele.
Those facts are not in dispute.
A slanted spin to the Cambridge Analytica story
What you’ll also find, however, with many of these media reports, is the added bit that the Trump campaign was affiliated with Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 Election. As if the campaign was somehow the instigator of the nefarious data acquisition tactics that are now so reprehensible. All that’s missing is menacing organ music and a sinister cackle to accompany the revelation.
What’s left unsaid is that a number of the 2016 Republican presidential candidates utilized the services of Cambridge Analytica during the primary season, as well.
And I’m sure a whole host of political candidates, running for a variety of elected positions, with enough excess campaign cash did the same.
You see, data gathering for political gain is nothing new.
It was honed and implemented to a tee in much the same way we’re seeing today by former-President Obama during his two presidential campaigns.
And guess what, rather than being met with outrage and indignation, the strategic data acquisition and usage by the Obama campaign was lauded as revolutionary and groundbreaking.
And to this day, Democratic campaign operatives are proud of what they were able to accomplish using data mined solely for political purposes. So much so that Carol Davidsen, then-President Obama’s director of integration and media analytics during the 2012 campaign couldn’t help but take to Twitter Sunday evening to gloat a bit.
The 2012 Obama campaign’s Facebook data mining efforts
According to an article Ms. Davidsen posted on her Twitter feed touting the campaign’s success using social media data, the campaign's Facebook app gave permission to look at the Facebook friend lists of the more than 1 million Obama backers who utilized the app.
An example of how we used that data to append to our email lists. pic.twitter.com/VHhSukvXDY
— Carol Davidsen (@cld276) March 19, 2018
Facebook was surprised we were able to suck out the whole social graph, but they didn’t stop us once they realized that was what we were doing.
— Carol Davidsen (@cld276) March 19, 2018
They came to office in the days following election recruiting & were very candid that they allowed us to do things they wouldn’t have allowed someone else to do because they were on our side.
— Carol Davidsen (@cld276) March 19, 2018
Of particular interest is Ms.
Davidsen's comment in the tweet above, "...they [Facebook] allowed us to do things they wouldn't have allowed someone else to do because they were on our side." Her comments are both interesting and telling. And, unfortunately, not surprising.
I'd have more respect for the media, and its reporting, if when it mentions the Trump campaign in connection to the Cambridge Analytica stor.y it also adds the phrase, "and the 2012 Obama campaign successfully used these types of tactics to win President Obama his second term."
But, that's asking too much, especially of those who have an ax to grind and some payback to get.So, at least for the foreseeable future, Hypocrisy will remain the name of the game.
