The Cambridge Analytica Con
Article

The Cambridge Analytica Con

How media coverage misses the mark on the Trump data scam

Yasha Levine
The Baffler, 2018
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Controversial
  • Analytical
  • Applicable

Recommendation

When a whistleblower outed Cambridge Analytica for the inappropriate use of Facebook profile information for the purpose of influencing US elections, people around the world were understandably outraged. But, as author Yasha Levine explains in his analysis of the situation for The Baffler, this was a symptom of much deeper privacy concerns that involve the biggest tech companies in the world. getAbstract recommends this sprawling article to anyone interested in learning the truth behind personal privacy in the era of big data.

Summary

When news broke that British election data firm Cambridge Analytica may have accessed millions of Facebook profiles and used that information to help shape the 2016 US presidential vote, pundits and consumers alike were predictably outraged. In an era of nearly daily massive data breaches and growing concerns around privacy in general, it is appropriate that media outlets shine a spotlight on companies that violate the public trust. In order to truly understand what happened with Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, that scrutiny...

About the Author

Yasha Levine is a former editor of The eXile, a Moscow newspaper, and is currently an investigative journalist for The Baffler and other websites.

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