I know that this is off topic in the transfer window, but I want to share this with as many people as possible. Just watched “The Great Hack” on Netflix and it scares me to death. It’s about how Cambridge Analytica used Facebook data to target voters without their knowledge to get Trump into the White House, also influence the Brexit Campaign. Bottom line: 1) You don’t own your data and data gatherers have thousands of data points on you. 2) Cambridge Analytica is gone but the technology lives on 3) While the technology is alive and you don’t own your data you and me can be manipulated to vote the way they want you to vote. 4) While the technology is alive and we don’t own our data our election system is not fit for purpose and there can be no such thing as a free and fair election. 5) It is not in the interest of those in power to do anything about the misuse of data, because it keeps them in power. 6) Anyone can use the data even foreign powers such as Russia, or Iran. 7) The film was made before Johnson’s surprise landslide victory penetrating the northern wall. Dominic Cummings knows all about it. All these things scare the s*** out of me, because it reduces us to the status of drones doing the bidding of a technological establishment. If you’ve not seen the movie and you don’t have Netflix it’s available on YouTube.
They target a group of people identified by their data as convertibles. If you're not one then you're right they couldn't. In the last US election it was won by 70,000 votes in three states. They don't need to change your vote.
"...your data is your data. It belongs to you..." I suspect the program you refer to was created in the US where they pay little attention to the concept of Data Protection. Whether you like it or not, our country as part of the EU, is embedding GDPR which aims to look after the data of everyone. Look at the ICO website to understand why your data matters link
Fekc me - men identifying as women, women identifying as men - people now identifying as cars with removable roofs. Where will it end! As long it's not a BMW convertible each to their own I guess.
No! One of its focus points was an American who thought what you think and pursued DA through the English courts with an English barrister to get to see his data and how it had been used. He didn’t get it and whilst eventually DA pleaded guilty to withholding his data they had already ceased trading by the time he got that plea. He still hasn’t received his data and has no expectation of doing so. Also in terms and conditions, which non of us ever read, because they are unfathomable to all but a legal mind, you give rights away. I would urge you to watch the film, it’s two hours that we all should all spend. We are all too complacent about the ownership of our data. Cambridge Analytica has nothing to do with Cambridge btw but they were a British company.
Court case happened year before GDPR came into force. But you are right it is a real minefield and even still it relies on companies being honest and working to the guidelines. Under the GDPR guidelines anyone is entitled to be given details of what details each company had on you. There’s currently no way of you knowing though if they have revealed everything.
One of the big influencers of the Brexit campaign was a large number of targeted advertisements aimed to get people to vote leave. There were around 20 of these released on the last day of campaigning and were very insidious - mixing up truth, half-truths and lies to put forward a convincing argument with zero time to be counted. At least one of the CA employees (who worked on an election in Kenya that was rerun) is a BxP MEP. People were targeted through surveys and competitions in the years previously to get access to their data and then use your interests to target your vote. So if you like animals/animal rights you were shown an advert of the EU killing polar bears, if you were worried about jobs, it showed immigrants taking them. Very effective for a small percentage of the population, but in the UK it only needs a small % to swing an election. The polls show a big swing to leave achieved in the last 24 hours of the referendum. The Tories used similar methods in the last election campaign. CA were also involved in a few other countries and at least one election has been rerun as a result.
Or indeed who holds any data on you. A data access request is a blunt tool if you don’t know who holds data and you can’t corroborate whether it’s complete.