"Nothing is Private": one-click manipulations

Cambridge Analytica has been at the origin of one of the biggest political scandals in recent years / Netflix

By FERNANDO CORADAZZI

[email protected]

In May 2018, the British communications company Cambridge Analytica / SCL filed for bankruptcy after one of the biggest political scandals of the recent time: millions of Facebook profiles were delivered to this company for use in Electoral manipulation campaigns of social networks.

The case is presented in the documentary "Nothing is Private", directed by Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim (Startup.com and Control Room) via the Netflix platform.

In almost two hours, filmmakers have realized that the entertaining and seemingly innocuous world of clicking on Facebook or responding to a personality test can guide the psychological profile of the user on which Cambridge Analytica scientists have developed formulas to influence voters.

The two most famous cases are those of the election of Donald Trump in the United States and the "Leave EU" campaign on the departure of Britain from the European Union, the Brexit, both occurred in 2016. US judicial investigations British and North American parliamentary committees suggested that the same modus operandi was used in countries of Asia, Africa and South America.

Channel 4 UK conducted an investigation in which it demonstrated the illegal methods used by Cambridge Analytica. In this report, he stressed that the company had participated in "more than 200 elections, including Nigeria, Kenya, the Czech Republic, India and Argentina".

In addition, the Cambridge Analytica scandal caused Facebook to lose $ 37 billion and its owner, Mark Zuckerberg, had to testify twice before a US parliamentary committee. The US government also fined him $ 5 billion for using millions of user data without their permission.

British journalist Carole Cadwalladr (The Guardian, The Observer) appears in the film. It's she who started shooting the ball by interviewing former employees of the company. For example, the Canadian Cristopher Wylie and the American Brittany Kaiser appear in the documentary, a great resemblance to Janis Joplin for his physical appearance and sober attitude, who, before going to the dark side, collaborated in the campaign of Barack Obama .

The case also touched Argentina and, more specifically, the campaign for change in 2015. Alexander Nix, president of Cambridge Analytica, was convened before the Committee on Digital Issues, Culture, Media and sports, for its link to the Brexit campaign. But, in addition to reacting to this campaign, Nix was consulted for the completion of the work in Argentina. "Yes, we work in Argentina," Nix answered. The documentary includes an image of President Mauricio Macri, whose government has denied the information.

A character that highlights this film is that of the American professor David Carroll, who in 2017 filed a lawsuit in Britain to recover his personal data, taken without his consent by Cambridge Analytica. Despite a favorable decision from the UK justice, he was not able to recover the data. And he asks: "How is it that the dream of a connected world ends up separating us?"

Michael Kosinski, a psychologist and data expert at Stanford University, showed that the automated badysis of "likes" broadcast on Facebook allowed one to determine the emotional information and basic political convictions of These persons.

Like me, can guide the psychological profile of the user and influence the voters

For this reason, Damian Collins, the UK legislator who chaired research at Cambridge Analytica and Brexit in that country, proposes that governments legislatively stop the illegal transfer of personal data.

Nothing is private sends an annoying message: does this manipulation of personal data by technology companies endanger individual freedom and democracy? It supports it with data: in 2016, Cambridge Analytica had 5,000 personal data on each of the millions of people stored in its archives and, in a few years, the companies that would replace it would have 10,000 data each.

And all this for a click on our PC or our mobile phone.