Facebook Under Fire

Christopher Deason stumbled upon the psychological questionnaire on June 9, 2014. He was taking a lot of online surveys back then, and nothing about this one struck him as unusual. So at 6:37 that evening, Deason completed the first step of the survey: He granted access to his Facebook account.

Less than a second later, a Facebook app had harvested not only Deason’s profile data, but also data from the profiles of 205 of his Facebook friends. Their names, birth dates, location data, and lists of every Facebook page they had ever liked were downloaded.

The information was added to a huge database being compiled for a political data firm called Cambridge Analytica that later worked for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. None of the people whose data was collected knew it had happened.

“I don’t think I would have gone forward with it if I had,” says Deason, 27.

Christopher Deason stumbled upon the psychological questionnaire on June 9, 2014. He was taking a lot of online surveys back then. Nothing about this one struck him as unusual. So at 6:37 that evening, Deason completed the first step of the survey: He granted access to his Facebook account.

Less than a second later, a Facebook app had harvested Deason’s profile data. But it also collected data from the profiles of 205 of his Facebook friends. Their names, birth dates, location data, and lists of every Facebook page they had ever liked were downloaded.

The information was added to a huge database. That data was being compiled for a political data firm called Cambridge Analytica. The firm later worked for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. None of the people whose data was collected knew it had happened.

“I don’t think I would have gone forward with it if I had,” says Deason, 27.

Facebook has more than a billion users worldwide. As many as 87 million of its users may have had their personal information used without their knowledge by Cambridge Analytica. The revelations have prompted Facebook’s worst crisis since its founding in 2004. Users are angry and lawmakers are calling for action. The social media company has been scrambling to respond.

Facebook’s CEO is Mark Zuckerberg. He created the social network while he was a student at Harvard University. Zuckerberg spent two days last month testifying before Congress. It was an attempt to appease critics and accept responsibility.

“We have made a lot of mistakes in running the company,” Zuckerberg, 33, told senators. “I think it’s pretty much impossible, I believe, to start a company in your dorm room and then grow it to be at the scale that we’re at now without making some mistakes.”

But many lawmakers expressed skepticism about Facebook’s ability to police itself, and some have introduced bills designed to protect user privacy and regulate social media companies. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, called Facebook a “virtual monopoly” because there’s no equivalent service the public can turn to if it’s fed up with Facebook. Graham said that pointed to the need for federal regulation.

“There has to be a law,” agreed Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut. “Unless there’s a law, their business model is going to continue to maximize profit over privacy.”

But many lawmakers expressed skepticism about Facebook’s ability to police itself. Some have introduced bills designed to protect user privacy and regulate social media companies. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, called Facebook a “virtual monopoly.” In other words, there’s no equivalent service the public can turn to if it’s fed up with Facebook. Graham said that pointed to the need for federal regulation.

“There has to be a law,” agreed Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut. “Unless there’s a law, their business model is going to continue to maximize profit over privacy.”

This isn’t the first time Facebook has found itself in hot water. This scandal comes on the heels of the company’s role in Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Facebook was one of the top tools Russian hackers used to spread false news designed to help Trump win.

The story of the current scandal begins in 2014, when Aleksandr Kogan, a professor at Cambridge University in Britain, harvested information from millions of Facebook users. He did this by paying users, like Deason, to take a quiz and download an app that collected private information from their profiles and those of their Facebook friends, without their knowledge. Kogan then handed that data over to Cambridge Analytica. 

Cambridge Analytica used that data to build what it called “psychographic” profiles of people that would help predict not only who they would vote for, but also how they might be persuaded to change their minds. In 2016, Cambridge Analytica used the Facebook data in its work for the Trump campaign.

“The idea that my data could be used for purposes that I expressly don’t want, that freaks me out,” says longtime Facebook user Alexandra Kleeman of Staten Island, New York. 

This isn’t the first time Facebook has found itself in hot water. This scandal comes on the heels of the company’s role in Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Facebook was one of the top tools Russian hackers used to spread false news designed to help Trump win.

The story of the current scandal begins in 2014. It traces back to Aleksandr Kogan, a professor at Cambridge University in Britain. That year, he harvested information from millions of Facebook users. He did this by paying users, like Deason, to take a quiz and download an app. The app collected private information from their profiles and those of their Facebook friends without their knowledge. Kogan then handed that data over to Cambridge Analytica.

Cambridge Analytica used that data to build what it called “psychographic” profiles of people. The company designed these profiles to help predict who users would vote for and how they might be persuaded to change their minds. In 2016, Cambridge Analytica used the Facebook data in its work for the Trump campaign.

“The idea that my data could be used for purposes that I expressly don’t want, that freaks me out,” says longtime Facebook user Alexandra Kleeman of Staten Island, New York. 

Facebook is vowing to do a better job of protecting people’s information in the future. And Zuckerberg said the company has already started using artificial intelligence tools to detect and stop attempts to interfere in U.S. elections.

Many internet watchdog groups see this as a pivotal moment for social media companies. They say the government needs to step in and regulate how internet companies use our data in order to protect the public’s privacy.

“We most certainly have to take a different approach,” says Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, “if we don’t want it to happen again.”

Facebook is vowing to do a better job of protecting people’s information in the future. And Zuckerberg said the company has already started using artificial intelligence tools to detect and stop attempts to interfere in U.S. elections.

Many internet watchdog groups see this as a pivotal moment for social media companies. They say the government needs to step in and regulate how internet companies use our data in order to protect the public’s privacy.

“We most certainly have to take a different approach,” says Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, “if we don’t want it to happen again.”

With reporting by Natasha Singer, Gabriel J.X. Dance, and Matthew Rosenberg of The Times.

With reporting by Natasha Singer, Gabriel J.X. Dance, and Matthew Rosenberg of The Times.