Data Privacy and Human Rights: Unpacking Ethical Scandals

Data Privacy and Human Rights: Ethical Scandals and What Prices are We Paying? Brittany A. Kibble Columbia Southern University BUS 2303: Professionalism in the Workplace Tim Born 9 January 2024

DATA PRIVACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS 2 In what seemed to take the world by shock just a few years ago, and at the forefront of it all was Facebook, and Mark Zuckerberg, with Cambridge Analytica in the background. This scandal made all of us question: What is our personal data worth to us? What type of information are we just giving away to corporations, and how are they using, or are they using it against us? Today, the price of data is worth more than oil. It is easier than ever to target consumers to buy products, feeding them advertisements perfectly suited to their personalities. This also brings the question of privacy; should consumer data be protected from any type of manipulation being used against its own users? None of these questions or concerns were issues or thoughts anyone would have considered twenty years ago, but today, it is a growing concern. Although many people never read the privacy statements on applications or websites we visit or download, that should not mean companies can do whatever they want with people's information. Facebook allowed Cambridge Analytica to take data from its users to force-feed some of these 87 million users targeted advertisements based on political affiliation. Consumers who were referred to as “persuadable,” meaning they could lean in one direction or another for a presidential campaign, specifically the 2016 Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton campaign, were shown advertisements to persuade their votes in favor of Donald Trump. Who someone votes for is not an ethical issue; it is in the sense of how the data being provided to them, unknowingly by the party and being used for the gain of someone else, in a psychological sense. It also did not just stop with Americans and the 2016 election; it carried over to Brexit, and several other countries' campaigns. Technology could be what led to this, with the growth and the adoption of it all, as quickly as everyone did. The lack of education that people are not realizing what information they are putting out on the internet and who can access it. We could blame the consumer for this, but the large corporations are mainly to blame, and greed. These large data

DATA PRIVACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS 3 mining corporations know exactly what data people put out there, how to gain people's attention and use the data to gain outcomes corporations or political parties, in this case, are looking for. In the documentary “The Great Hack,” they explain this in a sense of psychological warfare. Neither organization, Facebook, today commonly known as Meta, nor Cambridge Analytica ever admitted to any wrongdoing. Even though Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has agreed to a $725 million private class action settlement, rather than facing a public trial, which could have cost the company a lot more in damages. In the years since Meta has constantly reformed their privacy policies for users while continuing to claim their users' privacy is always at the forefront. Although Meta is paying fines and class action settlements over the misuse of consumer data, Cambridge Analytica has ceased to exist. In 2018 the Federal Trade Commission found that Cambridge Analytica utilized deceptive tactics to gain personal data and engage with voters in the United States. Shortly after these FTA findings, Cambridge Analytica filed for bankruptcy, while never responding to the allegations. While reading the articles that discussed this scandal and watching the documentary, I had a constant thought of my personal data being manipulated and used against me not only for political gain but for consumerism and countless other things is frightening. This brings the question of morals and ethics; where is the line, and is it different for corporations? Ethics and morals are utilized interchangeably and tend to be more fluid for corporations as long as they fit their narrative and do not interfere with profits. Companies, no matter how large, all have a code of conduct or a set of ethics they stand by, but at what cost? It seems that the lines of personal ethics and professional ethics lines become blurred, with corporate greed, whether climbing the corporate ladder, hoping for a bigger bonus, or even winning political campaigns. Even though

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DATA PRIVACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS 4 there was government interference in the end, it cost tens of millions of users unknowingly their privacy, something that I do hold extremely high on the moral scale. Though morals tend to be more personally based and influenced by cultural norms, are professional and corporate ethics not the same? Ethics that are usually outlined by the founder of a company and turned into a “code” the company lives by? Though some may see them as different, the similarities are there and tend to overlap more than not. I personally would have never thought my data that I openly gave a social media platform since I was 17 could have used information against me. I would have never thought that it would read personal text messages and access other things on my cellphone and sell them to another corporation. We live in a new age where nothing is safe any longer. The more applications you have on your phone, the more exposed you could possibly be, and that leaves me personally feeling vulnerable. It is safe to say that years ago when I was told whatever you do on the internet will live there forever and can be found by anyone was not a far stretch from reality. It leaves the question; how much is your personal data worth to you, and should the privacy of data be considered a human right in 2023?

DATA PRIVACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS 5 References CBS News. (2019). “The Great Hack”: new Netflix documentary examines Cambridge Analytica scandal. In Dailymotion . https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7fd6rz Facebook owner Meta to pay $725m to settle Cambridge Analytica lawsuit; Legal battle follows revelations that Facebook had shared data of up to 87m people. (2022, December 23). Telegraph Online , NA. https://linkgalecom.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu /apps/doc/A731036724/TOF?u=oran95108&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6a424924 Facebook scandal affected more users than thought: up to 87M. (2018, April 4). New Orleans CityBusiness . https://linkgalecom.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/apps/doc/ A533984025/ITOF?u=oran95108&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7b568728

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