So, we are all aware of this fact that Facebook somehow managed to "mistakenly" leak the data of 50 million user profiles to a political firm, which was then used to create more effective election campaigns for the Trump and the Pro-Brexit group. Even facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also admitted that they made a mistake.
Here’s a look at all the key events till now.
2013 : Quiz app - ‘ThisisyourDigitalLife’ was created
A Cambridge University professor Aleksandr Kogan created a personality quiz app called ‘ThisisyourDigitalLife’ in the year 2013. The app was used by over 300,000 users on Facebook and Kogan also managed to access the profile data of other Facebook users, who were friends of those who had used the app. This resulted in Kogan getting data of millions of users.
That damn app! This is where it all started.
2014: Facebook changed permission rules for data sharing
Facebook changed the rules to say that a developer could not access a user’s friends’ data unless the friend also gave permission for the same. But guess what, Kogan had already acquired the data from his app.
So, Facebook realised...huh!
Late 2015: Guardian published a news article on user data being used Cambridge Analytica
In december 2015, Guardian reported that the firm Cambridge Analytica was helping Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign in the US with the user profiles obtained from Facebook via the app. Facebook said when they learned about the data leaks they had banned Kogan’s app and asked both Cambridge Analytica and Kogan to delete all the data that was improperly acquired. Facebook even claimed the parties certified that the data had been deleted.
If it was deleted, then what the hell is all this fuss about?!
March 2018: The Observer and New York Times published story on Cambridge Analytica-Facebook data leaks
On March 17 and March 18, 2018, New York Times and Observer in the UK reported how 50 million profiles of users were harvested to help Trump’s Presidential campaign and Pro-Brexit. Former Director of Research at Cambridge Analytica, Christopher Wylie revealed how data of over 50 million users was gained from the app that Kogan had designed back in 2013.
Wylie revealed that the company successfully ‘exploited Facebook’ to target and mislead users. Facebook then announced it was suspending Cambridge Analytica from their platform along with its parent group Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL) over the data leaks.
Hmm....Kogan seems not have integrity.(well that's just my opinion, what's yours?)
March 20, 2018: UK Parliamentary Committee wants Zuckerberg to testify
On March 20, it was reported that UK’s parliamentary committee on Digital, Culture, Media and Sports asked Mark Zuckerberg to testify before them. The Committee said it was not satisfied with the answers given by Facebook officials and a ‘senior Facebook executive’ needed to testify.
Time to answer Zuckerberg!
March 21, 2018: Mark Zuckerberg pens long note, promises fix
On March 21, Mark Zuckerberg finally broke his silence on the Cambridge Analytica stories and said that the company had made a mistake. He announced a series of steps to fix the problem, including audit of all apps which had access to large amounts of users information. In an interview with CNN, he also agreed to testify in front of the US Congress.
Well, we want to believe you Zuckerberg, but you have let us down a big time. It's hard!
March 23, 2018: US House Committee wants Zuckerberg to testify
According to Associated Press, the leaders of a key US House committee said they want CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify before the panel. The statement said that the
“latest revelations regarding Facebook’s use and security of user data raise many serious consumer protection concerns.”
It just got difficult for you Zuckerberg. Good luck dealing with US govt. buddy!
A most highlighting event came to existence when multi-billionaire Entrepreneur Elon Musk deleted SpaceX's facebook page. This is not it, many others joined him marking the beginning of #DeleteFacebook campaign.
I really hope Facebook soon recovers from this hit and serve us well in upcoming years. Cheers to Facebook!
Hey 