Explainer · case A02 · 60 seconds
01 / 08 · Setup
YOU THOUGHT A LIKE WAS JUST A LIKE.
2013
02 / 08 · Scale
87,000,000
Facebook profiles harvested
300,000 people installed the app. The rest — their friends.
03 / 08 · Reveal
THIS IS YOUR DIGITAL LIFE
a quiz app. author: Aleksandr Kogan, Cambridge
04 / 08 · Mechanism
psychometric quiz → friends' data
App
thisisyourdigitallife
Cambridge Analytica
OCEAN profiling
Openness · Conscientiousness · Extraversion · Agreeableness · Neuroticism
05 / 08 · Use
TRUMP CAMPAIGN. BREXIT.
87M
profiles
5.8B
ad impressions
$1M
monthly to Cambridge
06 / 08 · Discovery
MARCH 2018
Christopher Wylie
Whistleblower · CA
Carole Cadwalladr
Observer · Guardian
NYT
+ The Observer
Wylie's book "Mindf*ck" (2019)
07 / 08 · Penalty
$5,000,000,000
FTC fine against Facebook (2019) — record
+ $725M class action · $100M SEC · $1.4B Texas AG · $8B shareholder suit
08 / 08
CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA
The first case that convinced the world data is a political weapon. Facebook paid a record fine. Cambridge Analytica collapsed.
Case A02 in Big Tech Files.