An Ethical Analysis Of Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica Data Mining Scandal

Overview of Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica Data Mining Scandal

Choose a recent news/media article that has been published within the last 3 months that concerns a business ethics issue/s and discuss about it.

In today’s competitive business world, corporations focus on gaining and maintaining a competitive advantage by whatever means necessary. Many organisations take illegal or unethical actions while performing their operations which resulted in negatively affecting their customers and the society. The importance of business ethics has grown substantially, and companies have to comply with these ethical principles to ensure that they make business decisions in the interest of their shareholders (Alton, 2017). In this essay, the data mining scandal of Facebook will be evaluated from an ethical perspective by analysing the news article posted by ABC. The title of the article is “Facebook says up to 87m people affected in Cambridge Analytica data-mining scandal” (ABC, 2018). It is given in the article that data of Facebook users were collected by Cambridge Analytica which is a Trump affiliated data mining company in an unethical way. The initial reports suggested that Aleksandra Kogan obtains around 50 million Facebook profiles by using a personality test application (ABC, 2018).

The information was leaked by Chris Wylie who provided that the data is used by the company to create software which influenced the people’s voting decision in the presidential elections of 2016 (ABC, 2018). It was revealed in the report data of over 87 million people were breached from which over 70 million individuals were from the United States and moved then 300,000 were Australia. After this incident, Facebook sent a link to all its users from which they can check the applications which they use, and they can delete the applications which they do not want to use (Matsakis, 2018). Furthermore, the company is restricting the applications which get information regarding users’ events and groups’ information such as content and members list. This essay will evaluate the arguments in the article and key ethical issues and concerns raised in the article will be discussed in the essay. This essay will evaluate the appropriateness of the ethical decisions which are made by aligning the decision with moral philosophies. Lastly, a conclusion will be drawn based on the ethical analysis.

The privacy of people is a key concern especially in case of online based company. In case of social media sites, people share their personal information and companies must carefully store such information and use it ethically. In the case of Facebook, the company collected a large number of personal details about its users without their explicit permission (Marston, 2018). The key issue which rose, in this case, is a breach of privacy of users based on which Facebook violated the principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The company misused the fact that people avoid reading terms and conditions while giving permission on their smartphone. They also failed to maintain the security of its users’ data which resulted in a breach of their privacy. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the company, was called to testify regarding the case in which many allegations were made on the company. The main concern with this scandal was that only 270,000 users downloaded the application which collected their private data however private data of over 87 million users were accessed (Carbone, 2018). This occurred due to one of the most controversial features of Facebook which is available for developers called “Friends Permission” which enables developers to collect personal data of users along with their friends.

Ethical Issues Raised in the Case

It shows that the CSR policies of the company are not focused towards protecting the privacy of its users. The company focuses on generating more profits by any means necessary rather than focusing on the interest of its stakeholders. It is misusing its monopoly position to violate the privacy of its users. After the incident, Facebook also shut down its search feature based on which users can search others by entering their email address or mobile number (Zuckerman, 2018). The company also unveiled a new privacy policy which provides that it collects users’ texts, phone calls and address book details if they choose to upload, sync or import their contents on the website. The corporation also provided that there are many local laws which prohibit the firm from using the sensitive data of public for various purposes and the data is subject to special protections. The data include information about political view, trade union members, health, political views, race or ethnicity. Moreover, subsidiaries of the company such as Whatsapp and Instagram also collect the data of users without their explicit consent (Leetaru, 2018).

The article made a good argument that even after the incident Facebook did not stop collecting the data of its users, instead, the company changes its privacy policies to be more open (ABC, 2018). Decisions of Facebook relating to the handling of its users’ data are unethical because they resulted in a breach of their privacy. Currently, there are no legal implications imposed on Facebook for this incident, however, the government is investigating the matter to identify the laws violated by the company. Thus, the corporation has breached its CSR policies by violating the privacy of its users. After finding about the incident, a committee has been established by the Congress to judge the actions of Facebook; however, the committee has not reached a decision yet. It is clear that Facebook has breached it CSR policies, however, its actions are just within the legal limits based on which no strict legal action can be taken against the company (Bauer, 2018). The government is required to implement new security policies for organisations which collect and harvest the data of their customers to protect the privacy of people.

Even after Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that the actions of Facebook are wrong still no legal actions can be taken against the company for stopping the collection of its users; data. Therefore, an ethical decision has not been made by the government and the company because it is still collecting the data of its users. A good example is the data breach was “the Craigslist experiment” incident in which a person, Jason Fortuny, posed as a woman on the website, and he posted an advertisement for seeking sex on the website. Within 24 hours, he received a response from over 178 people including their email addresses, names, telephone numbers, photos and others (Schofield, 2006). Fortuny posted these responses on a website which received huge media coverage, and it shows how easy it is to breach users’ privacy through Craigslist. However, still, no legal action was taken against the company for maintaining appropriate policies to protect the privacy of its users. Another good example is a leak of search keywords of AOL in which over 650,000 users’ personal information was leaked making it possible to identify the person who has searched on the website (Barbaro and Zeller, 2006).

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Facebook Case

Ethical problems in the case

The main ethical problem raised in the case is related to breach of data privacy of users because Facebook has been collecting the private data of its users without their explicit permission. Another key issue is that due to lack of security guidelines third-party developers collected and harvested the data of Facebook users along with their friends.

Relevant information

The initial report posted by the company provided that data of over 50 million people are breached; whereas, it was later revealed that privacy of more than 87 million people is breached. The company provides permission to its developers called ‘friend permission’ based on which they can collect the data of users along with their friends. The company did not provide full disclosure to its users regarding the permission which company has to collect their private data (Newton, 2018).

Evaluation of the information

Due to lack of effective CSR policies, the corporation failed to implement appropriate policies to protect the privacy of its users. The quiz application which collected the data of users was downloaded by only 270,000 users; however, due to ‘friend permission’ feature the company was able to collect the data of 87 million users (Nakashima and Jesdanun, 2018).

Act or implement

Even after the incident, Facebook did not stop collecting its users’ data. The company changed its privacy policies by making the process more transparent however no effective step is taken by the enterprise to stop the data collection of its users.

Best solution

In this case, the corporation should take the initiative and implement a strict CSR structure to protect the privacy of its users. It should avoid collection of private data of its users without their explicit permission. The company should notify its users regarding the data it is collecting from them, and they should have full control over granting of such data.

Alternative solutions

The government can take strict actions against Facebook to ensure that it is not violating the privacy of its users. The government can also prohibit developers from collecting the private data of users who did not give explicit permission to access their data.

Review of actions based on the appropriate ethical theory

The principles of Deontology ethical theory applies in this case. This theory judges a situation’s morality based on the rightness or wrongness of the actions taken by the parties. In this case, Facebook misused its position to collect the private data of its users without getting their explicit permission. As per CSR principles, a corporation has a duty to ensure that it protects the privacy of its stakeholders and it should not misuse their data for personal gain. Furthermore, the corporation allowed its developers to collect the data of its users along with their friends without their knowledge. As per the Deontology ethics theory, the actions of Facebook are wrong, and the company has breached its duty by violating the privacy of its users. The corporation did not comply with its CSR policies, and it did not take appropriate measures to protect the privacy of its users. Therefore, the actions of Facebook are unethical as per the principle of deontology ethics theory.

The Principles of Deontology Ethics Theory and its Application in the Facebook Case

Conclusion

In conclusion, Facebook failed to implement effective CSR policies to protect the privacy of its users which resulted in a breach of privacy of over 87 million users. The data of these users are collected by Cambridge Analytica which is a Trump affiliate data mining firm. The person who leaked the information provided that the data is used by the company to influence the voting decision of people. This incident shows the failure of Facebook to protect the privacy of its users. Due to features available for application developers such as ‘friend permission’, companies are able to collect information about people along with their friends. No legal action has been taken against the company, and the decision of Facebook to be more open about their data collection process is not ethical. By using a decision-making process, the best decision for this case is that the company should not collect the private data of its users and it should notify them regarding the data which the company is collecting, and they should have control over the same. The actions of Facebook are unethical as per the principles of deontology ethics theory, and the company is required to change its CSR policies to focus on protecting the privacy of its users.

References

ABC. (2018) Facebook says up to 87m people affected in Cambridge Analytica data-mining scandal. [Online] ABC. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-05/facebook-raises-cambridge-analytica-estimates/9620652 [Accessed on 3^rd June 2018].

Alton, L. (2017) How Much Do A Company’s Ethics Matter In The Modern Professional Climate?. [Online] Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/larryalton/2017/09/12/how-much-do-a-companys-ethics-matter-in-the-modern-professional-climate/#1b3caa1b1c79 [Accessed on 3^rd June 2018].

Barbaro, M. and Zeller, T. (2006) A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749. [Online] The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09aol.html [Accessed on 3^rd June 2018].

Bauer, S. (2018) Facebook data sweep raises legal and ethical issues. [Online] The Laywers Daily. Available at: https://www.thelawyersdaily.ca/articles/6259/facebook-data-sweep-raises-legal-and-ethical-issues [Accessed on 3^rd June 2018].

Carbone, C. (2018) Facebook data scandal: Academics refused to carry out ‘unethical’ Cambridge Analytica research. [Online] Fox News. Available at: https://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/03/26/facebook-data-scandal-academics-refused-to-carry-out-unethical-cambridge-analytica-research.html [Accessed on 3^rd June 2018].

Leetaru, K. (2018) The Problem Isn’t Cambridge Analytica: It’s Facebook. [Online] Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2018/03/19/the-problem-isnt-cambridge-analytica-its-facebook/#7d2f9ed458a5 [Accessed on 3^rd June 2018].

Marston, A. (2018) What leaders can learn from Facebook’s data debacle. [Online] CNN. Available at: https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/02/news/companies/facebook-leadership-opinion/index.html [Accessed on 3^rd June 2018].

Matsakis, L. (2018) What to look for in Your Facebook Data—And How to find it. [Online] Wired. Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/download-facebook-data-how-to-read/ [Accessed on 3^rd June 2018].

Nakashima, R. and Jesdanun, A. (2018) Cambridge Analytica: Facebook data breach scandal is only the latest in a series of abuses. [Online] Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-cambridge-analytica-latest-data-breach-scandal-election-fixing-russia-fake-news-bots-a8262791.html [Accessed on 3^rd June 2018].

Newton, C. (2018) Mark Zuckerberg apologizes for the Cambridge Analytica scandal. [Online] The Verge. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/21/17150158/mark-zuckerberg-cnn-interview-cambridge-analytica [Accessed on 3^rd June 2018].

Schofield, J. (2006) Craigslist sex-bait leaves men exposed. [Online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2006/sep/09/craigslistsexb [Accessed on 3^rd June 2018].

Zuckerman, E. (2018) This Is So Much Bigger Than Facebook. [Online] The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/03/data-misuse-bigger-than-facebook/556310/ [Accessed on 3^rd June 2018].