Data Rights di Era Surveillance Capitalism: Skandal Data Cambridge Analytica & Facebook dalam Pemilihan Presiden Amerika Serikat 2016

Authors

  • Maya Bofa Universitas Padjadjaran
  • Darmawan Wawan Budi Universitas Padjajaran
  • Arifin Sudirman Universitas Padjajaran

Keywords:

data rights, surveillance capitalism, behavioral modifcation, microtargeting

Abstract

In 2018, several major British media outlets published the result of a joint investigation which revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting and data analysis firm, collected about 87 million personal data of Facebook users which was then used without the knowledge of the data owner. This study aims to understand analyze the abuse of data rights involving Cambridge Analytica and Facebook in the 2016 US presidential election. The research method used in this study is descriptive qualitative method. This study found that Cambridge Analytica used personal data of Facebook users for Donald Trump’s digital campaign in the 2016 US presidential election. The data include complete profiles such as name, gender, age, location, status updates, likes, friends, and even personal messages which are then translated into behavioral data. The data collected and analyzed by Cambridge Analytica then became the power in modifying behavior, especially voting behavior. Behavior modification by Cambridge Analytica was possible because the knowledge asymmetry in the use of data.

 

Pada 2018, beberapa media besar Inggris mempublikasikan hasil investigasi bersama yang mengungkap bahwa Cambridge Analytica, sebuah perusahaan konsultan politik dan analisis data, mengoleksi sekitar 87 juta data pribadi pengguna Facebook yang kemudian digunakann tanpa sepengetahuan pemilik data. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memahami dan menganalisis penyalahgunaan data rightsyang melibatkan Cambridge Analytica dan Facebook dalam pemilihan presiden Amerika Serikat 2016. Adapun metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah kualitatif deskriptif. Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa Cambridge Analytica menggunakan data pribadi pengguna Facebook untuk kepentingan kampanye digital Donald Trump pada pemilihan presiden Amerika Serikat 2016. Data yang diambil meliputi profil lengkap seperti nama, jenis kelamin, usia, lokasi, pembaruan status, likes, teman, bahkan pesan pribadi yang kemudian diterjemahkan menjadi behavioral data. Data yang dikumpulkan dan dianalisis oleh Cambridge Analytica kemudian menjadipower dalam behavioral modification, khususnya voting behavior. Modifikasi tingkah laku oleh Cambridge Analytica dapat dilakukan sebab adanya knowledge asymmetry dalam penggunaan data.

References

Atal, M. R. (2021). The Janus faces of Silicon Valley. Review of International Poitical Economy, 28(2), 336–350. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2020.1830830

Bachelet, M. (2019). Human rights in the digital age. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25158&LangID=E

Bakir, V. (2020). Psychological Operations in Digital Political Campaigns: Assessing Cambridge Analytica’s Psychographic Profiling and Targeting. Frontiers in Communication, 5(September), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00067

Bakir, V., & McStay, A. (2018). Fake News and The Economy of Emotions: Problems, causes, solutions. Digital Journalism, 6(2), 154–175. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2017.1345645

BBC. (2016). US Election 2016: All you need to know. Www.Bbc.Com. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35356941

Benchman, A. (2019). Data as Humans: Representation, Accountability, and Equality in Big Data. In Human Rights in the Age of Platforrms (pp. 75–94). The MIT Press.

Boldyreva, E. L., Grishina, N. Y., & Duisembina, Y. (2018). Cambridge Analytica: Ethics And Online Manipulation With Decision-Making Process. The European Proceedings of Social & Behavioural Sciences, 91–102. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2018.12.02.10

Cadwalladr, C., & Harrison, E. G. (2018). Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election

Cambridge Analytica. (2020). An Overview of Cambridge Analytica’s Political Division. https://archive.org/details/ca-docs-with-redactions-sept-23-2020-4pm/page/n12/mode/2up

CLC. (2020). CLC supplemental complaint re: Cambridge Analytica and Make America Number 1 (Vol. 1, Issue 1). https://campaignlegal.org/document/clc-supplemental-complaint-re-cambridge-analytica-and-make-america-number-1%0A

Federal Trade Commission. (2019). FTC Imposes $5 Billion Penalty and Sweeping New Privacy Restrictions on Facebook. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/07/ftc-imposes-5-billion-penalty-sweeping-new-privacy-restrictions%0A

Fuchs, C. (2019). Karl Marx in the Age of Big Data Capitalism. In Digital Objects, Digital Subjects: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Capitalism, Labour and Politics in the Age of Big Data (pp. 53–71). University of Westminster Press. https://doi.org/10.16997/book29.d

Goldhill, O. (2019). A “big data” firm sells Cambridge Analytica’s methods to global politicians, documents show. https://qz.com/1666776/data-firm-ideia-uses-cambridge-analytica-methods-to-target-voters/

Gordon, J. (2019). When Data Crimes are Real Crimes: Voter Surveillance and the Cambridge Analytica Conflict [Saskatchewan]. https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/bitstream/handle/1828/11075/Gordon_Jesse_MA_2019.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

H. Graessegger, M. K. (2017). The Data that Turned the World Upside Down. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ how-our-likes-helped-trump-win

Harris, T. L., & Wyndham, J. M. (2015). Data Rights and Responsibilities : A Human Rights Perspective on Data Sharing. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 10(3), 334–337. https://doi.org/10.1177/1556264615591558

Hilder, P. (2019). They were planning on stealing the election’: Explosive new tapes reveal Cambridge Analytica CEO’s boasts of voter suppression, manipulation, and bribery. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/they-were-planning-on-stealing-election-explosive-new-tapes-reveal-cambridg/

Hirschhorn, D. (2016). How Donald Trump Shocked The World. Time.Com. https://time.com/4563946/election-2016-donald-trump-victory-how/

Human Rights Council. (2014). The right to privacy in the digital age: Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session27/Documents/A.HRC.27.37_en.pdf

Human Rights Watch. (2021). Data Privacy is a Human Right. https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/04/19/data-privacy-human-right#:~:text=Human rights courts have also,proportionate to a legitimate goal

Humble, K. P. (2021). International law, surveillance and the protection of privacy. International Journal of Human Rights, 25(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2020.1763315

J. B. Merrill, W. O. (2021). Five points for anger, one for a ‘like’: How Facebook’s formula fostered rage and misinformation. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/26/facebook-angry-emoji-algorithm/

Lang, P. (2019). Data Rights Law 1.0: The Theoretical Basis (L. Yuming (ed.)). Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers.

Langworthy, S. (2019). Power Dynamics in an Era of Big Data. LSE Ideas. https://www.lse.ac.uk/ideas/Assets/Documents/updates/LSE-IDEAS-Power-Dynamics-in-an-Era-of-Big-Data.pdf

Laterza, V. (2021). Could Cambridge Analytica Have Delivered Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential Victory? An Anthropologist’s Look at Big Data and Political Campaigning. Public Anthropologist, 3(1), 119–147. https://doi.org/10.1163/25891715-03010007

Lathrop, A. (2019). Human Rights Horizon: Are data rights human rights? https://www.centeronhumanrightseducation.org/data-rights/

LeBaron, G., Mügge, D., Best, J., & Hay, C. (2020). Blind spots in IPE: marginalized perspectives and neglected trends in contemporary capitalism. Review of International Political Economy, 28(2), 283–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2020.1830835

LeCocq, S. (2018). Cambridge Analytica is more than a data breach - it’s human rights problem. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/cambridge-analytica-is-more-than-a-data-breach-its-a-human-rights-problem-96601%0A

Naughton, J. (2019). The goal is to automate us”: Welcome to the age of surveillance capitalism. Thh Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/20/shoshana-zuboff-age-ofsurveillance-capitalism-google-facebook

Netflix UK & Ireland. (2019). The Insane Cambridge Analytica Interference Revelations in The Great Hack. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omc-5zj70M0

OHCHR. (2021). Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy. https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/privacy/sr/pages/srprivacyindex.aspx

Osborne, H. (2018). What is Cambridge Analytica? The firm at the center of Facebook’s data breach. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/18/what-is-cambridge-analytica-firm-at-centre-of-facebook-data-breach

Posner, S. (2016). How Donald Trump’s New Campaign Chief Created an Online Haven for White Nationalists. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/stephen-bannon-donald-trump-alt-right-breitbart-news/

R. Eipstein, R. E. R. (2015). The Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME) and Its Possible Impact on the Outcomes of Elections. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, E4512– E4521.

S. C. Matz, M. Kosinski, G. Nave, D. J. S. (2017). Psychological targeting as an effective approach to digital mass persuasion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(48), 12714–12719. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1710966114

Shaw, T. (2018). The New Military-Industrial Complex of Big data Psy-Ops. https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/03/21/the-digital-military-industrial-complex/

UN. (2014). Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 18 December 2013 68/167.

UN Human Rights Committee. (1988). CCPR General Comment No. 16: Article 17 (Right to Privacy), The Right to Respect of Privacy, Family, Home and Correspondence, and Protection of Honour and Reputation. https://www.refworld.org/docid/453883f922.html

UNCTAD. (2021). Data Protection & Privacy Legislation Worldwide. https://unctad.org/page/data-protection-and-privacy-legislation-worldwide

UNHCHR. (2011). Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf

Ward, K. (2018). Social networks, the 2016 US presidential election, and Kantian ethics: applying the categorical imperative to Cambridge Analytica’s behavioral microtargeting. Journal of Media Ethics, 33(3), 133–148. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/23736992.2018.1477047

West, S. M. (2019). Data Capitalism: Redefining the Logics of Surveillance and Privacy. Business and Society, 58(1), 20–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650317718185

Westby, J. (2019). 'The Great Hack’: Cambridge Analytica is just the tip of the iceberg. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/07/the-great-hack-facebook-cambridge-analytica/

Whitehead, M. (2019). Book Review Whitehead on Zuboff. https://antipodeonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Book-review_Whitehead-on-Zuboff.pdf

Witt, J., & Pasternack, A. (2019). Before Trump, Cambridge Analytica’s parents built weapons for war. Www.Fastcompany.Com. https://www.fastcompany.com/90235437/before-trump-cambridge-analytica-parent-built-weapons-for-war

Wylie, C. (2019). Mindf*ck: Inside Cambridge Analytica’s Plot to Break the World. Profile Books.

York, J. C. & Zuckerman, E. (2019). Moderating the Public Sphere. In Human Rights in the Age of Platforrms (pp. 137–187). The MIT Press.

Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at The New Frontier of Power. Public Affair.

Downloads

Published

2022-11-27

Issue

Section

Articles