The document provides information on Mark Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook. It details how Zuckerberg created "Facemash" in 2003 which objectified Harvard students and got him in disciplinary trouble. It then summarizes the founding of Facebook in 2004, its mission/vision, key people, and a timeline of events including data breaches and actions taken in response.
2. • Mark Zuckerberg created an online programme called “Facemash” in 2003
• Allowed users to objectify fellow students by comparing photos of their faces and selecting who they
deemed as “hotter”.
• Ranked Harvard students by attractiveness.
• Disciplinary action taken against Mark !!
• Charged with breaching security, violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy.
HarvardConnections.com
Background:
3. Founded: February 4, 2004
HQ: Menlo Park, California, United States
Employees: 39,651 as of June 30, 2019
Key People:
• Mark Zuckerberg (Chairman & CEO)
• Sheryl Sandberg (COO)
• David Wehner (CFO)
• Mike Schroepfer (CTO)
Mission: give people the power to build community and
bring the world closer together.
Vision: “People use Facebook to stay connected with
friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the
world, and to share and express what matters to them.
About:
4. April 21, 2010
Facebook launches Open
graph to 3rd party apps.2013-”this is your digital life”
The app prompted users to
answer questions for a
psychological profile.
2014-Rule changes
In 2014, Facebook adapted its
rules to limit a developer’s
access to user data.
December 11,2015 - Ted Cruz
In late 2015, The Guardian
reported that Cambridge
Analytica was helping Ted
Cruz’s presidential campaign. 2016-Donald Trump
Trump’s campaign team began
investing heavily in Facebook
ads, Also responsible for
“Defeat Crooked Hilary”
campaign
Nov 10,2016- Fake news
problem
Facebook criticized for how it
handled false and misleading
news stories and propaganda in
the run-up to the election. April 27, 2017- Facebook confirms
election interference
It confirmed that groups had
attempted to use its social network
to sway the outcome of the 2016
election.
March 17,2018-Expose
87 million Facebook profiles
were harvested for Cambridge
Analytica in a major data
scandal.
March 20, 2018 – FTC
launched enquiry
The Federal Trade Commission
opens a investigation
April 10, 2018 – Zuckerberg
Testifies
As a result of the scandal
Zuckerberg was summoned to
testify before US lawmakers
Sequence of Events:
5. • Informed those possibly affected by Cambridge Analytica
• Put app settings in one place
• Restricted apps’ access to data
• Cut off data access for inactive apps
• Ended “Partner Categories” types of targeted advertising
• Disclose information on advertisers
Action taken by Cambridge Analytica:
• Fired CEO Alexander Nix after sting operation came out by Channel 4
Actions taken by Facebook
7. Analysis: Ethics & Technology
• Privacy – What is the nature of the data?
• If the information were known to the public, what would be the net effect on the individual?
• Who should have access to this information?
• Ownership-“Who has the legal ownership of the information?”
• Identifying the legitimate owner resolves the ambiguity of who is the ultimate decision maker
pertaining to the information.
• Privacy perspective- The individual has ownership of his or her own personal information
• Control - Ability to track the movements, actions, and communications of an individual.
• Security - Data collected by the firm should be protected diligently to avoid negative impacts on
stakeholders based on the content of the information.
8. Facebook defends itself in Cambridge Analytica consumer
class-action case, says there was no ‘emotional distress’
• Consumer lawsuit is baseless as breach didn’t harm anyone.
• It’s not enough for users to complain their privacy was violated or
their information was shared. There’s got to be “an actual or
imminent real-world injury,”
• Facebook maintained — “no actionable identity theft, emotional
distress, or economic injury.”
• Without real harm, the users didn’t have a legal leg to stand on…
-Distortion of consequences
9. Excerpt from Interview of Cambridge Analytica Whistle-blower Christopher Wylie
TIME Magazine:
You left Cambridge Analytica in 2014, well before the systems you helped
design were used in the Trump campaign.
Why did you take so long to realize what you were doing was unethical?
Wylie:
In the beginning, you’re just building databases. It feels very mundane. You’re
asking people lots of questions, you’re playing with models, it doesn’t feel like
you’re going to hurt anyone.
In some ways I distanced myself from the reality that these are people.
-Dehumanization
10. • Facebook profits partly by amplifying lies and selling dangerous targeting tools that benefits political
operatives.
• Its business model exploits our data to let advertisers aim at us, showing each of us a different version
of the truth and manipulating us with hyper-customized ads.
• As long as Facebook prioritizes profit over healthy discourse, it can’t avoid damaging democracy.
11. Unclear response
Facebook has detailed profiles on people who have never signed up
for Facebook.
You know how many points of data that Facebook has on the
average non-Facebook-user," Lujan asked.
• Facebook does collect data on non-users for security purposes but was
not sure whether these are referred to as shadow profiles
• Could not answer how many data points Facebook has on its users and
non-users.
How long before Facebook removes data from former users ?
• Zuckerberg was not sure how long the data remains on Facebook after a
user has deleted his or her account.
Why was there Delayed response in Cambridge Analytica case ?
• Admitted that Facebook came to know about the Cambridge Analytica
scandal from a report by The Guardian in 2015.
• No details were divulged as to why the users were not notified about the
data breach, or why Federal Trade Commission was not contacted right
away.
• Failed to identify the firm who got user data from Cambridge Analytica.
12. Evaluating Actions
• Am I comfortable with the likely consequences of this action ?
Zuckerberg on Cambridge Analytica:
‘We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you’
• Facebook gave developer access to its data.
• Didn’t analyze consequences of this action at that point of time.
• Failed to predict future consequences.
• Am I meeting my duties and respecting others rights ?
• Principle of Dignity: Invasion of privacy
• Principle of Transparency: Material misleading non-disclosures
• Principle of reliability: Breach of contract
• Am I meeting my commitments and my company’s commitments ?
“I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I’m responsible for what happens on our platform. I’m serious about
doing what it takes to protect our community.”
13. Conclusion:
• Our identities are the most valuable thing we own. They are a form of wealth: identity capital. We should
expect our identities to be protected from embezzlement and exploitation.
• Identities have been abused by companies to sell products, to manipulate social media in shaping
elections, and governments that seek omnipotent powers.
• While certain merits can be argued for collecting user data, an equivalent responsibility remains to regulate
and secure any stored personal data.
• We have all been victims of privacy invasion.
• The right to privacy in the digital age demands a united, multinational alliance that will ensure all individuals
in the world share an inalienable right to protect their identities.
“As individual we can limit the flood of data leaking all over the place,
but there is no way to go off the grid”
-David Carroll
Associate Professor
Parsons School of Design
In December 2002, more than a year before Facebook came into existence, Divya Narendra had thought of a "social network to connect fellow Harvard students." He discussed this idea with his friends Cameron and Tyler, who saw potential in it and came on board immediately. They decided to call it Harvard Connection (now ConnectU). Divya Narendra then approached his friend and Harvard senior Sanjay Mavinkurve, who became the first person to write a program for the social network. But Sanjay soon graduated, got a job with Google and couldn't complete the project. Weeks went by. Divya Narendra and the Winklevoss brothers approached another friend Victor Gao, who in turn suggested going to a young lad named Mark Zuckerberg, who had recently finished first year.
The launch of open launch allowed external developers to access large chunk of user’s data, and unfortunately to access Facebook friend’s data too.
It is thought that almost 300000 users have given psychological test with ”Thisisyourdigitallife” allowing the app to harvest their personal data of the users and their friends as well.
The rule change in 2014 made to ensure that a third party was not able to access a user or user’s friends’ data without getting permission first. However this rule was not retroactively imposed.
In the late 2015 report from The Guardian suggested that Republican candidate Ted Cruz was using psychological data by harvesting personal user data of million of Facebook users in order to gain advantage over his political rival including Donald Trump.
In an explosive expose, Christopher Wylie, co-founder of the data analytics firm revealed that around data of 87 million Facebook users were sold to Cambridge Analytica and it was then used to create psychographic profile of them in order to deliver pro-Trump material to them. Cambridge Analytica was also responsible for “Defeat Crooked Hilary” campaign on Facebook.
On March 25, 2018 Mark Zuckerberg apologises for breach of trust. On April 10 2018, Zuckerberg was summoned to testify before lawmakers.
New policy restricts the information one need to share with apps. Apps will be allowed only access to name, profile photo and email address.
If we have not used an app for past three months or say it is dormant or inactive then Facebook will remove developers’ access to data.
Facebook had discontinued the Partner Categories program which allowed advertisers to partner with offline partners and further refine their ad targeting based on offline demographic and behavioural information.
Facebook will authorize advertisers once they disclose their location and identity. Technically, if we need to do advertising first of all we need to submit the ad to Facebook and then they authorize it. So, they check the content of the ad as well as location and identity of advertisers and then only approve it after required checks have been done on ad.
IT capabilities are defined (access, capture, speed, permanence/storage. duplication, tracking, monitoring, data recombination) and mapped against managerial issues they can trigger (privacy, ownership, control,Security)
Privacy – What is the nature of the data? If the information were known to the public, what would be the net effect on the individual? Who should have access to this information? Who is responsible for screening potential users to ensure they have a valid reason to request access to the information
Ownership-“Who has the legal ownership of the information?” As a result, identifying the legitimate owner resolves the ambiguity of who is the ultimate decision maker pertaining to the
information. From a privacy perspective, the individual has ownership of his or her own personal information
3) Control - Information control has moved beyond simple inventory and asset tracking to include the ability to track the movements, actions, and communications of each employee within the firm.
4) Security - The manager must ensure that comprehensive steps have been implemented to guarantee that data collected by the firm are protected diligently so there are no negative impacts on stakeholders based on the content of theinformation.
Facebook hired Yael Eisenstat, a CIA veteran, to help it address election meddling.
Yael Eisenstat: The role on paper was actually right for me. My understanding was that I would be building a brand-new team within the business integrity division, whose responsibility would be to figure out how to keep the platform from being exploited for political purposes or to manipulate elections around the world.
That was just never what the job turned out to be. On day two, my manager let me know she was changing my title from Head of Global Elections Integrity Ops to manager. She basically said she was rethinking what I'm actually responsible for and what I'm not. I did not get to talk about hiring my own team. Everything was chipping away at putting me in a corner and not letting me engage or do the work I was there to do.
Q1. Lujan mentioned that Facebook keeps 29,000 data points on its users, whereas the other platforms only have 1,500 data points on their users.
Q2. The Facebook CEO did say that there is a feature that allows users to see all sorts of data collected by the social media platform. If the users want to, they can delete their data and prohibit Facebook from collecting any more of it.
1) Facebook gave the license to Kogan for his app where he conducted the quiz and collected behavioral and demographic information of several quiz takers and their friends without
considering the future consequences thus Facebook was not in a position to analyze consequences of their action at the time of allowing access as it was their failure not to predict
future consequences.
Zuckerberg on Cambridge Analytica: ‘We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you’
2) Based on different principles such as :-
Principle of Dignity – Where Invasion of privacy was violated as personal data of several users were taken and used for different and unintended purposes.
Principle of Transparency – Material misleading non-disclosures was violated as they never disclosed where and how the data was used.
Principle of reliability – Breach of contract was violated as Facebook promised to protect the data of their user and failed to do so.
3) Facebook had the mission of connecting people and they were successful to do so by collecting basic user data such as Date of birth , but it had other repercurtion which the company failed to foresee and hence failed to fullfill their commitment towards users.
“I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I’m responsible for what happens on our platform. I’m serious about doing what it takes to protect our community.”
