Jim Isaak explains the unauthorized access of personal information of more than 87 million Facebook users to data firm Cambridge Analytica. Researchers at this data firm accomplished such a task through a personality test taken on Facebook to evaluate the user’s psychological profile. To their surprise, this research established a clear relationship between Facebook activity and their personality profile. So, Cambridge Analytica “micro-targeted” their consumers with messages to influence their political behavior, such as with “Project Alamo” under President Trump’s campaign. It wasn’t only members being affected; in fact, every website linked to Facebook allows the tracking of non-members data. Therefore, Cambridge Analytica purposefully targeted messages to the users as a way to influence their political power.

Towards the end of the article, Isaak lays out propositions for how to preserve privacy and protect data. The principles fall under four sub-categories, “public transparency,” “disclosure for users,” “control,” and “notification.” Regarding actual legislation that has been proposed, there are three current propositions in the works. The first, the Blumenthal-Markey bill, focuses on protecting the privacy, focusing on the “opt-in” aspect of consent, while the second bill, put forth by Senator Amy Klobuchar, maintains similar elements but also adds more on notification of changes. Lastly, California is pushing to further secure privacy rights for its citizens, hopefully setting a standard for how to address user privacy in the U.S., and the world, following Facebook & Cambridge Analytica’s inappropriate handling of user data.

Luis wrote the first paragraph, and Kate wrote the second.