The US election of Donald Trump, used the digital canvassing. Election advertising played a great role. The objective is to reach the maximum number of people and influence them. Several demographic components are addressed, e.g. salaried class, businessmen, farmers etc. These days advertising goes beyond this. It takes into account the temperament of the voters. A firm called Cambridge Analytica exactly did this. It concentrated on the 17 states of the US. They collected maximum data of the people in these states. To illustrate, what cars they have used and are using, their economic condition, their purchase behaviour, their methods of entertainment. Such data is available through some companies. Another source was to get the data from Facebook. A researcher from Cambridge Analytica has developed an app to assess personalities on Facebook. This researcher was Alexander Kogan. You have to answer questions like — whether you lose temper early, whether you like to interact with people. Depending on your answers, a judgement can be made about your personality. It is called psychometry. Psychometry measured individuals on Facebook against five dimensions — openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. It is called OCEAN model. You can predict the likes, dislikes, fears, intellect based on this. It can predict the decision making of an individual under certain circumstances.
Rogan’s information collected from Facebook facilitated the design of the model by Cambridge Analytica, which was used in the elections. It was inferred who are likely to vote Trump and who are not likely to vote him. It paved the path to reach the prospective voters and the customised message which would generate a response.
To illustrate, there is one issue in all the elections, whether to have fire arm. Republicans are for it, and Democrats against it. According to OCEAN models, those with high O and N are practical and would love to have gun to protect against thieves. Those who have less O and more A, can be appealed emotionally by saying having a gun is a part of family honour, culture and traditions. Such customised messages are more effective. Trumps canvassing was based on such analysis. The information was used to influence the voters. Can technology be used like this? Is it legal? Is it moral? It was later revealed that information from social media was collected unauthorisedly. There is an issue of credibility of Facebook. Cambridge Analytica was in vortex of controversy and wound up business in 2018.
How Data Is Abused
Jamie Bartlett has written Secrets of Silicon Valley. CA allegedly mined data of 87 million Facebook users, including half a million Indians, for election campaign. His new book is The People vs Tech. Here Bartlett proposes that relentless march of technology could chip away at the pillars of democracy. At present, he is the Director, Centre for the Analysis of Social Media, London.
Michal Konsinki is a psychologist, who is one of the pioneers of psychographics. This is the technique that CA has allegedly used. He is the professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has developed an algorithm which registers Facebook likes and compares them to other people who have taken the personality test. Then it gives the output — what it considers your personality. It poses a risk in the wrong hands.
Psychographics is powerful and dangerous. It has the potential to manipulate people. It is powerful in close elections where relatively small margins could swing the entire election. Enough key people can be moved one way or the other. The more the data we share about ourselves, the better the technique is going to be.
Election advertising has been there but big data and micro targeting is different. Here politicians are able to send customised, personalised messages. It is like a direct talk. In propaganda, the visible party can be held accountable. Here as the message is personalised, it is difficult to fix accountability. Politics so far used to address a broad collection of people. Here an individual’s concerns and prejudices are addressed. It is divisive politics, and it is emotionally driven.
Alexander Nix, the former CEO of CA denies having used psychographics. He feels targeting and psychographics are the techniques of future.
Theresa Hong, the member of the digital arm of Trump’s presidential campaign contends that Facebook did make a difference. It is due to Facebook that Trump won. Without Facebook, they would not have reached the right people at the right place. Facebook was more important than CA to Trump campaign.
Facebook admits 87 millions users were affected by CA. Most public profiles have their data scraped. Which other companies do this? Europe wants to implement General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).