Facebook-Cambridge Analytica: The Data Scandal That Shook the World - Essay Sample

Introduction

The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal is one of the politically motivated scandals that profoundly affected the decision opinion of many users. According to Kozlowska, (2018), it was revealed in early 2018, that Cambridge Analytica, had wrongly acquired the personal data, harvesting it behind the backs of Facebook officials without their consent. The harvested data was used for political advertising purposes to help sway the outcomes of the election. Therefore, the process violet the six values prescribed in the ACS Code of Ethics.

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Violation of The Primacy of the Public Interest is one of the ethical issues that was widely observed in the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal, by putting the interest of the company's benefit over the users. The ethic's code mandates the interests of the public above those of sectional interest or personal business. Therefore, the primacy of public interest was violated as the public interest was not taken into consideration.

The enhancement of the Quality of Life code of ethics mandates that the employer strives to enhance the quality of life of those affected by your work (Arora, and Zinolabedini, 2019). Therefore, it is the collective responsibility of the organization to structure effective means of enabling and formulating means of supporting the affected personnel. The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal failed to honor their action in using personal data collected from the survey. Therefore, the survey affected many Facebook users in their decisions during the campaign.

The Honesty code of ethics was not sufficiently honored during data harvesting in the survey. What began as mere research to help collect data, turned into one of the malevolent concepts of social manipulation to help structure campaigns through targeting the users with negative and positive posts regarding the presidential candidates.

A competent code of ethics mandates that both the employee and the employer to ultimately work diligently for the stakeholder. However, this concept was profoundly violated and overturned to help customize campaign reports, and posts that undermined the candidates. The data harvesting, which helped generate a wider audience, was conducted behind the backs of Facebook officials, making the Cambridge Analytica complacent to violation of the Competence code of ethics.

The professional Development code of conduct outlines that the employer or the employee should enhance his or her professional development and that of his or her colleague (Rehman, 2019). Therefore, it is the collective responsibility of the employer or the employee to act ethically in helping others. However, data harvesting made it easier for the Cambridge Analytica to understand between Hillary and Trump's supporter fully. Therefore, the company published Hillary Clinton's corruption as part of showing her weakness over Trump's positive side.

Lastly, the Professionalism Code of Ethics outlines that it is the collective responsibility of the governing body to enhance the integrity of the society and the respect of each other. However, the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal failed to honor this form of ethical code. The company failed to enhance the integrity of the society, by airing sensitive information that left the American nation more divided than ever.

Reference

Arora, N. and Zinolabedini, D., 2019. The Ethical Implications of the 2018 Facebook-Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal. Student Works.http://dx.doi.org/10.26153/tsw/7590

Kozlowska, I., 2018. Facebook and data privacy in the age of Cambridge Analytica. The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, Seatlle, 30. https://jsis.washington.edu/news/facebook-data-privacy-age-cambridge-analytica/

Rehman, I., 2019. Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data harvesting: What you need to know. Library Philosophy and Practice, pp.1-11. https://search.proquest.com/openview/386c224a33e396edecb269f0a451cf61/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=54903