Cambridge Analytica's Ad Targeting Is the Reason Facebook Exists

Cambridge Analytica's Ad Targeting Is the Reason Facebook Exists

6 years ago
Anonymous $gIi3-PxxKB

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/vbxgzb/cambridge-analytica-facebook-ad-targeting-third-party-apps

This weekend, while Facebook was quibbling about whether the information used by Cambridge Analytica to target voters in the lead up to the 2016 election was obtained in a data “breach” or somehow using fraudulent means, I decided to check my privacy settings.

Since creating a Facebook in 2006, I have associated my account with 100 separate third party apps. Besides common ones like Spotify, Venmo, and Uber, I have given access to my account to apps like “Typing Maniac,” “I bet I can guess your favorite color,” and “Crazy Cabbie,” among others. Many of these apps I remember only as a faint memory. According to these settings, however, lots of these apps still have access to the same information Cambridge Analytica used to target Facebook users with political ads that helped Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election.