Even the name Cambridge Analytica gives me the creeps. Cambridge obviously is a famous University in England and has a great standing, after all some famous people were students there.
So using the University town’s name in your business title is a clever move. It just feels reputable and very knowledgable. Add a bit of Harry Potter sparkle by adding the word ‘Analytica’ and it sounds like a spell straight out of one of J.K. Rowling’s novels.
And indeed it was a spell and everyone fell for it, most of all us the citizens of the world that have handed over all our personal details, so freely and trustingly to the biggest data farm in the world, Facebook.
Of course you will get companies farming that data, scraping it and utilising it to their own benefit. And Facebook allowed you to grab the data with those amazing apps you could create. They’re the ones that you again so freely trusted, signing up to them because they looked and sounded so enticing. Everyone wants to know about their personality, their match partner and many other schemes to hand over your data.
Maybe, just maybe we will be wiser next time, although I doubt it. On a Radio programme I heard a young person interviewed saying how much she loves her social media and that she’s on it all the time, as are all her friends too. It seems almost inconceivable that something we’re so addicted to, we’ll ever going to leave behind.
Don’t get me wrong it does a lot of good in the world too, whole communities (tribes) can stay in touch with each other on topics they enjoy. Indeed Zuck (short for Mark Zuckerberg) even went on a tour to talk to communities in the real world and get them to speak openly about how much they have benefitted from Facebook. Very clever Mr Zuckerberg, very clever to get people on-side this way, pulling them in even further, ever deeper.
And why didn’t you come to the EU Zuck? Because you know we don’t trust you anymore, you know that we’ll be after you and your schemes and expose them.
Actually Governments love Facebook, that’s why they’ve gotten away with billions of tax dollars and pounds. Governments can get data on individuals like they’ve never been able to before.
Just watch the TV series ‘Hunted’ and you will see how those intelligence experts can grab data from Facebook in just a few clicks. We’re the stupid ones, we’re the ones that fell for Zuck’s web of deceit and manipulation. He cleverly pulled us in and make us feel secure and maybe even loved by the Facebook family.
Happy liking!