Putting human face to elusive issue
As history has often shown, it can be a short, fast trip from anonymity to notoriety. The most recent proof of this is Christopher Wylie, a 28-year-old Canadian who, until last week, was probably only known to his family, friends and co-workers. Today, however, he is famous - some might argue infamous - as the guy who blew the whistle on Facebook’s role in data-mining skullduggery that reportedly influenced the outcomes of, among other things, the 2016 U.S. election and Britain’s controversial “Brexit” vote.
Wylie was employed by Cambridge Analytica, the British data-analysis firm that has been revealed - in news stories by several media outlets, most notably the London Observer and the New York Times - to have been responsible for the unauthorized “stripping” of personal data of more than 50 million Facebook users.
This stolen data, according to Wylie, was used to create targeted online advertisements aimed at influencing opinions and behaviour in order to swing the U.S. election in favour of President Donald Trump and the Brexit vote in favour of the “leave” side.
As the self-described co-founder and former director of research for Cambridge Analytica, Wylie said the company “exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles and built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons.”
Concerns about the abuse of data collected by social media sites are nothing new. Online watchdog groups had been sounding the alarm about Facebook’s data security since 2010; those warnings were largely ignored by the public and successfully deflected by the social-media giant’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook was aware of Cambridge Analytica’s unauthorized acquisition of users’ personal data as early as 2015, but took no action beyond a simple request that the company delete the data. Facebook did not follow up to ensure the deletion took place and did not alert regulators to the security breach.
In fact, despite its knowledge of Cambridge Analytica’s actions, Facebook did not suspend the company from its social media platform until last week, when the whistleblower’s revelations were published. Wylie’s emergence, however - putting a human face on a technological issue - seems to have been crucial in turning the data-breach story into an issue of intense public interest.
Much still remains to be learned about Wylie, whose pink hair and piercings were decidedly at odds with the suit and tie he wore this week when he testified in London before a Commons committee looking into the data-mining company’s misdeeds.
Wylie, who was born and raised in Victoria, B.C., has been hailed as a courageous digital-age hero and dismissed as someone who “thinks he’s Edward Snowden, when he’s actually Walter Mitty.” Despite Cambridge Analytica’s efforts to downplay his role in the company’s evolution, Wylie has very suddenly become a formidable figure in the debate over data misuse and security.
Facebook’s founder and CEO has certainly taken notice. After years spent avoiding the spotlight and refusing to answer questions about his company’s inner workings, Zuckerberg - who has watched $60 billion of Facebook’s market value evaporate in the wake of Wylie’s revelations - has expressed a willingness to appear before U.S. legislators.
In the meantime, online, the #deletefacebook movement continues to gain momentum.
The journey from anonymity to notoriety didn’t take long. And one can’t help thinking Wylie’s wild ride has only just begun.