The use of data to control the masses

Power historically has been a very adaptable concept. It has ranged from land and material goods to money. However, in the last two decades, the unit of power has changed once again. It is arguably now data, and access to it. Let’s take a trip back in time to early 2016, and a fairly unknown political consulting firm called Cambridge Analytica. Several years later, the firm was exposed to have used data provided by Facebook to sway voters in Donald Trump’s favour. They were consequently shut down since their customers were driven away by media coverage of this scandal. According to the New York Times, up to 87 million Facebook users had their personal data stolen. Many news outlets claimed that Cambridge Analytica won Trump the electoral college by influencing voters in sway states. All because of access to user data. This is but one example of the use of data by corporations to control masses of people. It was a landmark of the Information Age, where power is gained not in person but on social media, and where data was the new currency. One can draw parallels to the recent general election, where the Labour party tapped into ‘Gen Z’ trends on TikTok and Instagram to attract younger voters. In light of this, it would be naïve to assume that data is exclusively used for malicious purposes. There are many companies which benignly use data not necessarily to exploit easily influenced people but to expand their own consumer market. Obvious examples would be the ‘For You’ page on social media platforms, which provide users with content which they are likely to find interesting, or personalised advertising to provide users with goods and services they are likely to use. After all, advertising gaming consoles to senior citizens will result in losses. However, the Analytica-Facebook scandal was a wake-up call for any who still lived in a false reality of data privacy: their personal information was very much at the mercy of the companies who had access to them. Yet even after this, we still see major issues in the social media scene. Data control is practically monopolised between several large companies. The effect of this monopolisation is that users are forced into data privacy policies which they may not feel comfortable with, simply because there is no other satisfactory option. Even more worrying, however, is the access which foreign corporations residing in countries with lax regulations have: note the recent clash in the USA when the Trump administration considered banning the use of Chinese social media platform TikTok, claiming that the app was a ‘national security threat’. While this may seem to be another part of Trump’s anti-globalisation policies, he really did have reason to fear Chinese access and control of what American users were shown daily on such a popular social media platform. Cyber warfare, which links into data exploitation, is another brainchild of the Digital Age. The goal of hackers is to externally access devices and data. It may not be significant if a hacker has access to a photo of your cat, but foreign military agencies often target government officials: note the attack on the United States Office of Personnel Management, where Chinese hackers extracted personal information on over 21 million American federal employees. This meant that foreign agencies could identify or impersonate federal officials, which is a huge security issue. In conclusion, there is no shadow of a doubt that access to data is power over people. Data can be used both to serve a user and also to exploit them. While regulations around data use by corporations is tightening, there is still wriggling room. Furthermore, the choice as to whether we put our data at risk is up to us, as privacy breaches only affect those using that specific service. This does not, however, take into account hacking, which despite being explicitly illegal, is still conducted by large organisations, whether governmental or terrorist, to access data and use it for their own purposes. In this way, the Digital Age has brought about a new era of both utility and surveillance. Big service or Big Brother? Depends on the circumstances.