Interviews, Survey Methods, and Questionnaire Design
Case Study: Inappropriate Use of Surveys
In 2018, Cambridge Analytica was in the news in the United Kingdom and the USA (Confessore, 2018) for obtaining and sharing data obtained from millions of Facebook users. They obtained the data through innocuous surveys on Facebook (you may have seen this type of survey and probably participated at times). This is probably the highest profile of surveys used for alternative means and, probably, monetary gains. However, this happens often through various media.
Consider how exactly this happened and why it was used. Find one or two further examples of inappropriate use of surveys and highlight the impact of all these examples from the various ethical, social, legal and professional standpoints that apply.
RESPONSE
The surveys done by Cambridge Analytica used what seemed to be harmless surveys to collect user data through their accounts and networks. At the time, Facebook’s permissions system allowed third-party apps not only to access the survey participant’s details but also the data of their entire network of friends. This meant that agreeing to share “basic” information often included sensitive data such as location, friends lists, and other personal identifiers. These loopholes enabled Cambridge Analytica to build detailed psychological profiles, which were later used for targeted political advertising.
A similar case, while not as popular, is the game company Niantic. They had created a game called Pokemon Go, which used GPS locations as well as camera access to simulate an AR game. While this was happening, they were also using this data to create their own mapping database. While the data was not sold to outsiders or any alternative uses have been found out from it, many players of the game did not realise that they were sharing in-depth locations of their homes and neighbourhoods.
Another more controversial case is the current use of AI. Many AI are being trained using data from users of the internet without their consent or even their knowledge. This includes scrapped data from websites, social media platforms, online forums, and even sensitive information online. The ethical issue here comes from the lack of transparency as well as lack of consent from the providing individuals. While most data on the internet can be considered as “fair use,” many AIs are also trained using copyrighted material without explicit permission. A notable example is the popular trend of using AI tools to generate images in the Studio Ghibli art style. These models could not have achieved such results without being trained on copyrighted films and artwork produced by the studio.