After allegations involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica back in 2015 about data used at the behest of Ted Cruz, on March 17 of 2018, The New York Times and The Guardian collaborated to finally uncover the massive amount of data stolen at Facebook’s account.

Reportedly, up to 87 million user’s data has been used by Cambridge Analytica, one that has been collecting since 2014 and used for multiple political purposes. Christopher Wylie, a former Cambridge Analytica employee lifted the lid on the links between Facebook and the company he worked for, reported all kinds of data harvested and called out the responsible by names while shining a light on the ongoing illegal doings.

“I think is a complete invasion of privacy, it makes me feel insecure, it’s unethical, it really makes me question how people that have power in our society are acting with said power. I think this is also proof of the influence of social media. Such an important (process) as is the (presidential elections), the fact that the elections were influenced by facebook,” Said Camila Velez a TCS 11th grade student.

Even though Cambridge Analytica has revealed in various press conferences that the information gained through users has not been used in specific campaigns such as Trump’s political campaign back in 2017 and Ted Cruz’s campaign back in 2015, sources have revealed otherwise.

“Senior executives from the firm at the heart of Facebook’s data breach boasted of playing a key role in bringing Donald Trump to power and said they used ‘unattributable and untrackable’ advertising to support their clients in elections, according to an undercover expose.” Said The Guardian in the article released about the scandal.

Since the scandal erupted after undercover Channel 4 reporters concluded the investigation, various statements have come up pointing towards the fact that Facebook has given out data not only for political matters but for marketing and other commercial purposes as well.

“I know it was a scandal but I wasn’t really shocked. I just regret to know that my information could’ve been used for political campaigns, that’s the only part that I find upsetting.” Said Eliana Lopez a TCS student with political affinity “I believe that my data being stolen for any other reasons such as marketing reasons, it’s fine, but political things, are delicate.”

Several testimonies have been released about the stolen and manipulated information. Since the articles were published, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook’s founder and owner) has been marked “threat to democracy”and dangerous and also suffered a 134 billion dollar loss with the market crash and people that deleted their users.

“I think Mark Zuckerberg was once a small child who created this with an honest heart because of his passion for technology and social media but then it began such a massive thing that people with that access to power and money, it can get easy to be bought and sold,” Said Lopez “they sold him an idea with the possibility of making more money, a lot of people would have fallen for that.”