The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google

by Scott Galloway

If you carry a cell phone and are on a social network, you’ve decided to have your privacy violated, because it’s worth it. It still is, to most Facebook users. But the Cambridge Analytica scandal in March 2018 revealed that most of us were unaware the extent to which our personal data was being used. It’s one thing not to mind if Facebook knows who your sister is, where you live, and what car you drive. But it’s a different ballgame if, by downloading the most popular apps, your friends not only sent you dozens of annoying Words with Friends invites, but unwittingly gave third- and fourth-party companies, which you don’t use, access to your personal data set. Using data mined from the Facebook accounts of millions of Americans, Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that worked on Brexit and the Trump campaign, created a “psychographic profile” of voters ahead of the 2016 election. The company used behavioral microtargeting to deliver specific pro-Trump messages that resonated with specific voters for highly personal reasons.31 With knowledge of 150 likes, their model could predict someone’s personality better than their spouse. With 300, it understood you better than yourself.32 Consumers, seduced by the ease and network effects of Facebook—the fact that all their friends are on it—willingly gave up personal details. Why would a cool, progressive company like Facebook ever misuse our data? Because Facebook’s interests are increasing its user base and time spent on the site. Th...

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