{"id":7935,"date":"2018-02-26T09:42:05","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T17:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=7935"},"modified":"2018-02-26T09:42:05","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T17:42:05","slug":"cambridge-analytica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/02\/26\/cambridge-analytica\/","title":{"rendered":"Cambridge Analytica"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Cambridge Analytica<\/caption>\n
\"Cambridge<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
Type<\/a><\/div>\n<\/th>\n
Data mining<\/a>,\u00a0data analysis<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Founded<\/th>\n2013<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Headquarters<\/th>\nLondon<\/a>, England, United Kingdom<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
Key people<\/div>\n<\/th>\n
Alexander Nix (CEO<\/a>)[1]<\/a><\/sup>
\nRobert Mercer<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Website<\/th>\nCambridgeAnalytica.org<\/a><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Cambridge Analytica<\/b>\u00a0(CA<\/b>) is a\u00a0privately held company<\/a>\u00a0that combines\u00a0data mining<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0data analysis<\/a>with\u00a0strategic communication<\/a>\u00a0for the electoral process. It was created in 2013 as an offshoot of its British parent company\u00a0SCL Group<\/a>\u00a0to participate in\u00a0American politics<\/a>.[2]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In 2014, CA was involved in 44 U.S. political races.[3]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The company is partly owned by the family of\u00a0Robert Mercer<\/a>, an American hedge-fund manager who supports many politically conservative causes.[2]<\/a><\/sup>[4]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The firm maintains offices in\u00a0New York City<\/a>,\u00a0Washington, D.C.<\/a>, and\u00a0London<\/a>.[5]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

In 2015 it became known as the data analysis company working initially for\u00a0Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign<\/a>.[4]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In 2016, after Cruz’s campaign had faltered, CA worked for\u00a0Donald Trump’s presidential campaign<\/a>,[6]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0and on the\u00a0Leave.EU<\/a>-campaign for the\u00a0United Kingdom<\/a>‘s withdrawal from the\u00a0European Union<\/a>. CA’s role and impact on those campaigns has been disputed and is the subject of ongoing criminal investigations in both countries.[7]<\/a><\/sup>[8]<\/a><\/sup>[9]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Background and methods<\/span><\/h2>\n

SCL Group calls itself a “global election management agency”[10]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0known for involvement “in\u00a0military disinformation<\/a>\u00a0campaigns to social media branding and\u00a0voter<\/a>\u00a0targeting”.[4]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0SCL\u2019s involvement in the political world has been primarily in the developing world where it has been used by the military and politicians to study and manipulate public opinion and political will.\u00a0Slate<\/i>\u00a0writer Sharon Weinberger compared one of SCL’s hypothetical test scenarios to fomenting a coup.[4]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

According to the Swiss “Das Magazin<\/a>” the methods of data analysis of CA are to a large degree based on the academic work of Michal Kosinski. In 2008 Kosinski had joined the Psychometrics Centre of\u00a0Cambridge University<\/a>\u00a0where he then developed with his coworkers a profiling system using general online data,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>-likes, and\u00a0smartphone<\/a>\u00a0data.[11]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0He showed that with a limited number of “likes” people can be analyzed better than friends or relatives can do and that individual psychological targeting is a powerful tool to influence people.[11]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

When SCL Elections formed CA in 2013 it hired researchers from\u00a0Cambridge University<\/a>, hence the name.[12]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0CA collects data on voters using sources such as\u00a0demographics<\/a>,\u00a0consumer behavior<\/a>,\u00a0internet activity<\/a>, and other public and private sources. According to\u00a0The Guardian<\/a><\/i>, CA is using psychological data derived from millions of\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0users, largely without users’ permission or knowledge.[12]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Another source of information is the “Cruz Crew”\u00a0mobile app<\/a>\u00a0that tracks physical movements and contacts and invades personal data more than any other app of presidential candidates.[13]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

“Today in the United States we have somewhere close to four or five thousand data points on every individual … So we model the personality of every adult across the United States, some 230 million people.”<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2009Alexander Nix (Chief Executive, Cambridge Analytica), October 2016.[1]<\/a><\/sup><\/cite><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The company claims to use “data enhancement and\u00a0audience segmentation<\/a>\u00a0techniques” providing “psychographic<\/a>\u00a0analysis” for a “deeper knowledge of the target audience”. The company uses the\u00a0OCEAN<\/a>\u00a0scale of personality traits.[3]<\/a><\/sup>[5]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Using what it calls “behavioral<\/a>\u00a0microtargeting<\/a>” the company indicates that it can predict “needs<\/a>” of subjects and how these needs may change over time. Services then can be individually targeted for the benefit of its clients from the political arena, governments, and companies providing “a better and more actionable view of their key audiences.” According to\u00a0Sasha Issenberg<\/a>, CA indicates that it can tell things about an individual he might not even know about himself.[2]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0[14]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

CA derives much of its personality data on\u00a0online surveys<\/a>\u00a0which it conducts on an ongoing basis. For each political client, the firm narrows voter segments from 32 different\u00a0personality styles<\/a>\u00a0it attributes to every adult in the U.S. The personality data informs the tone of the language used in ad messages or voter contact scripts, while additional data is used to determine voters’ stances on particular issues.[15]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

The data gets updated with monthly surveys, asking about political preferences and how people get the information they use to make decisions. It also covers\u00a0consumer<\/a>\u00a0topics about different\u00a0brands and preferred products<\/a>, building up an image of how someone shops as much as how they vote.[16]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Activities<\/span><\/h2>\n

United States<\/span><\/h3>\n

2016 presidential election<\/span><\/h4>\n

CA’s involvement in the\u00a02016 Republican Party presidential primaries<\/a>\u00a0became known in July 2015.[4]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0As of December 2015 CA claimed to have collected up to 5,000 data points on over 220 million Americans.[5]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0At that time\u00a0Robert Mercer<\/a>\u00a0was a major supporter of\u00a0Ted Cruz<\/a>.[2]<\/a><\/sup>[17]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The Mercer family funded CA directly and indirectly through several\u00a0super-PACs<\/a>\u00a0as well as through payments via Cruz’s campaign.[12]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Ted Cruz became an early major client of CA in the 2016 presidential campaign. Just prior to the\u00a0Iowa caucuses<\/a>, the Cruz campaign had spent $3M for CA’s services,[18]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0with additional money coming from allied Super-PACs.[18]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0After Cruz’s win at the Iowa caucus CA was credited with having been able to identify and motivate potential voters.[19]<\/a><\/sup>[20]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Ultimately the Cruz campaign spent $5.8 million on work by CA.[21]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Ben Carson<\/a>\u00a0was a second client of CA;\u00a0his campaign<\/a>\u00a0had paid $220,000 for “data management” and “web service” as reported in October 2015.[3]<\/a><\/sup>Marco Rubio’s campaign<\/a>\u00a0was supported by Optimus Consulting.[22]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Meanwhile, the third competitor, Governor\u00a0John Kasich<\/a>, was supported by rivaling firm Applecart.[23]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

After Cruz dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination in May 2016, Robert Mercer and his daughter\u00a0Rebekah<\/a>\u00a0started to support Trump.[24]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In August it became known that CA followed their allegiance and worked for Trump’s presidential campaign.[21]<\/a><\/sup>[24]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Trump’s campaign also worked with digital firm\u00a0Giles Parscale<\/a>.[21]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In September, the Trump campaign spent $5 million to purchase television advertising.[25]<\/a><\/sup>The Trump campaign spent less than $1 million in data work.[26]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

In 2016, the company said that it had not used psychographics in the Trump presidential campaign.[27]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

The head of Cambridge Analytica said he asked the\u00a0WikiLeaks<\/a>\u00a0founder,\u00a0Julian Assange<\/a>, for help finding Hillary Clinton\u2019s 33,000 deleted emails.[28]<\/a><\/sup>[29]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

More at:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cambridge_Analytica<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cambridge Analytica Type Data mining,\u00a0data analysis Founded 2013 Headquarters London, England, United Kingdom Key people Alexander Nix (CEO)[1] Robert Mercer Website CambridgeAnalytica.org Cambridge Analytica\u00a0(CA) is a\u00a0privately held company\u00a0that combines\u00a0data mining\u00a0and\u00a0data analysiswith\u00a0strategic communication\u00a0for the electoral process. It was created in 2013 as an offshoot of its British parent company\u00a0SCL Group\u00a0to participate… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7936,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7935\/revisions\/7936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}