Re: TV: One Person's Trash...
I watched The Great Hack on Netflix last night. For those not familiar, it's a documentary about Cambridge Analytica and the psychological operations they conducted on the Brexit vote, the 2016 US Presidential election, and some smaller elections around the globe, primarily using data gleaned from Facebook accounts.
The movie is certainly interesting, but I thought it could have gone a little further. Once we get past the nastiness of Facebook just selling off data on its members, I think there is a very interesting question about the appropriateness of using that data to form a profile of each of us individually and then using it to try to change our behavior. I'll admit I'm kind of torn on it. At a very basic level that's really what marketing and advertising are all about. Trying to get us to change our behavior by appealing to certain likes, dislikes, fears, etc...
The movie doesn't really delve into that question at all, although it seems implied that the director thinks that such operations are generally dangerous or bad.
The movie itself though is certainly worth a watch.
I watched The Great Hack on Netflix last night. For those not familiar, it's a documentary about Cambridge Analytica and the psychological operations they conducted on the Brexit vote, the 2016 US Presidential election, and some smaller elections around the globe, primarily using data gleaned from Facebook accounts.
The movie is certainly interesting, but I thought it could have gone a little further. Once we get past the nastiness of Facebook just selling off data on its members, I think there is a very interesting question about the appropriateness of using that data to form a profile of each of us individually and then using it to try to change our behavior. I'll admit I'm kind of torn on it. At a very basic level that's really what marketing and advertising are all about. Trying to get us to change our behavior by appealing to certain likes, dislikes, fears, etc...
The movie doesn't really delve into that question at all, although it seems implied that the director thinks that such operations are generally dangerous or bad.
The movie itself though is certainly worth a watch.
Comment