Is Data Privacy Dead?

Cambridge Analytica’s breach on Facebook is just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s what’s in store for consumers.

- Lisa Lacy

Facebook’s 2.1 billion monthly active users likely had some notion the information they share on the network is mined for ad targeting. However, news of Cambridge Analytica accessing data from the accounts of not just those who downloaded a personality prediction app, but also “friends who had their privacy settings set to allow it,” likely has many of those users pondering data and privacy in the digital era like never before.

This breach is far from new, though. Marketers have long had access to far more digital data about consumers than most realize, which powers sometimes unnervingly accurate predictive analytics.

In 2003—a year before Facebook was founded—Target used shopping behavior to determine a Minnesota teenager was pregnant before her father did. This infamous example of predictive analytics is just one of the unintended consequences of tapping into data about behaviors, locations and transactions to pinpoint patterns around what consumers are likely to do.

In the time it took that Minnesota teenager to raise her own teen, the amount of data brands like Facebook have at their fingertips has only grown exponentially, and they’re investing more on predictive analytics and machine-learning software to boot: Forrester Research said spending will increase from $3.5 billion in 2016 to approximately $6.2 billion by 2020.