Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with investigative journalist Yasha Levine, author of the new book, “Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet.” Here, he examines the charges against Cambridge Analytica and what he believes is the more critical issue of giant social media companies’ unregulated collection of personal data that is used to make billions in profit.
YASHA LEVINE: No matter how scummy these guys at Cambridge Analytica are – and they are scummy, there’s no doubt about that. What the company does, taking data on people and using it to help shape and influence elections on behalf of some kind of client – usually a political campaign or a wealthy donor of some kind – what they do is no different than countless other political data-driven election companies do.
This is very normal in this day and age to use these kinds of techniques, these kind of psychological profiling, psychometrics, using data pulled from social media and using that data with other data they pull from third-party data brokers, from the candidates’ own donor lists that they compile.
The Democratic party, the Republican party, and various elements within those parties have their own company that do this kind of stuff. Charles Koch, for instance, lavishly funds – which is basically his own data-driven election influence outfit – called i360. As bad as Cambridge Analytica is, it’s just one of many players that are very similar. And it’s not even as big.
The kind of data that Cambridge Analytica can pull or had pulled on 50 million Americans pales in comparison to the kind of information that Facebook itself has on those people. You have to remember that Facebook is in the business of surveilling its users, compiling profiles on its users and then selling access to those users, to advertisers and to anyone who wants to buy ads on their network for the purpose of influencing their decisions. Influencing them to buy certain products. Or influencing them to vote for a certain candidate.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Tell us a bit of what we might not fully understand about the business model of Google, Facebook, any number of applications that we put on our smartphones, the games that we play. Our cell phones and the use of cell phones on a daily basis. What is going on with our unregulated collection of personal data by these companies, how it’s sold and what are the negative consequences beyond annoying ads that might appear as you’re browsing the Internet? What are some of the consequences you’re concerned about regarding this unregulated collection of our data?
YASHA LEVINE: Companies like Google, for instance. Google mediates a huge chunk of our digital life. So much of a percentage of the phone market if not more, is dominated by the Android mobile operating system. Seven out of 10 people who have a mobile phone carry Google in their pockets. And Google goes with them wherever they go.
And Google also mediates their phone calls – knows who’s calling you. It mediates your web browsing so it knows exactly the websites you go to, it knows what you’re searching for. A lot of people have Gmail. So they’re emailing everything. They’re emailing their friends, their colleagues, their business partners, or their doctor or their psychiatrist or their bank. All that data, all the attachments in your email are being scanned, are being monitored and are being used to create profiles on you that’s being constantly updated, down to extremely personal information between you and your doctor.
And Google can know things that you don’t put even into the box. The level of information, the intimacy of that information that companies like Google, but also Facebook, because Facebook can collect much of the same information as long as you have the Facebook app running on your phone. The level and intimacy then is just kind of stunning. Just think about that.
It’s very frightening to know that giant corporations like these can collect that information and there are no limits on what they can do with that information and what they can collect. There are no regulations, there are no laws that limit or direct in any way, the information that they collect on us. It’s stunning, but it’s true.
You don’t have to really think too hard about why this is troubling, while companies like Facebook and Google have been able to sell a progressive side of themselves, to cloak themselves in this “progressive” image that they are these companies that really only want the best for the world and are trying to make the world a better place.
The truth is, they are a giant, profit-seeking corporation like any other. They’re really no different than Koch industries or Philip-Morris or Exxon-Mobil in that the sense they are giant corporations that want to bend society and the political systems in which they exist to their will, to make more money.
I think in a democratic society, no one should have that kind of power over the democratic process.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Europe has recently moved to something they call GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation plan. Are there any similar moves here in the U.S. and what in your view, should that regulation consist of?
YASHA LEVINE: That’s a good question. I’ve been actually trying to understand what the GDPR – I don’t know if I can fully comment on that. But there are no moves in America, and the closest thing that’s happening now to regulate Silicon Valley and its for-profit surveillance business, which is the Honest Ads Act. It’s an important piece of legislation, I think, but it’s very limited in that it only applies to elections and election advertising.
But other than that, there’s really nothing. There are no limits on what Silicon Valley can collect, the information it can collect on you.
For more information, visit Yasha Levine’s website at Surveillancevalley.com.
