Cambridge Analytica: how did it turn clicks into votes? | News | The Guardian

Check the full article for an overview of Cambridge Analytica modus operandi

"While this was undoubtedly a highly sophisticated targeting machine, questions remain about Cambridge Analytica’s psychometric model – ones Wylie, perhaps, isn’t best placed to answer. When Kogan gave evidence to parliament in April, he suggested that it was barely better than chance at applying the right Ocean scores to individuals. Maybe that edge is enough to matter – or maybe CA was selling snake oil. And even if individuals were correctly labelled with the five factors, is advertising to them based on that really as simple as slightly hokey-sounding appeals to love of order, or fear of the other?

That said, there’s clearly something in it. Take a look instead at a patent filed in 2012 on “determining user personality characteristics from social networking system communications”. “Stored personality characteristics may be used as targeting criteria for advertisers ... to increase the likelihood that the user … positively interacts with a selected advertisement,” the patent suggests. Its author? Facebook itself."

Cambridge Analytica: how did it turn clicks into votes? | News | The Guardian