Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Objectives: This study discusses how Facebook users’ data has been harvested, used to formulate an algorithm to understand users’ personality traits and in-turn use the process to influence the outcome of US Presidential Elections. Method: A Quiz application was developed to collect Users’ data. Their activities on Social Media were analyzed, patterns were detected, OCEAN scores were given, and user groups were made on the basis of their political affiliation. And finally, they were targeted with suitable ads and news to achieve desirable results. Findings/Application: Use of Internet is increasing day-by-day and so is our Digital Footprints. Companies like Netflix started using these data to understand their Customers’ behaviour and to improve their Customer Oriented Marketing Strategies. It has been observed that activities on Social Media say a lot about the users and sometimes it is used by companies harvesting user data in unethical ways.

Keywords: Cambridge Analytica, Facebook, OCEAN score, US Elections