The Great Hack

By now most Facebook users know their personal data is being used to sell them stuff.But they are less likely to realize how it is also used to influence their voting.In 2016 the British data research company Cambridge Analytica cunningly harvested information from millions of Facebook users and their friends via an innocuous-seeming “personality” questionnaire. They put this gigantic database to lucrative work with machine-tooled marketing campaigns for Trump and the Brexiters. Focusing on carefully selected psycho-profiled targets, they were able to push persuadables buttons and tip them over the edge with Facebook ads that popped up intimately on their smartphones, miraculously confirming their prejudices, playing on their insecurities, magnifying and warping their worries. One wonders whether we can ever have free elections again.

When
Feb 12th, 2020 11:00 am
Location
Teatro Santa Ana
La Biblioteca Publica, Reloj 50A, Centro
San Miguel de Allende, GUA
Mexico
Events
Blurb Film & Discussion
Co-sponsor
Speakers
Fee 70 Pesos

Upcoming Events

Monday, November 3, 2025 - 1:30pm
CST
Joe Belden
Location:
La Biblioteca, Sala Quezal, Insurgentes 25, Centro, San Miguel de Allende
This mostly forgotten war led to Mexico losing over half its territory and the United States expanding to the Pacific. The lecture examines the political and economic background of the conflict, what led to it, and the roles of such factors as Texas annexation in 1845, slavery, racism, the Democratic and Whig parties, and Manifest... Read more