2018 was the year which confirmed data as the most valuable asset on the planet. With dozens of applications of data-related features within a business, the Cambridge Analytica scandal was probably the biggest one. This scandal was related to the illegal buying from the British company of data points which Facebook was collecting from users without their consent. Given the impact these had in political campaigns such as the Brexit campaign and the Trump’s one, analysing the process is mandatory to properly assess what and why data changed in business as a whole.

Why Data?

Data within the Cambridge Analytica scandal refers to the usage of data points, a numerical value which associates preferences, keywords and more to a physical user. What happened, in that specific scenario, was related to the fact that data was used without the users’ consent, which is now GDPR-illegal. Data is definitely still extremely important for remarketing purposes, but we’ll definitely see far bigger regulations on this very matter in the nearest future. The usage of data is extremely impactful in today’s business sphere and it’s yet still very likely to grow in the nearest future.

Repercussions

Given how big the buying process was from the British company, it’s quite easy to understand why the repercussions were so big regarding this matter. The usage of data is now strictly regulated (at least in Europe) under a specific GDPR section which states clearly how every form of data acquisition must be properly stated via specific notifications or warning when landing on a page. Although this has been crystally clarified within the GDPR document, it has been noticed how over 75{c0db89a0a56f328ad3923d2ec68af8059ad7b4f5cae5d2583012e2c1816a3155} of the sites are not still updated aligning with this GDPR rule.

The Future

Some commercial property management companies (specifically, a company which focuses on compulsory purchase order processes), have stated how impactful the usage of certain data features have become, mentioning how clients now are actively looking to implement detailed data acquisition features to optimise their architectures. With this being said, it’s quite easy to understand how the overall future of data is moving towards real estate and finance as a whole.

To Conclude

The Cambridge Analytica scandal will be remembered in the future as something which has changed the world of technology forever. It’s relatively important to keep this in mind for future technology trends, as chances that this same scenario will happen again are pretty high.