THE CURRENT DIGITAL ARENA AND ITS RISKS TO SERVING MILITARY PERSONNEL Sebastian Bay, Nora Biteniece (Riga, January 2019 NATO STRATCOM COE)

THE CURRENT DIGITAL ARENA AND ITS RISKS TO SERVING MILITARY PERSONNEL Sebastian Bay, Nora Biteniece 

This article is published as a part of a study "Responding to Cognitive Security Challenges". Full report is also available online: www.stratcomcoe.org ISBN: 978-9934-564-39-0 Authors: Sebastian Bay, Giorgio Bertolin, Nora Biteniece, Edward H. Christie, Anton Dek, Rolf E. Fredheim, John D. Gallacher, Kateryna Kononova, Tetiana Marchenko Project manager: Giorgio Bertolin Text editor: Anna Reynolds, Mike Collier Design: Kārlis Ulmanis Riga, January 2019 NATO STRATCOM COE 11b Kalciema Iela Riga LV1048, Latvia www.stratcomcoe.org Facebook/stratcomcoe Twitter: @stratcomcoe This publication does not represent the opinions or policies of NATO. © All rights reserved by the NATO StratCom COE. Reports may not be copied, reproduced, distributed or publicly displayed without reference to the NATO StratCom COE. The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of NATO StratCom COE. NATO StratCom COE does not take responsibility for the views of authors expressed in their articles.

"Cambridge Analytica allegedly analysed thousands of data points on hundreds of millions of Americans to generate effective microtargeting and behaviour-prediction algorithms during the 2016 US presidential election campaign. In light of these events, it is imperative that we increase our understanding of the possibilities for malicious use of data.  Much of the data used by Cambridge Analytica was collected using the Facebook app ‘This is Your Digital Life’. Roughly 270,000 people used this app and unwittingly shared their personal data, and that of their friends, with Cambridge Analytica. It has been estimated that the personal information of roughly 50  million Americans was harvested this way.  And Cambridge Analytica is not the only company collecting data on private citizens. Data has become an important component of our digital existence because people now expect customised search results and an online experience tailored to their personal needs, wants, and desires. This kind of customisation is not possible without extensive data collection."