Michal Kosinski to appear at the CeBIT Global Conferences: Did Kosinski’s methods help Donald Trump to victory?

Ever since Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, lots of people have been wondering if elections can be won by mass-posting personalized messages on social networks.  One of the few experts armed with the insight to answer this question is Michal Kosinski – a Stanford professor who has developed a method for analyzing people’s personalities based on their activities on Facebook and other social media. 

Hannover. Can intelligent Big Data technologies sway election outcomes? Are consumers now “public domain”? How do I go about having an online life while still protecting my privacy? Answers to these questions and more will be provided by the noted social scientist Dr. Michal Kosinski, from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, when he takes the stage at the CeBIT Global Conferences on 23 March.
 
Kosinski enjoys international renown as an expert on psychometrics – a rapidly up-and-coming area of psychology that deals, among much else, with the influence of Big Data and other digital technologies. While studying at Cambridge University, Kosinski developed a mathematical method that analyzes Facebook likes and publicly available data to determine people’s personality traits and predict their behavior. His method was used by the Trump campaign to spread personalized posts via a range of social media channels in the run-up to the presidential election.
 
Psychometric tools for pushing consumer goods, and even political messages
Personalized advertising has been part of online life for a long time. But psychometric targeting opens up completely new opportunities – particularly for marketing services and consumer goods. In today’s age of Big Data, wearables, car connectivity and the Internet of Things, the average consumer generates vast stores of personal data with everything they do, whether it’s driving their car or strapping on a fitness tracker. This data is an absolute bonanza for corporations, who can, within certain legal constraints, harvest it to tailor their marketing message to specific consumer groups.
 
“A growing proportion of human activities, such as social interactions, entertainment, shopping, and gathering information, are now mediated by digital services and devices,” Kosinski says. “Our research shows that capturing digital behavior patterns, such as tweets, Facebook likes or web browser logs, is sufficient to be able to build up a detailed picture of an individual’s personality, intelligence or political leanings. These types of Big Data analysis do not require any active participation on the part of the data subjects. They can be applied to large populations, are cost-effective and potentially have revolutionary applications in many areas. But in the wrong hands, they pose substantial risks to privacy.”
 
For these reasons, Kosinski urges people to support individuals, organizations and corporations who are committed to safeguarding privacy, whether in the context of purchase decisions, clicks in social networks or political elections. Misuse of privacy for political gain doubtless harbors real risks. For instance, intelligent Big Data technologies could well be used to influence France’s presidential elections this spring or Germany’s parliamentary elections in the fall.
 
CeBIT – Global Event for Digital Business
CeBIT is the world’s foremost event on the wave of digitalization revolutionizing every aspect of business, government and society. Every year, the show features a lineup of around 3,000 exhibitors and attracts some 200,000 visitors to its home base in Hannover, Germany. The spotlight is on all the latest advances in fields such as artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, virtual and augmented reality, humanoid robots and drones.  Thanks to a rich array of application scenarios, CeBIT makes digitalization tangible in the truest sense of the word. “d!conomy – no limits”, the chosen lead theme for 2017, underscores the show’s emphasis on revealing the wealth of opportunities arising from the digital transformation. As a multifaceted exhibition/conference/networking event, CeBIT is a perennial must for everyone involved in the digital economy. The startup scene is also right at home at CeBIT and its dedicated SCALE 11 showcase, which sports more than 400 aspiring young enterprises. The next CeBIT will be staged from 20 to 24 March 2017, with Japan as its official Partner Country. For further information, visit www.cebit.de.