Topic: Social Graph

The technical methods used by Cambridge Analytica involved exploiting Facebook's early "Social Graph" API, which allowed developers to access data from a user's entire friends list. While often described as "scraping," the process was a standard, legal feature of the platform at the time. The primary violation occurred when the academic researcher transferred this legally obtained data to a third party against Facebook's terms of service.

The TV show *Person of Interest* is highlighted for a scene that mirrors the hosts' claims about social media. The clip suggests that the CIA "created" social networking because people are happy to volunteer their social graphs and associations, making government surveillance easier.