THe outcry against the illegal use of information gathered by Cambridge Analytica is perfectly justified and I hope that their punishment will be severe and appropriate.

What is obvious, however, is the depth of knowledge their employees – and, no doubt, those of other companies so far not identified – about how to identify users of social media, gain entry into all sorts of files and introduce methods of entrapping people into divulging their private information. They have used this expertise to be sold to the highest bidder.

Why not, as part of their punishment, require them to use their expertise to benefit society? Surely they would be able to track down paedophiles who prey on children, young people and the vulnerable? Certainly they have the ability to eradicate computer scams and fraud. Perhaps they even have the ability to close down, or at least severely limit, other forms of criminal activity on the internet. They must do. They used it to their advantage.

We have had years of hand wringing and platitudes about how difficult it is to control the internet. Let’s adopt the “set a thief to catch a thief” idea and use CA’s knowledge to our advantage.

Lovina Roe
Perth