City simulations imagine almost anything Getty Images
鈥淎RE we the baddies?鈥 That punchline from a Mitchell and Webb comedy sketch about two Nazi soldiers is something that scientists ought to ask聽themselves more frequently. Even if聽the knowledge that people create is neutral, its applications often aren鈥檛.
The potential for misuse often goes unnoticed until it is too late. Consider a Facebook app called This Is Your Digital Life, which gathered information about users鈥 personalities. What looked like an innocuous, even fun, research project was later used by Cambridge Analytica to聽harvest personal data and manipulate people鈥檚 exposure to political…



