Facebook suspends controversial data firm Cambridge Analytica

Discussion in 'privacy general' started by stapp, Mar 17, 2018.

  1. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    Woah, this is getting interesting! Mr. Wylie seems to know lots of freaky stuff, and have documentation. This could be a Bond-style global conspiracy. Evil kleptocrats transforming the world for their benefit.
     
  2. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    "Facebook’s rules for accessing user data lured more than just Cambridge Analytica

    SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook last week suspended the Trump campaign’s data consultant, Cambridge Analytica, for scraping the data of potentially millions of users without their consent. But thousands of other developers, including the makers of games such as FarmVille and the dating app Tinder, as well as political consultants from ... [the] 2012 presidential campaign, also siphoned huge amounts of data about users and their friends, developing deep understandings of people’s relationships and preferences.

    Cambridge Analytica — unlike other firms that access Facebook’s user data — broke Facebook’s rules by obtaining the data under the pretense of academic use. But experts familiar with Facebook’s systems and policies say that the greater problem was that the rules for accessing the social network’s information trove were so loose in the first place..."

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...fdd8bf1308b_story.html?utm_term=.6a1db4d87ff7
     
  3. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    OK, I'm just linking to the HN discussion.
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16623835

    That is just bloody incredible! Talk about ham-handed CYA ********. This is plainly evidence destruction, no?
     
  4. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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    Scientist at center of Facebook-Cambridge Analytica controversy speaks
    http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/19/technology/cambridge-analytica-scientist-aleksandr-kogan/index.html
     
  5. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    "'Utterly horrifying': ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine...

    Hundreds of millions of Facebook users are likely to have had their private information harvested by companies that exploited the same terms as the firm that collected data and passed it on to Cambridge Analytica, according to a new whistleblower...

    Sandy Parakilas, the platform operations manager at Facebook responsible for policing data breaches by third-party software developers between 2011 and 2012: 'My concerns were that all of the data that left Facebook servers to developers could not be monitored by Facebook, so we had no idea what developers were doing with the data,” he said..."

    https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/20/facebook-data-cambridge-analytica-sandy-parakilas
     
  6. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    "Facebook was kicked out of Cambridge Analytica's office while trying to 'secure evidence'

    Facebook sent a "digital forensics team" into Cambridge Analytica's (CA) London office on Monday evening in an attempt to 'secure evidence,' only to be kicked out following a 'dramatic intervention' by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data regulator.

    Following its intervention, the ICO announced it was seeking a warrant to search CA's premises and Facebook's so-called "audit" could "potentially compromise a regulatory investigation..."

    https://mashable.com/2018/03/20/facebook-cambridge-analytica-ico/#eCTuv5C81aqg
     
  7. stapp

    stapp Global Moderator

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    Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has been called on by a parliamentary committee to give evidence about the use of personal data by Cambridge Analytica

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43474760
     
  8. JRViejo

    JRViejo Super Moderator

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  9. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    "FTC opens investigation into Facebook...

    The FTC probe – confirmed by a source familiar with the agency's thinking and not authorized to speak on the record -- marks the most substantial political and legal threat yet to Facebook as it grapples with the fallout from Cambridge Analytica and its controversial tactics. And it could result in the U.S. government slapping Facebook with a massive fine.

    At issue for the company -- and at the heart of the FTC probe -- is a settlement they reached with the agency in November 2011, ending an investigation that Facebook deceived users about the privacy protections they are afforded on the site.

    Among other requirements, the resulting consent decree mandated that Facebook must notify users and obtain their permission before data about them is shared beyond the privacy settings they have established. It also subjected Facebook to 20 years of privacy checkups to ensure its compliance.

    Recently, though, former FTC officials have said that Facebook’s entanglement with Cambridge Analytica may have violated the company's legal agreement with the federal watchdog agency. Whistleblowers in recent days contend that Cambridge Analytica collected information about users and their friends under a since-ceased policy governing third-party apps on Facebook – then kept that data even after Facebook asked that it be deleted..."

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-personal-information/?utm_term=.48e037afc891
     
  10. JoWazzoo

    JoWazzoo Registered Member

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    FB stock took 37 Billion $ hit today. Amazing how their tune changed over past couple years. Arrogance. Nothing compared to a big *** class action lawsuit - which will happen. Lawyers already lining up. This is gonna be big. Get some popcorn and watch.
     
  11. emmjay

    emmjay Registered Member

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    The pirates got the loot they were after. The robbery is past tense and it all happened with the full knowledge of the owners and the crew.
    Facebook has had a growing base of 55 year old and over for several years, the so-called staid demographic. They are more than likely to go with default settings.

    This freakishly parallels the short story “Ship of Fools” by Ted Kaczynski.
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2018
  12. JoWazzoo

    JoWazzoo Registered Member

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    It would be interested to know how many overall blindly accept all the defaults. And yes, the older the user, the more likely to just use the defaults. I mean even someone like me gets lost in their labryth of settings.
     
  13. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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    Cambridge Analytica Suspends CEO Alexander Nix Amid Facebook Data Scandal
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyo...ends-ceo-alexander-nix-over-facebook-scandal/
     
  14. deBoetie

    deBoetie Registered Member

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    Regarding the warrant requested by the UK IC - wait for it - they have to request this publicly, hence giving the suspect every ability to remove evidence. What a system.

    My feeling is that, dodgy as the research/developer organisations activities are, and regardless of whether or not they violated the FB TOS, this pales into insignificance with what FB themselves have - they have the motherlode.
     
  15. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    OK, but is destruction of evidence illegal in the UK?
     
  16. guest

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    "Social Book Post Manager" Chrome Extension Lets You Wipe Your Facebook Profile
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  17. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    "Facebook Sued by Investors Over Voter-Profile Harvesting...

    Facebook Inc.’s failure to safeguard privacy was blamed in an investor lawsuit for a slump in its share price that followed the revelation user data was harvested without permission by ...[Cambridge Analytica].

    The world’s largest social media network was sued in San Francisco federal court on Tuesday by shareholders in a class action who said they suffered losses after the disclosure that Cambridge Analytica, a U.K.-based firm..., improperly obtained profile information on 50 million users.

    Facebook fell as much as 5.2 percent to $175.41 Monday in New York, wiping out all of the year’s gains so far. It was the biggest intraday drop since Jan. 12. The stock dropped another 2.6 percent Tuesday..."

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ed-by-investors-over-voter-profile-harvesting
     
  18. RockLobster

    RockLobster Registered Member

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    None of this will hurt facebook or zuckerburg one iota. Facebook investors are just playing the game to make a buck out of it.
    They'll dump the stock today and buy it back later at a cheaper price to pocket the difference and Facebook users won't care as long as they get their daily fix of likes.
     
  19. deBoetie

    deBoetie Registered Member

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    Would be in a criminal case, but I don't think the ICO has that kind of standing. However, I have a touching faith that judges would take a very dim view of any whiff of that, and subsequent threats of criminal prosecution would lead to canaries singing. You can't really hide such a thing from underpaid underlings and quite a few of the organisations seem to have whistleblowers who are disgusted about what's been going on.

    I do find it ironic that companies who were picking up scraps from the behemoth's table are getting the attention and grief, whereas the focus should be on the gorilla.

    I agree, @RockLobster that FB will be trivially hurt, they appear to be untouchables, too big to fail. I also do not see an alternative platform that users would migrate to, in practice.
     
  20. emmjay

    emmjay Registered Member

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    You hear the message, believe the propaganda, join on your own accord, accept the control, bring in friends and family, become dependent, give up personal property, accept the leader's love diatribe, become subservient ... you've joined a cult.

    It is hard to get out of a cult because those in it do not realize it is a cult. When a cult leader is exposed for what he is - a charlatan, a manipulator, a lair, a parasite - members do not leave in droves. They are physiologically tethered to the community and its 'services'. You can leave but there is no assurance that your family and friends will follow.
     
  21. JoWazzoo

    JoWazzoo Registered Member

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    @deBoetie

    Check out Minds.com. Still early, but looks promising. FB was rough around the edges 10 years ago.

    @emmjay - studies are showing that cell phones and Facebook are extremely addictive. I need to get one of those multi-million $ grant from HHS or someone to adequately study this further.:thumb:
     
  22. guest

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    Founder of Facebook-Owned WhatsApp Says It’s Time to “Delete Facebook”
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  23. deBoetie

    deBoetie Registered Member

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    Thanks, seeing as I never joined, it's very hard not to be smug at this point, most annoying! One thing I am proud of is that I warned my kids a very long time ago, so they limit their transactions on the platform carefully. Amazing they took my advice too! Of course, free is still way too expensive, but at least there's less hostage to fortune and the data is minimised.

    I agree with your assessment of cult, and the psychological analysis I've seen says that it's designed to be addictive, and sadly I have family-in-law that have been zombified that way. Horrible because it does limit real-life interaction, and sometimes their obsessive FB checking is just plain rude.
     
  24. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    Mark Zuckerberg has finally spoken out about the Cambridge Analytica scandal:

    "...We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you. I've been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn't happen again. The good news is that the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago. But we also made mistakes, there's more to do, and we need to step up and do it...

    In this case, we already took the most important steps a few years ago in 2014 to prevent bad actors from accessing people's information in this way. But there's more we need to do and I'll outline those steps here:

    First, we will investigate all apps that had access to large amounts of information before we changed our platform to dramatically reduce data access in 2014, and we will conduct a full audit of any app with suspicious activity. We will ban any developer from our platform that does not agree to a thorough audit. And if we find developers that misused personally identifiable information, we will ban them and tell everyone affected by those apps. That includes people whose data Kogan misused here as well.

    Second, we will restrict developers' data access even further to prevent other kinds of abuse. For example, we will remove developers' access to your data if you haven't used their app in 3 months. We will reduce the data you give an app when you sign in -- to only your name, profile photo, and email address. We'll require developers to not only get approval but also sign a contract in order to ask anyone for access to their posts or other private data. And we'll have more changes to share in the next few days.

    Third, we want to make sure you understand which apps you've allowed to access your data. In the next month, we will show everyone a tool at the top of your News Feed with the apps you've used and an easy way to revoke those apps' permissions to your data. We already have a tool to do this in your privacy settings, and now we will put this tool at the top of your News Feed to make sure everyone sees it..."


    https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104712037900071
     
  25. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    This is good. All apps on Android and iOS ought to have those restrictions!
     
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