Facebook suspends controversial data firm Cambridge Analytica

UK officials will summon Mark Zuckerberg to testify if he won't do so voluntarily

 

Facebook: When privacy meets profit
May 1, 2018
https://www.scmagazine.com/facebook-when-privacy-meets-profit/article/762202/

 

Good news. But I suspect that the principals, and the technology, will resurface under new names.

And in any case, CA was just the poster child.

 

Good job about CA.

@mirimir thats a bit cynical isn't it - but hey, I agree 1000% - after all this is all just smoke and mirrors and the hydra will raise its head again for sure.

Privacy invasions in the name of "connecting people" is downright double talk. Andrew Bosworth needs to go to prison and they need to throw away the key. I don't buy Zuckerbergs "face of innocence" and apparent ignorance of whats going on either. It's shameful the amount of times he said he's going to get back to people (so he says). Of course he was very non-committal about what was going to happen about tracking non FB users, like using that hideous FB pixel, except that they can always log in and OPT OUT. Duh.

 

While CA's demise was inevitable, what burns my Tos is that all the evidence will now be lost, and no-one will be accountable. They lost a golden opportunity to apply an immediate injunction to prevent the destruction of evidence.

As @mirimir suggests, I suspect the people and techniques will resurface, and in any case, there are lots of CAs and worse, FB & Google.

Oh, and unless the assets are frozen pronto, insolvency is a peachy way to distribute the proceeds of their activities whilst avoiding downstream liability. I think it will be hard/impossible to get any kind of legal position established in a hurry, by which time, it will be too late.

There is this claim by the ICO that they will continue the investigation and pursue directors, for what it's worth

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43985186

 

Facebook security analyst is fired for using private data to stalk women

https://arstechnica.com/information...alyst-accused-of-using-access-to-stalk-women/

 

Cambridge Analytica dismantled for good? Nope: It just changed its name to Emerdata
May 2, 2018
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/02/cambridge_analytica_shutdown/

 

Haha, so now Emerdata

 

Facebook Mulls Advert-Free Subscription Model

https://www.silicon.co.uk/e-marketing/socialmedia/facebook-advert-free-model-232157

 

Facebook wipes out all of its losses following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal (FB)

 

Facebook Suspends 200 Apps Over Data Misuse
May 14, 2018
https://www.securityweek.com/facebook-suspends-200-apps-over-data-misuse

 

Anyone could download Cambridge researchers’ 4-million-user Facebook dataset for years
May 15, 2018
https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/14/a...rs-4-million-user-facebook-dataset-for-years/

 

The Justice Department and FBI are reportedly investigating Cambridge Analytica over Facebook scandal
To find out if the firm violated American election laws
May 15, 2018
https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/15/...nalytica-justice-department-fbi-investigation

 

"Justice Department and F.B.I. Are Investigating Cambridge Analytica

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department and the F.B.I. are investigating Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct political data firm, and have sought to question former employees and banks that handled its business, according to an American official and other people familiar with the inquiry...

The federal investigation in the United States appears to focus on the company’s financial dealings — investigators have reached out to the company’s banks, for instance — and how it acquired and used personal data pulled from Facebook and other sources, according to the American official, who was briefed on the inquiry, and other people familiar with it.

In addition, the investigators have contacted Facebook, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation. The official would not provide any other details, and Facebook declined to comment..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

 

"Huge new Facebook data leak exposed intimate details of 3m users

Data from millions of Facebook users who used a popular personality app, including their answers to intimate questionnaires, was left exposed online for anyone to access, a New Scientist investigation has found.

Academics at the University of Cambridge distributed the data from the personality quiz app myPersonality to hundreds of researchers via a website with insufficient security provisions, which led to it being left vulnerable to access for four years. Gaining access illicitly was relatively easy.

The data was highly sensitive, revealing personal details of Facebook users, such as the results of psychological tests. It was meant to be stored and shared anonymously, however such poor precautions were taken that deanonymising would not be hard...

Easy backdoor

However, for those who were not entitled to access the data set because they didn’t have a permanent academic contract, for example, there was an easy workaround. For the last four years, a working username and password has been available online that could be found from a single web search. Anyone who wanted access to the data set could have found the key to download it in less than a minute..."

https://www.newscientist.com/articl...ata-leak-exposed-intimate-details-of-3m-users

 

The backlash that never happened: New data shows people actually increased their Facebook usage after the Cambridge Analytica scandal
May 20, 2018
https://www.businessinsider.de/peop...sage-after-cambridge-analytica-scandal-2018-5

 

U-turn over Facebook chief's EU meeting
May 21, 2018
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44196765

 

So, the EU meeting with Zuckerberg was pretty much a non event leaving many unanswered questions and the regurgitated response "let me get back to you". Some of the subjects covered were fake news, fake accounts, innovation, elections (2016 only), monopolies, competition, taxes, GDPR along with the worn out apology campaign. There was general dissatisfaction expressed at the format (questions to be asked first then a one off response from Zuckerberg at the end) and that it was not conducive to having questions properly answered. My take - definitely a cut down version.

Since I'm NOT a FB user what concerns me is the privacy of non FB users. I was keen to see if there was any mention of the data FB gathered on non FB users like a couple of notable cases in the US, and of course see how Zuckerberg would respond and if so how slippery he'd be. The question came up from Syed Kamall British MEP. Note: not sure if it's the case but the video below says "full meeting".

hxxps:// www . youtube . com/watch?v=o0zdBUOrhG8 Mark Zuckerberg's full meeting with EU Parliament leaders

@ about 27.55 Syed Kamall: "buts what's really interesting has been the public outcry over so-called shadow profiles where FB collects and stores data about internet users that don't have or use FB - Now I understand that FB admits that you collect this data and store it for about 10 days but given that this data is collected continuously and that most people use the internet almost everyday - then in effect this becomes a continuous cycle" ......then he talks about his own FB account a little .... then he says "but what happens if I don't have a FB account? is the only way of preventing FB collecting my data is to avoid the internet altogether or is there another way? How can non users stop FB collecting their data - and what do you do with the non FB data, do you commercialize it? and given you do that, is it morally acceptable, do you think in your opinion, to collect non FB users data without them knowing what you do with it? and are they able, if Im a non FB user, am I able to see the data that you've collected on me and if not why not? thankyou I look forward to your answers ". Another speaker briefly addresses non FB users @ 59.20

@ about 1.20.30
Zuckerberg: ummmm is there anything else?
Response: "shadow profiles"
Zuckerberg: (shows slight annoyance then smiles - audience emits a few somewhat awkward laughs) ...
"um to your question for um the content that websites and apps sent us um we think it's very important that people have the ability to clear this, ah so ah, we just launched or just announced that we're building and will soon launch this um clear history feature that allows you to clear um all basic browsing history data. Ah... to your point about earlier around um you know about how do we separate out the security data you know it's very important that we don't have people who aren't FB users that coming to our service and trying to scrape the public data that's available so that's one of the ways that we do that you know, people use our service and even if they're not signed in we need to understand the way they're using the service to prevent bad activity and that's a big theme of today has been around um making sure that we can do a better job of governing the system keeping bad content out - one of the ways that we do that is by understanding how people are using the system -
Syed Kamall: " but if your not a FB user how do you stop that data from being transferred?"
Zuckerberg: (note the smirk again ) "on the security side umm we think it's important to keep it to protect people in our community" and VERY abruptly terminates that response moving onto "was there any other themes we want to get through? I mean there's - what's um........"

Huh what a bunch of %$@# 1/ how on earth are non FB users going to clear their FB history without making a FB account ? 2/ how is it that Zuckerberg can get away with justifying the criminalization of non FB users as if they're data scrapers and all in the name of keeping FB secure - So now EVERYONE has to be tracked on the internet for the sake of FB - 3/ and why does Zuckerberg think people are stupid enough to confuse a NON FB USER with a FB user who isn't signed in.

This dog and pony sideshow is a charade of lies and deceit and nothing has changed from the outset. Zuckerberg is well practiced in the art of appearing genuine but being continually evasive and slippery. Some people aren't buying it, and I don't either. This nonsense proves that Zuckerberg is untouchable as is evident in the whole scenario being nothing more than a blip on the radar for the $ count. The Zuckerberg empire is not to be trusted. I hope people in a position to do so, will continuously and aggressively push for answers about non FB users' data being siphoned by this despicable company.

Edit: Oh and not ONE SINGLE WORD about that damned FB pixel.

 

@Reality - to extend the problem, once sites have passed your information onto the brokers (apart from FB), you have lost control because you have no relationship with them. I'm also not clear what the GDPR has to say about that scenario. The Experian debacle illustrates.

I just went through a Yahoo GDPR settings screed - they make you individually switch OFF every darn ad relationship (about 40 or so?) which is, I feel sure, against the GDPR notion of opt-in. Most users will not, of course, bother with that.

I think FB are untouchable as far as the regulators are concerned, and the EU will fudge it after being threatened behind the scenes. However, I think there will be more long-term damage to them than might be assessed by current financials, because once a social media operation ceases being "cool", then its long-term prospects are questionable.

There is also the visceral reaction to things like the reported comments of a young kid writing a school assignment - saying that his mom spent too long on the smartphone. That kind of thing tends to jolt peoples' addiction to this stuff.