Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Cambridge Analytica scandal isn’t a scandal: this is how Facebook works

independent.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 163 posts

Re: The Cambridge Analytica scandal isn’t a scandal: this is how Facebook works

#11

Post by mattmcknight »

Is it really that different from the 2012 campaign?

"But the Obama team had a solution in place: a Facebook application that will transform the way campaigns are conducted in the future. For supporters, the app appeared to be just another way to digitally connect to the campaign.... That’s because the more than 1 million Obama backers who signed up for the app gave the campaign permission to look at their Facebook friend lists. In an instant, the campaign had a way to see the hidden young voters. Roughly 85% of those without a listed phone number could be found in the uploaded friend lists....in those final weeks of the campaign, the team blitzed the supporters who had signed up for the app with requests to share specific online content with specific friends simply by clicking a button."

http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/20/friended-how-the-obama-...

Re: The Cambridge Analytica scandal isn’t a scandal: this is how Facebook works

#12

Post by cryptoz »

HenryBemis wrote: post #10
ourmandave wrote: post #4

Summary below article title: Three key parts of Facebook’s model come into play: gathering data from people in order to profile them, designing systems that allow that data to be used to target people, then allowing third parties to use the data and those targeting systems for their own purposes Back in Nov 2017, when the senate was questioning Facebook, Google, and Twitter about the Russian ads during the election..…

Facebook treats people's volunteered information as goods-for trade. And business is booming!! Politics aside, I wonder how this will affect the "Russian intervention in US and UK politics" search for "truth". I am also expecting that UK authorities will be paying a visit to "Cambridge Analytica" and I hope we will find out the truth on what exactly they did for the UK Referendum, US Elections, and wherever else they…

> let's say that there was no Russian interventios to US election

I know you're posing a hypothetical, but your scenario is impossible. Over a dozen Russians have already been indicted. Russia was involved. Period.

Re: The Cambridge Analytica scandal isn’t a scandal: this is how Facebook works

#13

Post by makomk »

guelo wrote: post #3

Some regulation I'd like to see for social network ads, at least for political ads: - Make all ads publicly viewable along with the targeting demographics. So everybody can see, for example, that a politician is pushing xenophobia to older people. - Some kind of ad "fake news" score associated with a campaign. This one is difficult, but I could imagine a score based on a mixture of "fake news scoring providers" from…

I think Facebook may already have done the first one. That's probably not going to stop someone like Trump, though; his campaign staff mainly seem to see clever targetting techniques in terms of cost optimisation, as a way of not wasting money on showing people messages that are less likely to convince them. If people want to spread the other ads for free, that just saves them some money. It's not even clear that sleazy tricks with microtargeting are actually a winning strategy; people really don't like finding out they're being tricked and social media is pretty optimized for spreading that kind of discovery.

Re: The Cambridge Analytica scandal isn’t a scandal: this is how Facebook works

#14

Post by m3kw9 »

HenryBemis wrote: post #10
ourmandave wrote: post #4

Summary below article title: Three key parts of Facebook’s model come into play: gathering data from people in order to profile them, designing systems that allow that data to be used to target people, then allowing third parties to use the data and those targeting systems for their own purposes Back in Nov 2017, when the senate was questioning Facebook, Google, and Twitter about the Russian ads during the election..…

Facebook treats people's volunteered information as goods-for trade. And business is booming!! Politics aside, I wonder how this will affect the "Russian intervention in US and UK politics" search for "truth". I am also expecting that UK authorities will be paying a visit to "Cambridge Analytica" and I hope we will find out the truth on what exactly they did for the UK Referendum, US Elections, and wherever else they…

how is this news to anyone? Just about every player in the free to use game will use or share your data either directory or indirectly.

Re: The Cambridge Analytica scandal isn’t a scandal: this is how Facebook works

#15

Post by slaunchwise »

mattmcknight wrote: post #11

Is it really that different from the 2012 campaign? "But the Obama team had a solution in place: a Facebook application that will transform the way campaigns are conducted in the future. For supporters, the app appeared to be just another way to digitally connect to the campaign.... That’s because the more than 1 million Obama backers who signed up for the app gave the campaign permission to look at their Facebook fr…

Whataboutism doesn't make it right.

Re: The Cambridge Analytica scandal isn’t a scandal: this is how Facebook works

#16

Post by simonh »

HenryBemis wrote: post #10
ourmandave wrote: post #4

Summary below article title: Three key parts of Facebook’s model come into play: gathering data from people in order to profile them, designing systems that allow that data to be used to target people, then allowing third parties to use the data and those targeting systems for their own purposes Back in Nov 2017, when the senate was questioning Facebook, Google, and Twitter about the Russian ads during the election..…

Facebook treats people's volunteered information as goods-for trade. And business is booming!! Politics aside, I wonder how this will affect the "Russian intervention in US and UK politics" search for "truth". I am also expecting that UK authorities will be paying a visit to "Cambridge Analytica" and I hope we will find out the truth on what exactly they did for the UK Referendum, US Elections, and wherever else they…

Let’s say that all the extensive evidence of these people doing this thing doesn’t exist... no thanks.

>How do people expect a spy.... to die?

Pretty sure the guy’s daughter and the British police officer incapacitated in hospital, by a military nerve agent with no cure, weren’t expecting to end up this way. I think you’ve been watching too many Bond movies.

Re: The Cambridge Analytica scandal isn’t a scandal: this is how Facebook works

#17

Post by BLanen »

mattmcknight wrote: post #11

Is it really that different from the 2012 campaign? "But the Obama team had a solution in place: a Facebook application that will transform the way campaigns are conducted in the future. For supporters, the app appeared to be just another way to digitally connect to the campaign.... That’s because the more than 1 million Obama backers who signed up for the app gave the campaign permission to look at their Facebook fr…

Yes.

>signed up for the app

Re: The Cambridge Analytica scandal isn’t a scandal: this is how Facebook works

#18

Post by stevenwoo »

jebeng wrote: post #5
leggomylibro wrote: post #2

Listening to Facebook is starting to feel like listening to an arms dealer who wants to sound remorseful. Well what did you think the very targeted things that you're selling to anyone would be used for?

I find it so hard to believe that everyone at Facebook is just shocked now to learn the realities of what they do. Their naivety and ignorance would have to be off the charts for it to be genuine.

Maybe it's a lot of young people fresh from college and they hear about the big five or whatever, and choose Facebook because they think of it as a social networking company and big, famous, and cool. Just an old guy's opinion - would not want to work there.

Re: The Cambridge Analytica scandal isn’t a scandal: this is how Facebook works

#19

Post by vvanders »

mattmcknight wrote: post #11

Is it really that different from the 2012 campaign? "But the Obama team had a solution in place: a Facebook application that will transform the way campaigns are conducted in the future. For supporters, the app appeared to be just another way to digitally connect to the campaign.... That’s because the more than 1 million Obama backers who signed up for the app gave the campaign permission to look at their Facebook fr…

I would argue the difference there was that was an explicitly political app where from what I understand the app that leaked this data wasn't political in any way.

Either way it's great to see some light shined on FB, this is exactly the reason I don't use their services.

Re: The Cambridge Analytica scandal isn’t a scandal: this is how Facebook works

#20

Post by mattmcknight »

BLanen wrote: post #17
mattmcknight wrote: post #11

Is it really that different from the 2012 campaign? "But the Obama team had a solution in place: a Facebook application that will transform the way campaigns are conducted in the future. For supporters, the app appeared to be just another way to digitally connect to the campaign.... That’s because the more than 1 million Obama backers who signed up for the app gave the campaign permission to look at their Facebook fr…

Yes. >signed up for the app

The Cambridge Analytica users also signed up for the app, and also gave up their friend lists. You are correct though in that the nature of the application Cambridge Analytica used was more deceptive as it was not identified as having a political purpose.
Post reply on HN