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

independent.co.uk

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

#21

Post by SolarUpNote »

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'd like to see which country the ad / news post / video is coming from. Stick a little flag icon on it.

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

#22

Post by fny »

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…

This is completely different. Cambridge Analytica deliberately lied and deceived users about the intention of the application they created to harvest information about users:

> Like all app developers, Kogan requested and gained access to information from people after they chose to download his app. His app, “thisisyourdigitallife,” offered a personality prediction, and billed itself on Facebook as “a research app used by psychologists.” [0]

Cambridge Analytica is also in the business of using manipulation and psychological techniques to convince users of an outcome. And this isn't something I'm making up, the CEO of Cambridge Analytica peddles this as the potential of his platform: https://youtu.be/n8Dd5aVXLCc

The most damning aspect is his naked promotion of misinformation under the newspeak of "Behavioral Communication" where he suggests comparing the effectiveness of using "Private Beach" vs "Sharks Sighted" as a deterrent.[1]

He also continued to revel in his company's ability to manipulate after the election.[2]

[0]: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/03/suspending-cambridge-an...

[1]: https://youtu.be/n8Dd5aVXLCc?t=1m45s

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bG5ps5KdDo

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

#23

Post by mattmcknight »

vvanders wrote: post #19
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.

That the app's purpose was disguised is definitely true. I would suggest that there a large number of applications that use Facebook logins are primarily designed to monetize the information gathered from the access that provides. I would also suggest that the users of the Obama campaign application were not aware that the purpose was to gather information on from their friend lists in order to support targeting advertisements at people they couldn't get phone numbers for.

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

#24

Post by darawk »

fny wrote: post #22
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…

This is completely different. Cambridge Analytica deliberately lied and deceived users about the intention of the application they created to harvest information about users: > Like all app developers, Kogan requested and gained access to information from people after they chose to download his app. His app, “thisisyourdigitallife,” offered a personality prediction, and billed itself on Facebook as “a research app us…

> This is completely different. Cambridge Analytica deliberately lied and deceived users about the intention of the application they created to harvest information about users:

Yes, but lots of apps are deceptive about what they do with data.

> Cambridge Analytica is also in the business of using manipulation and psychological techniques to convince users of an outcome. And this isn't something I'm making up, the CEO of Cambridge Analytica peddles this as the potential of his platform: https://youtu.be/n8Dd5aVXLCc

That's called advertising. Obama's campaign did the same thing (and so did every other modern political campaign).

> The most damning aspect is his naked promotion of misinformation under the newspeak of "Behavioral Communication" where he suggests comparing the effectiveness of using "Private Beach" vs "Sharks Sighted" as a deterrent.

That one is actually somewhat significant, although it's not clear that lying is exactly a novelty in politics.

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

#25

Post by mattmcknight »

fny wrote: post #22
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…

This is completely different. Cambridge Analytica deliberately lied and deceived users about the intention of the application they created to harvest information about users: > Like all app developers, Kogan requested and gained access to information from people after they chose to download his app. His app, “thisisyourdigitallife,” offered a personality prediction, and billed itself on Facebook as “a research app us…

The application is different, but not 'completely different". The use of friend lists harvested from an application to target ads was not known by users. Much of political campaigning, and advertising in general, is exactly as you describe, "using manipulation and psychological techniques to convince".

I would agree with you that the purpose of the application was deceptive, but don't most applications that use Facebook logins attempt to monetize this data?

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

#26

Post by randomname2 »

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…

A former Obama campaign official is claiming that Facebook knowingly allowed them to mine massive amounts of Facebook data — more than they would’ve allowed someone else to do — because they were supportive of the campaign.

In a Sunday tweet thread, Carol Davidsen, former director of integration and media analytics for Obama for America, said the 2012 campaign led Facebook to “suck out the whole social graph” and target potential voters. They would then use that data to do things like append their email lists.

When Facebook found out what they were doing, they were “surprised,” she said. But she also claimed they didn’t stop them once they found out:

https://ijr.com/2018/03/1077083-ex-obama-campaign-director-f...

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

#28

Post by gaius »

randomname2 wrote: post #26
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…

A former Obama campaign official is claiming that Facebook knowingly allowed them to mine massive amounts of Facebook data — more than they would’ve allowed someone else to do — because they were supportive of the campaign. In a Sunday tweet thread, Carol Davidsen, former director of integration and media analytics for Obama for America, said the 2012 campaign led Facebook to “suck out the whole social graph” and tar…

Right. That’s what this boils down to. Facebook was backing Hillary, and their candidate lost. Now they need a scapegoat to deflect the blame for failing to deliver.

For the record I was for Bernie.

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

#29

Post by Spooky23 »

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.

I’ve worked in places that were pretty fubar. People work very hard to find ways to whitewash what they do. Nobody wants to be the bad guy.

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

#30

Post by [deleted] »

randomname2 wrote: post #26
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…

A former Obama campaign official is claiming that Facebook knowingly allowed them to mine massive amounts of Facebook data — more than they would’ve allowed someone else to do — because they were supportive of the campaign. In a Sunday tweet thread, Carol Davidsen, former director of integration and media analytics for Obama for America, said the 2012 campaign led Facebook to “suck out the whole social graph” and tar…

[deleted]
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