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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

#91

Post by jessaustin »

gaius wrote: post #28
randomname2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I convinced multiple members of my family to vote for Bernie, and then DNC wiped their asses with our votes.

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

#92

Post by jessaustin »

booleanbetrayal wrote: post #81
enraged_camel wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, the CEO of the company openly admitted to sending Ukranian hookers to opposition candidates' houses and hotel rooms and recording the interactions...

Robert Mercer's empire is crumbling.

This feels like wishful thinking... CA is like a few drops compared to the ocean of Renaissance?

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

#93

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

fny wrote: post #88
lopmotr wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because it's new technology doesn't make it bad. Hitler used PA speakers and radio advertisements to win the election. Politicians since then have all done the same. Then there was TV advertising, then Obama's targeted intelligent internet advertising, now this. Are you opposed to all political advertising? In that case, this is not the moment that it became bad. It started, well, with the beginning of human pol…

Of course, technology doesn't kill people. I never said it did. Right now I'm pointing fingers at people for what they're doing, not the underlying technology. A wise man once said, "Drain the swamp." It's my civic duty to point out swampiness unabashedly and impartially. Since CAs behavior, and by extension CAs customers, is inexcusable, swampy human behavior, I will stand against it. In the same way the DNCs action…

Yes. "Everyone does it and always has" is a very weak excuse.

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

#95

Post by jessaustin »

oxymoran wrote: post #33

The only thing surprising about this is that people are surprised about this.

At least now I won't be laughed out of the room when I tell friends and family that Facebook is horrible and they shouldn't use it.

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

#96

Post by andrepd »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #89
weego wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We're smart enough to not fall for it but the proles stand no chance" doesn't pass the smell test as anecdotal evidence. What they are doing is what marketing people have done for years, only we know from years of data and experience that these "profile and target" ad campaigns are barely above baseline for RoI. The classic one is people who move house are more likely to go on to buy a new car in 12-24 months so the…

Of course. But there's also the possibility that in this case the snake oil actually delivered an election result. RoI is actually irrelevant. The two bigger issues are that this shouldn't be being attempted, and - more importantly in a genuine democracy - it shouldn't even be possible.

>more importantly in a genuine democracy - it shouldn't even be possible.

My point exactly. "Democracy" on paper doesn't really matter if the elites are successfully and massively deceiving the voters.

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

#97

Post by andrepd »

moolcool wrote: post #54
fny wrote: post #36

This is a scandal, and we should not blur lines here. Facebook engages in surveillance capitalism. Cambridge Analytica engages in Orwellian practices of deliberate and targeted mass manipulation, actively deceiving users from the outset about it's intentions, and using lies as a means to an end. From the Facebook report on the reason CA was suspended: > Like all app developers, Kogan requested and gained access to in…

Apps and services not being forthright about what they do with your data is (unfortunately) the status quo. Facebook is the broker for this data in this case, and you'd be a fool to allot them any trust with it given their history. The Cambridge Analytica "scandal" is the system working as intended, but now with unpopular consequences. Who could have imagined that a suite of tools used to manipulate and target users…

Being the status quo doesn't make it any less scandalous.

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

#98

Post by andrepd »

canjobear wrote: post #61
fny wrote: post #36

This is a scandal, and we should not blur lines here. Facebook engages in surveillance capitalism. Cambridge Analytica engages in Orwellian practices of deliberate and targeted mass manipulation, actively deceiving users from the outset about it's intentions, and using lies as a means to an end. From the Facebook report on the reason CA was suspended: > Like all app developers, Kogan requested and gained access to in…

Is there any evidence that Cambridge Analytica's targeted manipulation techniques were effective?

The Trump election and the Brexit campaign are often named as the two most high profile successes of CA-backed campaigns. Since they both won by such small margins, one could wonder if it wasn't thst that gave them the final edge...

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

#99

Post by senectus1 »

booleanbetrayal wrote: post #81
enraged_camel wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, the CEO of the company openly admitted to sending Ukranian hookers to opposition candidates' houses and hotel rooms and recording the interactions...

Robert Mercer's empire is crumbling.

Could (and probably will) happen to a bigger douche bag. but I'm not unhappy its him atm

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

#100

Post by zzzcpan »

ikeyany wrote: post #48
stevenwoo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That explains the actions of (some of) Facebook's "rockstar" developers. That does not explain the actions of Facebook's data scientists, psychologists, product managers, and execs. Occam's razor - They knew, and perhaps they cared, but they cared far more about their salary and climbing the industry ladder to say no or blow the whistle.

You cannot really expect people who have to work for a living and do work for a vertically structured corporation to be ethical and to go against their bosses. The problem is inherent to capitalism and it can make people do far worse things than this, like killing people or promoting and making wars.
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