The Cambridge Analytica scandal isn’t a scandal: this is how Facebook works • Hacker News Board

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

#141

Post by bushin » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 9:46 AM UTC

madeofpalk wrote: post #138

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…

Okay so one thing I'm interested in is why is CA so evil, and is the role they played any different to what Obama used in his midterms campaign? > The Obama 2012 campaign used data analytics and the experimental method to assemble a winning coalition vote by vote. In doing so, it overturned the long dominance of TV advertising in U.S. politics and created something new in the world: a national campaign run like a loc…

> What's different

Disclosure and funding.

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

#142

Post by sheepmullet » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 9:46 AM UTC

danso wrote: post #80

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, because the Obama backers signed up for an app that was clearly affiliated with the Obama campaign. Were these backers assholes for knowingly wanting to spam their friends with Obama propaganda? Sure, because everyone hates spamming. Cambridge Analytics is accused of using data that was harvested from a quiz app that was purportedly the creation of a Cambridge professor. I think that CA is being accused of somet…

> Yes, because the Obama backers signed up for an app that was clearly affiliated with the Obama campaign

The Obama app was misleading - it was not at all clear about how the users Facebook data would be used - the key difference is at least they knew the app was political in nature and they likely supported Obama.

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

#143

Post by lmm » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 9:57 AM UTC

bigiain wrote: post #79

mattmcknight wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is ad targeting undemocratic?

"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." That's how.

That tells you that Facebook is undemocratic, not that America is.

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

#144

Post by strawcomb » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 10:15 AM UTC

madeofpalk wrote: post #138

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…

Okay so one thing I'm interested in is why is CA so evil, and is the role they played any different to what Obama used in his midterms campaign? > The Obama 2012 campaign used data analytics and the experimental method to assemble a winning coalition vote by vote. In doing so, it overturned the long dominance of TV advertising in U.S. politics and created something new in the world: a national campaign run like a loc…

Why is CA so evil? There's just been an expose:

https://www.channel4.com/news/cambridge-analytica-revealed-t...

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

#145

Post by walterstucco » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 10:34 AM UTC

colordrops wrote: post #101

AndyMcConachie wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CA sound like a bunch of scumbags and I'm glad people are shining light on these kinds of activities. However, I'm not convinced what they did was really all that new or interesting. This is our modern world and it's terrifying. Call it marketing, propaganda, fake news or disinformation, we're being manipulated constantly by numerous unattributable actors. The more interesting question to me is why is CA being called…

> The more interesting question to me is why is CA being called out for it? I mentioned this in another thread and got immediately downvoted, which I predicted would happen. I will add more context here to perhaps avoid that. What I said was: "What changed is that an attack vector has been found to take out Cambridge Analytica. The Democrats are in full political warfare with the Trump regime, and this is just anothe…

> The Democrats are in full political warfare with the Trump regime

but they are not using those weapons

What's so special about Iran or North Korea working on a nuclear bomb, when many other countries already have it?

Well... you know...

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

#146

Post by walterstucco » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 10:39 AM UTC

madeofpalk wrote: post #138

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…

Okay so one thing I'm interested in is why is CA so evil, and is the role they played any different to what Obama used in his midterms campaign? > The Obama 2012 campaign used data analytics and the experimental method to assemble a winning coalition vote by vote. In doing so, it overturned the long dominance of TV advertising in U.S. politics and created something new in the world: a national campaign run like a loc…

> What's different here?

Cambridge Analytica and Facebook tried to deny their involvement and cover their behaviour

That says something

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

#147

Post by madeofpalk » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 10:50 AM UTC

strawcomb wrote: post #144

madeofpalk wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay so one thing I'm interested in is why is CA so evil, and is the role they played any different to what Obama used in his midterms campaign? > The Obama 2012 campaign used data analytics and the experimental method to assemble a winning coalition vote by vote. In doing so, it overturned the long dominance of TV advertising in U.S. politics and created something new in the world: a national campaign run like a loc…

Why is CA so evil? There's just been an expose: https://www.channel4.com/news/cambridge-analytica-revealed-t...

I asked my question after I read these articles and watched both the 16+ minute reports.

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

#148

Post by dna_polymerase » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 12:19 PM UTC

jiveturkey wrote: post #69

dna_polymerase wrote: post #46

This whole thing is just a convenient excuse for people to explain how Trump got into office. People uploaded their whole shitty lifes onto Facebook while everyone out there warns you to not do that. Yet people argued that they need a place to connect to their friends and all the other crap that FB-users come up with to explain this shitty move (much like cigarette-addicts). Also it is pretty clear how that data is s…

You are perhaps over-reacting. It's not a bullshit story, it's real. Yes, it is just more of the same but that doesn't make it any less real. We shouldn't allow one instance of evil to slide just because other instances have gotten away with it. Anyway from a tech standpoint this might be exciting times. It could very well be the end of $FB. I doubt on its own it would be enough, but if someone has been working on a…

I am not overreacting. I don't care for Facebook or CA. But people knew this could happen.

> We shouldn't allow one instance of evil to slide just because other instances have gotten away with it.

What evil exactly? People gave their data to FB and decided not to listen to everyone warning them. It's in FB's ToS that they will sell your data and they did. What evil did happen here? People may didn't like what was done here but seriously they could have avoided it.

> G+ are you listening!!

So the next big headline will be G+ sold data to CA?

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

#149

Post by dna_polymerase » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 12:20 PM UTC

matt4077 wrote: post #87

dna_polymerase wrote: post #46

This whole thing is just a convenient excuse for people to explain how Trump got into office. People uploaded their whole shitty lifes onto Facebook while everyone out there warns you to not do that. Yet people argued that they need a place to connect to their friends and all the other crap that FB-users come up with to explain this shitty move (much like cigarette-addicts). Also it is pretty clear how that data is s…

So... you’re saying people have been warned of the dangers of sharing data, yet nothing untorwards actually happened? Those two dtatemts seem to be contradictory.

Nothing happened that wasn't completely in the scope of warnings privacy advocates would repeat for the last decade.

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

#150

Post by strawcomb » Tue, Mar 20, 2018, 1:19 PM UTC

madeofpalk wrote: post #147

strawcomb wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is CA so evil? There's just been an expose: https://www.channel4.com/news/cambridge-analytica-revealed-t...

I asked my question after I read these articles and watched both the 16+ minute reports.

Some examples: they admit in interviews to lying to obtain votes. They propose entrapping their client's opponents by bringing girls to them, or by giving them an offer 'too good to be true'. They give the impression there isn't much they won't do.