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50M Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach

theguardian.com

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Re: 50M Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach

#101

Post by forapurpose »

patja wrote: post #28

I was curious how the figure leaped from the 270k cited in the Facebook press release to this 50M figure. It sounds like they never had full access to the Facebook profiles beyond the 270k who installed the app, but just harvested the friend lists of those 270k. This doesn't give the app developer full access to the friends' profile data, but I guess once you have the network of friend connections you can use other p…

> It sounds like they never had full access to the Facebook profiles beyond the 270k who installed the app

That's completely speculative, and we don't need more speculative information ... I'd much prefer to wait for evidence.

Re: 50M Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach

#102

Post by rhizome »

jsmthrowaway wrote: post #78
mrtksn wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This all seems overly selective - it's ok for some people to profile but not for others What's the issue here? Selective information distribution is rooted in the society, people are O.K. with some information to be known to some people while kept secret from others due to implication differences. I.E. I'm fine to be profiled for selling me chocolates but I'm not O.K. to be profiled to be manipulated to select publi…

Sadly, the downside of the consumer data culture in which we live is that you don’t really get to make that call. It seems like data is really an all or nothing game at this point, regardless of how society feels about it. Not sure how to change that, either, and I don’t personally think legislation is the answer.

Sadly, the downside of the consumer data culture in which we live is that you don’t really get to make that call.

This can be changed, regardless of whether any of us is ready to throw up our hands about the whole situation as it stands.

Re: 50M Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach

#103

Post by [deleted] »

Spooky23 wrote: post #98
matt4077 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s really easy: you pass laws. Look at health records. HIPAA is rather successful at keeping your health data narrowly confined to those that need it. There is nothing that prevents similar laws to work for financial data, location data, etc. The only roadblock is people saying they “don’t personally think legislation is the answer”. Because there is literally nothing but law that can have an effect.

Good law is hard. HIPPA prevents gossip. That’s about it. The sales director for a drug manufacturer knows that you’ve filled a prescription before the claim is filed. Enfamil and Gerber knew the estimated due date of our baby — although the only interaction we had with anyone was a miscarriage at 8 weeks and a near fatal complication.

[deleted]

Re: 50M Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach

#104

Post by MechEStudent »

China has more. They have enough that this is a drop in the bucket. While they might be as blatant and ineffective as Russia by interfering with an election, they want a low profile and to maximize capture of revenue, so they are more about making money than trying to put feces on the face of the American political process.

You people should pick your battles. It would help if you knew the battlefield first.

Re: 50M Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach

#105

Post by mistermann »

dang wrote: post #77
doubt_me wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. It's not an "outing". 2. Johnson & Johnson doesn't work for Putin. 3. United States elections aren't crazy. Entire parties of Congress being blackmailed into submission by foreign influence is crazy. 4. It's not overly selective. 5. I hope it has an extreme political bias. 6. Facebook commercially exists because the United States has shit privacy laws. 7. How much did Putin pay you to gas light articles? 8. A mill…

> How much did Putin pay you to gas light articles? That is an egregious violation of the guidelines and a bannable offense on HN. If the rest of the internet is losing its mind, that makes following HN's rules more important, not less. > Let's not forget about that one time you This also crosses into personal attack, which is not ok. Heated political arguments are bad enough without users trying to take each other o…

Something I have been noticing for quite some time now is an increasing tendency for people to seemingly believe they can read other people's minds &/or the future, or that they somehow have an omniscient insight into the world. You might expect this on Facebook or Reddit, and I know this will not please most people here, but it is becoming rather common on HN as well.

To those of you who disagree with me, keep this idea in the back of your mind for a while and remember it as you read comments. Make a serious effort to notice how many people know what other people's motives are for their beliefs, how they know the real reason for certain policy decisions, how they know what Putin or Trump are thinking and what they are going to do in the future, how they know China is going to fail now that they've gone full-on communist dictatorship (because history "guarantees" it), etc.

I honestly don't think I am imagining this, I think something very historically significant is happening to the psychology of the public.

Re: 50M Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach

#106

Post by IAmEveryone »

olivermarks wrote: post #44

My problem with this 'outing' of CA is that Facebook explicitly commercially exists to harvest user data for Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Fidelity etc etc so they can profile us. A million dollars is chump change in the crazy US election game. This all seems overly selective - it's ok for some people to profile but not for others. I'm not in favor of any of it to be clear but there is a definite political bia…

This is simply not true: There is NO indication that Facebook ever allows data on specific users to flow from their platform to advertisers.

Only apps have limited access to the data that you agree to share in the app install dialog.

The article you linked does not even mention any of the companies.

Re: 50M Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach

#107

Post by mistermann »

MechEStudent wrote: post #104

China has more. They have enough that this is a drop in the bucket. While they might be as blatant and ineffective as Russia by interfering with an election, they want a low profile and to maximize capture of revenue, so they are more about making money than trying to put feces on the face of the American political process. You people should pick your battles. It would help if you knew the battlefield first.

How about this idea: what if the Russian bots aren't actually Russian? How has no one considered this possibility?

Re: 50M Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach

#108

Post by rhizome »

DangerousPie wrote: post #60
cryptoz wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every single definition I find classifies this as a data breach. > A data breach is a security incident in which sensitive, protected or confidential data is copied, transmitted, viewed, stolen or used by an individual unauthorized to do so.

But they were authorized to access the data, weren't they? The problem wasn't that they accessed it, it was that they used it for things they weren't allowed to.

Everybody with an FB app key is "authorized to access [the] data," but the API TOU says you can't save anything.

I'm imagining the crux of the CA issue is that they saved stuff.

Re: 50M Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach

#109

Post by forapurpose »

allthenews wrote: post #52

Let's be realistic here. This headline is nothing but partisanship. The only reason this is exaggerated as a "data breech" is because of the connection to the Trump campaign. The real scandal is that such data is so easily harvested and freely available. I'd be interested in seeing how much of facebook's data repository was used in targeted political ads by all parties. Including Russian agitators who have been shown…

It's essential to hold the President publicly accountable for his actions, especially when illicit actions pervert the foundation of the United States, the democratic process. That's not partisan; that's normal, healthy democracy; that's the primary public good provided by journalism.

Re: 50M Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach

#110

Post by rhizome »

IAmEveryone wrote: post #80
urlwolf wrote: post #42

OK, this feels like it will bring about the end. Of something. Facebook? Massive use of data for political campaigns? Anything? If we keep consuming news like this, and do nothing, it's going to scalate massively. Same way as when Snowden told people they were spyed on and they collectively shrugged and continued with their lives as if nothing had happened. We, people in tech, have a massive moral burden to educate '…

To a certain degree, this is a problem that Facebook has already taken steps against in the last years. Remember that Facebook gives you zero access to users’ data just for being an advertiser. This scheme relied on users granting access to an app. Data access by apps was curtailed two or three years ago to no longer include friends’ data. The permissions dialog has also become far more granular. From my observation,…

FB has known all of this since it happened two years ago and only admitted it when a journalist asked them about it.
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