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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

#211

Post by blablabla123 »

gfodor wrote: post #176

I remember when the Obama campaign hired data scientists and used targeted social networking tools to pursuade voters who were on the fence and it was heralded as brilliant and the future of politics. I worked for a company crawling Facebook data by creating viral apps the year the original API came out. By now I am sure this is done by many companies. Why is any of this news? My understanding is that companies harve…

I guess the other question is why this hasn't been any news yet. But the answer might be that 10 years ago Tech wasn't much in the news because it was just not interesting for most people.

This has changed a lot in the last few years though, which might explain why the news agency now have to work through (at least!) 10 years of tech news backlog. I'd definitely like to see coverage of these topic from 'traditional journalists' who then bring this stuff into context and link it with politics for instance. It's a little sad that we needed the politic right and their friends to bring these things to public attention.

> Were any laws broken here?

In Germany they would have broken it by that. At least here every website needed already 10 years ago not only Terms of Services but also a data privacy section/page. Such a page would be of no use if you could collect data from people before they even visit your website.

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

#212

Post by blablabla123 »

traek wrote: post #158
heckanoobs wrote: post #153

I used to make fb apps, any app gets full access to fb's user graph as long as they request the relevant permissions. Users don't comprehend what permissions they are giving to apps they run. A quiz site getting full access is not surprising. Once an app has any amount of access the only thing stopping them from harvesting their own clone of your data is an agreement in the ToS that you won't store PII for more than…

> We should be asking why even an authorized API that can't stop you from copying the data doesn't count as a systemetized data breach. Is your argument that no company should offer any developer APIs at all? It's impossible to stop apps from storing data that they have access to, given malicious intent. This is like saying that the existence of the Google Calendar API is a "systemetized data breach" because an app c…

It's one thing to use the friend graph to show in your app who else uses it. That's pretty legit. The other use case is to store it to some database and keep it there.

FB provides since ~10 years widgets for showing who else is liking xy. I know these Social Widgets are not so customizable and thus not pretty enough to match some custom design but at least they provide some safety nets.

Maybe Facebook could just provide more Social Widgets/CSS customizability instead of letting people write their own "Facebook Extensions".

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

#213

Post by bmsleight_ »

gfodor wrote: post #176

I remember when the Obama campaign hired data scientists and used targeted social networking tools to pursuade voters who were on the fence and it was heralded as brilliant and the future of politics. I worked for a company crawling Facebook data by creating viral apps the year the original API came out. By now I am sure this is done by many companies. Why is any of this news? My understanding is that companies harve…

> Where any laws broken here ? Yes. The article mentions "British data protection laws were probably broken". NB Facebook lawyers have been trying to push the Guardian around. - https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/974995682124804099

IMHO, but I am not a lawyer - clearly the law was broken, Data Protection Act.

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

#214

Post by johnchristopher »

734786710934 wrote: post #2

This wasn't a data breach, it was a misuse of data by a third party.

If that third party wasn't sanctioned or authorized by the contract binding it with facebook then it's a breach.

(not sure if you meant /s)

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

#215

Post by andy_ppp »

This kind of work combining propaganda and disinformation with AI models and feedback into them to get a progressive change of belief is fascinating. I think of this as the first of many wars democracy will fight against AI and we are currently loosing.

This comment is from the “Duped” article that has a different headline and more detail.

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

#216

Post by raverbashing »

gfodor wrote: post #176

I remember when the Obama campaign hired data scientists and used targeted social networking tools to pursuade voters who were on the fence and it was heralded as brilliant and the future of politics. I worked for a company crawling Facebook data by creating viral apps the year the original API came out. By now I am sure this is done by many companies. Why is any of this news? My understanding is that companies harve…

Every advertisement should be ostensive

Using fb to advertise for Obama, Trump, etc, is ok

However that's not what has been done, but the a) use of shills and fake personas to pump up opinion b) creation of fake "grassroots movements" and "news articles" with a divisive purpose

https://thinkprogress.org/russia-facebook-pages-sophisticate...

https://www.reddit.com/r/RussiaLago/comments/7y6ola/there_ha...

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

#217

Post by verylittlemeat »

blablabla123 wrote: post #211
gfodor wrote: post #176

I remember when the Obama campaign hired data scientists and used targeted social networking tools to pursuade voters who were on the fence and it was heralded as brilliant and the future of politics. I worked for a company crawling Facebook data by creating viral apps the year the original API came out. By now I am sure this is done by many companies. Why is any of this news? My understanding is that companies harve…

I guess the other question is why this hasn't been any news yet. But the answer might be that 10 years ago Tech wasn't much in the news because it was just not interesting for most people. This has changed a lot in the last few years though, which might explain why the news agency now have to work through (at least!) 10 years of tech news backlog. I'd definitely like to see coverage of these topic from 'traditional j…

>I guess the other question is why this hasn't been any news yet. But the answer might be that 10 years ago Tech wasn't much in the news because it was just not interesting for most people.

This 100% untrue:

https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/how-obamas-interne...

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/10/exclusi...

These are only two links but let me assure you if you're interested google is full of articles from the 2008 election talking about how vital the internet and data was to the Obama strategy.

I very clearly remember these articles and many others at the time talking about the new "big data" strategies utilized in both 2008 and 2012. To me that is what makes this whole "we scraped data and stole the election for trump" narrative seem extremely suspicious.

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

#218

Post by salvar »

SZJX wrote: post #204
pm90 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this hard to understand? The same technology can be used for both good and bad. Obama used it to inform people about his polcies and get the out to vote. Trump used it to spread lies, falsehoods and half-truths. Essentially any media that was outlandish enough to become viral was promoted and promoted to hapless people who probably might have wondered why they were seeing so many distressing articles about Ame…

Yep. So Obama is just "good" and Trump is just "bad". Way to view things boy. At most this is your own political standards. Not anything that can be neutral and objective. Claiming one set of political ideas to be "right" is very dangerous.

Is it your view that all politicians roughly speak the same amount of lies vs. truth? That Trump's message is the same as Obama's message which is the same as any other political message?

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

#219

Post by salvar »

JPGalt wrote: post #160
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…

You are either intentionally being dishonest or you missed the point. The OP is saying that it is okay for some companies or more pointedly political ideologies to do things like this but if the leftist press or governments do not like the party and or candidate doing it then it is a problem. He should have used the work hypocrite because that is what is at the crux of this "issue"

What is the "leftist press"?
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