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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

#241

Post by mch82 »

John_KZ wrote: post #64
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 '…

The problem is that regular people no longer have a place to communicate. It used to be that the workplace, church, neighborhood or union meetings were the place to socialize and discuss these issues and take collective action. Now we have nowhere to turn to. Modern nomadic culture alongside temporary jobs, low trust and personalized news all make sure that we cannot take collective action on anything. We need to fin…

If you include the word “privately” then some of the criticism you’re receiving may fall away. “Regular people no longer have a place to communicate privately”.

This is increasingly true. Actions are increasingly recorded. Privacy is increasingly undermined. We have a big problem on our hands.

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

#242

Post by mch82 »

mrtksn wrote: post #21
734786710934 wrote: post #2

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

Don't you think that it can be a breach in the same sense of a breach by phishing? After all, both of the cases are about people giving their "secrets" for one reason but the info being used for something else. I mean, in the case of traditional phishing the user is tricked to provide the password by impersonating a banking site, getting their funds stolen and in the case in question, the users are tricked to provide…

Interesting comparison.

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

#243

Post by blablabla123 »

verylittlemeat wrote: post #217
blablabla123 wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

The first one links to NYTimes Blog though. I mean now you see on general news coverage about cellphone chip companies -- absolutely uninteresting 10 years ago. Apparently voters were already manipulated to some degree at that time. But now it got even more. But at the same time technology immersed to much into day to day life that everybody is also interested in pure technology news.

On the other hand all journalists become more technical at the same time, so they have to digest some stuff from the past. Obviously even older news...

I guess it's fair to say that Techcrunch or ZDNet are not exactly great sources for usage of Big Data in politics...

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

#244

Post by evedawned »

zombieprocesses wrote: post #223
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 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. If you go back to 2008 election, the media was praising Obama as the first social media president. Remember how well obama used youtube, myspace, facebook, reddit and the burgeoning social space during his election? I…

Using Facebook to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote is vastly different than harvesting data to build a surveillance machine

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

#245

Post by thisisit »

threeseed wrote: post #133
thisisit wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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. Not only conglomerates but anyone with the money and know-how. Example P&G proxy fight: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-procter-gamble-trian-inve... Neubecker said he has seen several ads on his Facebook feed that link to Trian’s…

Sorry what are you talking about ? Please provide some evidence that anyone with money and know how can harvest tens of millions of accounts from Facebook. Your example does not address this and seems just like normal Facebook targeting to me.

Pardon my ignorance but what was Cambridge Analytica doing if not using advanced analytics for Facebook targeting?

I don't think Facebook has a section where someone can talk about what stocks they might hold. So, if the HF was able to target specific people who owned P&G stocks then I think it was an efficient targeting, maybe not as much of scale of US elections but enough to turn the voting in their favor.

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

#246

Post by willstrafach »

thomzi12 wrote: post #238
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…

Did you not read the article? Millions of users took a personality test that had nothing to do with politics, and that data was sold to the Trump campaign for targeting. When did Obama’s campaign ever do that?

I think a lot of commenters did not read the article at all and are misunderstanding the “issue” to be use of big data, versus the fact that this specific data was obtained on tens of millions of people in what appears to be a very unethical manner.

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

#247

Post by willstrafach »

mistermann wrote: post #194
stevenwoo wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How - the special counsel Mueller has subpoena authority. First link from indictments in list form. The one I saw on TV was that guy with Hillary in a cage in parades - he was paid by Russians to make it. I also remember reading about the pro and anti gun rallies at that Texas state park - the Russians made the Facebook page for both sides in that little incident. https://mashable.com/2018/02/16/indictment-russian-tr…

I've heard all sorts of the juicy details, it makes a great story there's no doubt. What I'm looking for is some substantial, verifiable evidence to overcome my suspicions at how perfect of a story it is, as well as some of the inconsistencies. For example: > Presumably Mueller used that subpoena on Facebook and internet providers and the Russians didn't try to hide very hard and used mostly Russian ip addresses . So…

> Russians didn't try to hide very hard and used mostly Russian ip addresses.

This is incorrect. The indictment explains it. They routed their connections through US-based VPNs to appear as if they were American users.

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

#248

Post by _ptgt »

tanilama wrote: post #207
gfodor wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explain the difference in semantics between the two because the mechanics sound the same, best I can tell this company was just running ads like everyone else. Creating psychological profiles of voters to craft messages to them to pursuade their vote I believe is the same thing as political advertising and is exactly what Obama's campaign were doing and had countless fawning articles written about them (just Google i…

It comes down to motivation. Obama is a career politician, but Bannon is an ideologist. The former seeks to get elected, the latter seeks to plant ideas and change the society in a fundamental way. To me, Bannon is much more dangerous than Obama, because he is subversive. Technically, there might be little difference, but Bannon clearly excels at using this tool to a greater effect, and the result is far more impactf…

I agree with your discomfort on Bannon's agenda, but aren't you conceptually backwards here? If Bannon is evil not because of his agenda but because he wants to bring societal change, isn't the same true for Abraham Lincoln?

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

#249

Post by tensor »

zombieprocesses wrote: post #223
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 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. If you go back to 2008 election, the media was praising Obama as the first social media president. Remember how well obama used youtube, myspace, facebook, reddit and the burgeoning social space during his election? I…

If you had read the article, you would have seen that it is the elites who are running these operations. The "liberals" are not the ones who are the elites, it's the ones with money funding this sort of thing. It very clearly names the contributors, I suggest reading it.

There is still no evidence that 2008 had any foreign influence. The tactics used in 2008 did not include the sort of misinformation information warfare now being conducted.

In contrast, in Brexit and Trump's wins this article is claiming that there is conclusive foreign interference.

Regarding the establishment, the only propaganda campaigns I can see being waged are against the mainstream news (the ongoing fake news propaganda) and against the tech companies who I suppose are "new money" and not in with the oil and finance czars funding this sort of thing.

The article is really interesting, you should read it. It basically suggests that democracy has largely failed in the age of information warfare. Targeted campaigns by rich elites and foreign governments can now influence votes and psychology on a massive scale. It's no longer about "my side and their side." All of us are on the losing side here.

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

#250

Post by hanspeter »

thomzi12 wrote: post #238
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…

Did you not read the article? Millions of users took a personality test that had nothing to do with politics, and that data was sold to the Trump campaign for targeting. When did Obama’s campaign ever do that?

270.000 users.
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