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Cambridge Analytica raided by UK data watchdog

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Re: Cambridge Analytica raided by UK data watchdog

#31

Post by the_cat_kittles »

cs702 wrote: post #14

In the blink of an eye, it seems, we have gone from a world in which collecting, storing, and using personal data for financial gain was largely viewed as a harmless activity, to a world in which doing those same things will be increasingly controlled and regulated, scrutinized, criticized, investigated, fined, and ultimately, I suspect, criminalized.

news reports and reported public opinion seem to have shifted rapidly. but lots of people have been very vocal about how this is bad for a long time.

Re: Cambridge Analytica raided by UK data watchdog

#33

Post by rsynnott »

nightcracker wrote: post #2

Too late...

Ultimately, this is a company founded by Bannon, who’s nearly as good at hiring The Best People (TM) as Trump is (see Milo, for instance). These are not the world’s smartest people. Even if they did decide to indulge in a bit of illegal destruction of evidence, there is every chance they would fuck it up.

And destruction of evidence is probably not as common as people think in these cases; it’s a huge risk.

Re: Cambridge Analytica raided by UK data watchdog

#34

Post by olivermarks »

xr4ti wrote: post #28
lostlogin wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting how the collection of the same information by the likes of the five eyes is ok, yet for Facebook it isn’t.

Seems perfectly in line with restrictions on other dual use technologies, such as biological pathogens, nuclear fuels, etc.

The crackdown on free speech / Section 230 legislative changes is all part of this reining in of the 'information merchants'. https://www.eff.org/issues/cda230

Expect the launch of a shiny new 'social network' foundationed in 'safe' cryptocurrency commerce and led by an unknown fresh faced kid who 'invented it in his dorm room' and took no money from Russian offshore mob oligarchs...

Re: Cambridge Analytica raided by UK data watchdog

#35

Post by 46886532558 »

pjc50 wrote: post #19
cs702 wrote: post #14

In the blink of an eye, it seems, we have gone from a world in which collecting, storing, and using personal data for financial gain was largely viewed as a harmless activity, to a world in which doing those same things will be increasingly controlled and regulated, scrutinized, criticized, investigated, fined, and ultimately, I suspect, criminalized.

Years ago Bruce Schneier said that nothing would happen until there was the privacy equivalent of the Exxon Valdez / Bhopal / Chernobyl; a leak high profile and toxic enough to irrevocably change public opinion. Maybe this is that trigger event. The EU was ahead on this, adopting data protection rules from 1995, before even the first dotcom boom. I believe it's a legacy of fear of the Stasi driving opposition to surv…

Also the CCC and European hacker culture. I think in the US hacker culture is different and less political, because of the FBI suffocating its roots early on, and a general fear of leftist politics. In europe, and Germany in particular, the CCC and close structures have been really important correctives since before the internet. And they are like reeeally left wing anticapitalist idealists and antiauthoritarians, which plays part to their motivation.

Re: Cambridge Analytica raided by UK data watchdog

#36

Post by roywiggins »

lostlogin wrote: post #23
cs702 wrote: post #14

In the blink of an eye, it seems, we have gone from a world in which collecting, storing, and using personal data for financial gain was largely viewed as a harmless activity, to a world in which doing those same things will be increasingly controlled and regulated, scrutinized, criticized, investigated, fined, and ultimately, I suspect, criminalized.

It’s interesting how the collection of the same information by the likes of the five eyes is ok, yet for Facebook it isn’t.

At least in the US, there are legal prohibitions on government propaganda programs targeting Americans, whereas that's more or less entirely what Facebook is for. If the govt is caught running influence campaigns inside the US, there will be hell to pay- Congressional hearings, new legislation, etc.

Re: Cambridge Analytica raided by UK data watchdog

#37

Post by maxander »

cs702 wrote: post #14

In the blink of an eye, it seems, we have gone from a world in which collecting, storing, and using personal data for financial gain was largely viewed as a harmless activity, to a world in which doing those same things will be increasingly controlled and regulated, scrutinized, criticized, investigated, fined, and ultimately, I suspect, criminalized.

And this is the climate while tremendously powerful corporations consider personal data collection to be a lynchpin of their moneymaking strategy (i.e., advertising.) Once internet advertising becomes broadly recognized as being not worth the cost, the demand for this data could fall off a cliff- what will policy look like then?

I consider it a reason to be optimistic.

Re: Cambridge Analytica raided by UK data watchdog

#38

Post by nolok »

pjc50 wrote: post #19
cs702 wrote: post #14

In the blink of an eye, it seems, we have gone from a world in which collecting, storing, and using personal data for financial gain was largely viewed as a harmless activity, to a world in which doing those same things will be increasingly controlled and regulated, scrutinized, criticized, investigated, fined, and ultimately, I suspect, criminalized.

Years ago Bruce Schneier said that nothing would happen until there was the privacy equivalent of the Exxon Valdez / Bhopal / Chernobyl; a leak high profile and toxic enough to irrevocably change public opinion. Maybe this is that trigger event. The EU was ahead on this, adopting data protection rules from 1995, before even the first dotcom boom. I believe it's a legacy of fear of the Stasi driving opposition to surv…

In France we always had strong laws too (we basically adapted our super old laws for "files and info on paper" to "files and info on paper on a computer"), in decent part because Vichy.

Technically I could already ten years ago ask any company to show me every file they had on me, allow me to edit, and ask them to delete, and they had to comply. But the era on gigantic worldwide corp made this much harder to enforce, and thus much harder for user to enjoy their rights. I'm glad the EU moved forward on standardisation and enforcement at EU level.

No more "the data you refer to is in Ireland and owned by an Irish company that doesn't operate in France !" and crap like that.

Re: Cambridge Analytica raided by UK data watchdog

#39

Post by YorkshireSeason »

46886532558 wrote: post #35
pjc50 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Years ago Bruce Schneier said that nothing would happen until there was the privacy equivalent of the Exxon Valdez / Bhopal / Chernobyl; a leak high profile and toxic enough to irrevocably change public opinion. Maybe this is that trigger event. The EU was ahead on this, adopting data protection rules from 1995, before even the first dotcom boom. I believe it's a legacy of fear of the Stasi driving opposition to surv…

Also the CCC and European hacker culture. I think in the US hacker culture is different and less political, because of the FBI suffocating its roots early on, and a general fear of leftist politics. In europe, and Germany in particular, the CCC and close structures have been really important correctives since before the internet. And they are like reeeally left wing anticapitalist idealists and antiauthoritarians, wh…

    they are like reeeally left wing
The historical record of the extreme left is extremely pro-state, pro surveillance. Indeed, the Marxist corrective to freewheeling capitalism was a strong socialist state (to cover the period before communism emerges and the state withers away) [1]. Many modern surveillance techniques were pioneered or refined by the likes of the OGPU [2], the NKVD [3] and their equivalents in satellite states like the Stasi [4] in the GDR, or the secret police in China (sorry I have no good reference). Note that both Wilhelm Zaisser [5](founder of the Stasi) and Kang Sheng [6] (founder of China's secret police) had worked in Moscow under Stalin in the security services.

This is historically very well documented, but seems to be somehow unpalatable ...

[1] https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-m...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_State_Political_Director...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NKVD

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Zaisser

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kang_Sheng

Edit: replaced "left" by "extreme left" for additional clarity.

Re: Cambridge Analytica raided by UK data watchdog

#40

Post by IAmEveryone »

adamnemecek wrote: post #4

This is on the front page of reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/86qxrb/cambridge_anal... I’m guessing it’s real the building does look like the CA HQ.

It'd be incredibly stupid for CA to have destroyed any evidence[0].

Privacy protections are, as far as I know, completely a matter of civil law. The worst that one would expect from the facts known so far is a high fine, bankrupting the company.

Buy CA is toast anyway: no politician or reputable brand will ever want to be associated with them.

Destroying evidence, however, can rather quickly result in criminal prosecution.

So this doesn't make much sense even for the owners of CA. It's even worse for employees: their risk was mostly limited to losing their job when the inevitable happens. Participating in obstruction of justice for the sake of job security is borderline insane. That's actually the #1 reason why I mostly doubt conspiracy theories in the private sector.

The only way to possibly way to square destruction of evidence with rational thinking is the possibility of CA having engaged in things worse than currently known. Maybe they actually engaged in honeytraps or killing Kennedy.

[0]: Which doesn't mean it's not possible. They don't have the best track record as far as not-being-stupid goes.

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