50M Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach • Hacker News Board

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

#91

Post by Nazare » Sat, Mar 17, 2018, 6:07 PM UTC

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,…

> Remember that Facebook gives you zero access to users’ data just for being an advertiser.

As an advertiser you can target users based on very specific details, and track any user that responds to your advertisement campaign.

You get all the access (AKA, you know which part of your customer base resulted from targeted ad campaigns, so anything you can target on, you can attribute to that subset).

Regarding elections and digital platforms, a Dutch policy advisory states that the government should disallow non-transparent political advertisements (all advertisements should clearly state who sponsored them and to promote which political cause, if any), and to ensure that political parties can not hide their trade-offs, they shouldn't be able to micro-target people with a different message (increase taxes vs. decrease taxes, depending on what makes the user more likely to vote for you).

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

#92

Post by avoidit » Sat, Mar 17, 2018, 6:20 PM UTC

matt4077 wrote: post #84

hux_ wrote: post #70

Can't wait for Sheryl Sandberg to write a new book now on garden soil or something.

Any reason to attack the one woman among the Facebook leadership and not, say, Mark Zuckerberg?

Because the others among the Facebook leadership are not going around writing and promoting books?

Also, do you genuinely not find it disconcerting that Facebook leadership go to great lengths to avoid discussing the privacy implications of their service? And the only person in that group who puts herself "out there", so to speak, is instead writing "success literature"?

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

#93

Post by CaptSpify » Sat, Mar 17, 2018, 6:22 PM UTC

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…

> The problem is that regular people no longer have a place to communicate.

Have email, chat, forums, physical letters, meetings, etc gone away for some reason?

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

#94

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 17, 2018, 6:26 PM UTC

olivermarks wrote: post #79

eecks wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Facebook explicitly commercially exists to harvest user data for Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Fidelity etc etc Sources on this?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/p-g-to-scale-back-targeted-face... Not hard to find information, although it is typically couched as brand reach and advertising spots. The big data sales side of FB and other sites is more sensitive and less overt https://www.facebook.com/help/494750870625830?helpref=uf_per...

[deleted]

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

#95

Post by IAmEveryone » Sat, Mar 17, 2018, 6:26 PM UTC

olivermarks wrote: post #79

eecks wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Facebook explicitly commercially exists to harvest user data for Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Fidelity etc etc Sources on this?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/p-g-to-scale-back-targeted-face... Not hard to find information, although it is typically couched as brand reach and advertising spots. The big data sales side of FB and other sites is more sensitive and less overt https://www.facebook.com/help/494750870625830?helpref=uf_per...

Your links do not support the idea of “harvest[ing] user data”. They describe the usual Facebook ad platform, where you can set criteria to target users. But nowhere does it mention data on individual users flowing from Facebook to advertisers.

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

#96

Post by stef25 » Sat, Mar 17, 2018, 6:31 PM UTC

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…

I guess if P&G uses the data to push me to buy some soap, it's less sinister than using that to influence an election. Commercial vs Political.

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

#97

Post by IAmEveryone » Sat, Mar 17, 2018, 6:35 PM UTC

avoidit wrote: post #92

matt4077 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any reason to attack the one woman among the Facebook leadership and not, say, Mark Zuckerberg?

Because the others among the Facebook leadership are not going around writing and promoting books? Also, do you genuinely not find it disconcerting that Facebook leadership go to great lengths to avoid discussing the privacy implications of their service? And the only person in that group who puts herself "out there", so to speak, is instead writing "success literature"?

Is there some specific evilness to writing books? Because I don’t see how her writing books is reason to single her out for criticism.

> Also, do you genuinely not find it disconcerting that Facebook leadership go to great lengths to avoid discussing the privacy implications of their service? And the only person in that group who puts herself "out there", so to speak, is instead writing "success literature"?

So you’re angry because they don’t talk about privacy. And you’re especially angry at her because ...she doesn’t talk about privacy?

That argument also doesn’t make much sense when comparing her to Zuckerberg explicitly, who’s at least as “out there” as she is. Didn’t he go on a “50 states listening tour” last year?

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

#98

Post by Spooky23 » Sat, Mar 17, 2018, 6:36 PM UTC

matt4077 wrote: post #88

jsmthrowaway wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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

#99

Post by beager » Sat, Mar 17, 2018, 6:40 PM UTC

oh_sigh wrote: post #89

auntienomen wrote: post #73

So... If I were in Cambridge Analytica's position, employed to influence the US election, one of the first things I'd do is match this data with any data I could find on voting patterns. Which reminds me, didn't some of the Russian APTs hack into state voter databases?

You don't need to hack into voter databases - most people register for the party they vote for and that is public information(along with their home address, phone number, and whether they voted in past elections).

You may not even need to cross-reference it, Facebook asks you what your political affiliation is and displays it on your profile (or did, at one point)

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

#100

Post by IAmEveryone » Sat, Mar 17, 2018, 6:41 PM UTC

sgroppino wrote: post #34

cryptoz wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was completely technically correct. It's a data breach. Plain and simple. > 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.

A data breach, yes, but I believe by GSR not FB? It seems like users did authorized FB to share data with GSR?

This is a stupid discussion. So I’ll continue it:

Facebook was authorized to have the data. CA was not authorized, at least not to retain the data. Therefor, it is a data breach. Facebook was the breachee, CA was the breacher. And Billy-Ray was a preacher's son.