UK, Australia Investigating Facebook Amid Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal (go.com)
Both the United Kingdom and Australia said Thursday that they have opened formal investigations into Facebook amid allegations that their citizens' data was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica. ABC News reports: The Information Commissioner's Office in the U.K. is "looking at how data was collected from a third party app on Facebook and shared with Cambridge Analytica. We are also conducting a broader investigation into how social media platforms were used in political campaigning," according to Commissioner Elizabeth Denham. The office will investigate Facebook, along with 29 other organizations that have not been named.
Earlier Thursday, Australia said it had opened a formal investigation into the tech giant amid allegations that Australian users' data was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica. "Today I have opened a formal investigation into Facebook, following confirmation from Facebook that the information of over 300,000 Australian users may have been acquired and used without authorization," Angelene Falk, Australia's acting information commissioner and acting privacy commissioner, said. According to Falk, Australia will work with international regulatory agencies to investigate whether Facebook violated the country's privacy act. Under Australian law, the commissioner has the power to issue fines of up to $1.6 million to organizations that fail to comply with the act, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Australia and the U.K. joined the United States and Israel in investigating Facebook's breach of privacy.
Earlier Thursday, Australia said it had opened a formal investigation into the tech giant amid allegations that Australian users' data was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica. "Today I have opened a formal investigation into Facebook, following confirmation from Facebook that the information of over 300,000 Australian users may have been acquired and used without authorization," Angelene Falk, Australia's acting information commissioner and acting privacy commissioner, said. According to Falk, Australia will work with international regulatory agencies to investigate whether Facebook violated the country's privacy act. Under Australian law, the commissioner has the power to issue fines of up to $1.6 million to organizations that fail to comply with the act, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Australia and the U.K. joined the United States and Israel in investigating Facebook's breach of privacy.
And they confirmed that they didn't continue to use the data because they didn't trust it and didn't know if they would continue to be able to get access to it. Because of primaries in the US are one different dates for different states, it probably only helped him in one or at most a few states.
Anyone know the date that TV ad was run so we can tell what states it may have helped Trump in?
According to Wired:
https://www.wired.com/story/what-did-cambridge-analytica-really-do-for-trumps-campaign/
"They did not, however, provide the raw data—things like demographic information, contact information, and data about how voters feel about different issues—on which that analysis was done."
So Trump's campaign didn't get access to the actual data. They did however spend $5 million on a TV ad during the primary based upon this information as they stated in an FEC filing. I don't know enough about advertising costs to know if that proves it was only a single ad or not like you claimed.
There's also evidence that Trump used their data to raise money after he at that point had self-funded the vast majority of funds for his own campaign. I can't blame him because when I ran for the state legislator, I got tired of writing checks out of my own pocket.
For using data to place a single TV ad during a primary? I doubt that.
Looks like Facebook is to be the whipping boy, that terrorist memo was extremely damaging and really problematic when it comes to laws regarding aiding and abetting terrorism, especially when Facebook generates far more views and ad impression during major terrorism incidents. Looks like a joint multi-nation investigation, where privacy as a wedge into the door for a much deeper investigation.
Reality is social media should be avatar based to take the sting out of it, much too damaging with real personality and ego up to being a punching bag. Sure you can data mine it when real, to manipulate people and society but it is really a bad idea because many can not handle that well. Avatars dealing with real world events is a lot safer, only people's avatars get attacked, rather than the people themselves being attacked.
Back to the terrorism aspect, if it is found that Facebook was purposefully promoting terrorism to drive views, than they should face the real penalties for that, no just a slap on the wrist because they were not actually involved in terror just promoting terror for profit. Under law, the means do not justify the ends, you pay penalties for the means and that means custodial sentences.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
You're right, not for that. Plenty to pick from.
Oh boy wow! We really have to pretend to be especially concerned about this, now that someone who doesn't have a (D) next to their name is doing it! Oh me oh my!
I really hate being right. As would a lot of tech dwellers out there who would have to agree. But how many of us have steered away from the ridiculousness of Facebook in the first place because we knew something like this would happen? I donâ(TM)t have a profile Iâ(TM)ve never had one and never will.
I remember when I used to jump on IRC and family, friends, even the freaking police (feds and local) constantly said âoeDonâ(TM)t put anything about your life online because itâ(TM)s riddled full of dangersâ. Well geniuses thanks for the advice, saved my ass and my lack of participation continues to protect me from I consider so blatantly obvious that if you were one of the people who had their account scraped and then went back to FaceBook after it happened, that would make you not only a victim of consumerism but in my mind it just makes you stupid.
As for the Australian Govt. who gives a shit what are they going to do to a vastly popular corporation like FaceBook. I would like to say what FaceBook did was negligently criminal but I like to consider that world is not that crap and that FaceBook isnâ(TM)t that important. And in my case yes, as for the userbase of Facebook, get out now itâ(TM)s a so much better view from where Iâ(TM)m sitting. Oh wait, you canâ(TM)t because you probably have bucket loads of personal shit on your account that you canâ(TM)t get rid of.
Just amazing how much outrage the media is trying to create over a single ad placed during a primary.
Hillary outspent Trump by nearly 2:1 according to:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/14/somebody-just-put-a-price-tag-on-the-2016-election-its-a-doozy/
It's just amazing to me how effective the data from CA was during the primary that Hillary still lost despite having so much more money.
People can't see the forest for the trees. Distrust of the government was well established before Trump came along. He leveraged that distrust as well as stating that he was going to increase 'backing' (budgets) for various government agencies. If a candidate with greater perceived integrity than Trump had done the same thing then it would have been a landslide win.
Title says it all
You are only concerned about crimes when it's the other party, eh? No shit you're a Republican cocksucker lol, this is why you're treasonous faggots.
Will FB even fight that? Why not just pay it and move on.
It's sad how people think her mocking of Trump's loss of a billion dollars on his leaked tax return was bad while she wasted 1.2 billion on her failed campaign was in any way comparable. She was fighting to help us while Trump's loss was just a business loss.
All the semi-official propaganda organs are really getting their knickers in a twist over this Cambridge Analytical scandal. But the funny thing is, this is 100% business as usual for Facebook.
The problem is not a couple bad apples at Cambridge Analytica. The real problem is panoptic Big Brother surveillance and the culture that considers it lawful and ethically acceptable. The problem is Facebook itself.
Don't worry, when this also turns out to be a nothing burger, I'm sure the left will try implicating a random 7-11 or something.
Investigating their sharing of data from registered users is one thing, but what about their collection of data from non-users? This insidious crap is what makes Facebook so damn evil.
The moment someone who has some kind of FB software on their smartphone receives or places a call or SMS with someone, that information (definitely who and when, not sure about message contents for SMS) gets recorded and sent back to the mothership at the next opportunity. They store your number and name in their contact list? That gets packaged up and sent off too. I do not know if they have any kind of integration with other services, but I would not be surprised if they did this same harvesting elsewhere.
A few weeks ago, someone I know fairly well online and hadn't spoken with for some time said that she missed talking to me and that maybe things would work better if I had her phone number instead. My response: I know that she uses WhatsApp, possibly other Facebook software on said phone, and I said no. I have, quite frankly, fallen in love with her and responding like that was very painful.
That's the problem. The fact that Facebook spread their tentacles outside those who have directly signed up. I refuse to be a node on Facebook's connectivity graph and it seems more and more as if I'm going to suffer for it.
Oh boy wow! We really have to pretend to be especially concerned about this, now that someone who doesn't have a (D) next to their name is doing it! Oh me oh my!
You actually dislike democrats more than hostile foreign powers. That makes you a treasonous piece of shit.
Your party is neck deep in Russian funds and bullshit, and Bob Mueller is going to fucking end you. Enjoy that, faggot.
That makes you a treasonous piece of shit.
You ACs love throwing that word around, but in reality it has quite a precise meaning. Holding an opinion never counts as treason.
You may now continue with your unthinking flamewar.
The actual hostile foreign power involved in US politics is Israel, snowflake.
You won't see or hear that fact on any of (((their media))), but it's too late. The Goyim Know.
Is because Trump may have used the information to target key demographic areas. Obama, Hillary did the same thing in past campaigns...but, I guess since they are "good little democrats"...THEY get a pass.
I'm not sure why this is a huge scandal now. The information about what Cambridge Analytica did has been out for over a year. They're not the first political group to data mine Facebook either. The Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns were both in direct contact with Facebook, and from what I've read the Trump campaign only used them during primaries. Beyond that point, the RNC was able to provide him with better data.
It's just amazing to me how effective the data from CA was during the primary that Hillary still lost despite having so much more money.
Hillary didn't lose the primary. Both Trump and Hillary won their primaries. That's why they were the Republican and Democrat candidates during the main election.
If you want to find out more of why Trump won, read Scott Adam's book Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter.
Facebook asked for it when it declined to promote the anti-Russian narrative: https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-cut-russia-out-of-april-report-on-election-influence-1507253503 It even ridiculed it at times: http://fortune.com/2017/12/13/facebook-russia-brexit-ads/ Unfortunatelty for Facebook, too much is at stake here, both politically and in terms of audience size. The pressure will grow until they get in line.