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Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower Says Data From 87 Million Users Could Be Stored In Russia (cnn.com)
PolygamousRanchKid shares a report from CNN: Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie says the data the firm gathered from Facebook could have come from more than 87 million users and could be stored in Russia. Wylie added that his lawyer has been contacted by U.S. authorities, including congressional investigators and the Department of Justice, and says he plans to cooperate with them. Aleksander Kogan, a Russian data scientist who gave lectures at St. Petersburg State University, gathered Facebook data from millions of Americans. He then sold it to Cambridge Analytica, which worked with President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. "I know that Facebook is now starting to take steps to rectify that and start to find out who had access to it and where it could have gone, but ultimately it's not watertight to say that, you know, we can ensure that all the data is gone forever," he said.
Analysis of a Recent Facebook company announcement:
Buried in a company announcement was acknowledgement that nearly all of its users have been targeted to some degree.
That makes about 2 billion users whose privacy was leaked.
Also, Facebook was trying to collect patient data from hospitals:
The idea was to build profiles of people that included their medical conditions, information that health systems have, as well as social and economic factors gleaned from Facebook.
Also also, Diamond and Silk (two pro-Trump bloggers from the election cycle) were deemed unsafe for the community by facebook. Their followers no longer receive a notice when they make a new post.
From Facebook:
"This decision is final and it is not appeal-able in any way." (Note: This is the exact wording that FB emailed to [Diamond and Silk].)
You have to admit though, it's pretty funny to see Democrats, who for years made fun of conservatives for saying that Russia was a serious threat, now saying emphatically that Russia meddled and that Russia is threatening our democracy. Remember when Obama made fun of Romney for even bringing up Russia as a threat, making a flippant reply about the 1980s wanting their foreign policy back? Yeah, well who's laughing now? I suppose that we conservatives will have to satisfy ourselves with saying we told you so about Russia.
So FaceBook collaborated with the Russians. From the summary:
;-)
"Aleksander Kogan, a Russian data scientist who gave lectures at St. Petersburg State University, gathered Facebook data from millions of Americans."
... at the current diplomatic climate, none of that data could hurt me. The far bigger problem is that that data is likely also stored at Facebook servers where administrations that could actually hurt me, can access it.
... "the other guy did it worse", or "they're all at it, so why punish [my guy]".
What about "they're all at it, so we should punish ALL OF THEM?"
I think that the real problem is that the "Democrats" and "Republicans" are fully invested in maintaining their duopoly, and the overwhelming majority are playing along.
Go on, citizen, stamp the vote card. R or D, your choice.