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Facebook Suspends Another Data Analytics Firm After CNBC Discovers It Was Using Tactics like Cambridge Analytica (cnbc.com)
Facebook suspended a company from its site over the weekend while it investigates claims it harvested user information under the guise of academic research, in a case with echoes of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. From a report: Facebook is suspending a data analytics firm called CubeYou from the platform after CNBC notified the company that CubeYou was collecting information about users through quizzes. CubeYou misleadingly labeled its quizzes "for non-profit academic research," then shared user information with marketers. The scenario is eerily similar to how Cambridge Analytica received unauthorized access to data from as many as 87 million Facebook user accounts to target political marketing. CubeYou, whose CEO denies any deception, sold data that had been collected by researchers working with the Psychometrics Lab at Cambridge University, similar to how Cambridge Analytica used information it obtained from other professors at the school for political marketing.
That there was another one. The issue is that a news organization needed to point it out, instead of Facebook discovering this through the analysis of their access patterns from these firms. After they realized that one was doing this, they should have been analyzing to find others immediately.
How do you know they weren't already aware and just keeping it under wraps until CNBC forced their hand? It's pretty clear that FB, facing withering criticism, regulation, and potential legislative action, isn't motivated to be open about what it knows or does.
It is impossible to believe the Facebook did not know what was happening. They have every bit of data around their users including the variety of tracking methods which they employ so they can analyze what they get and identify what places these various users visit, where they are most likely located, etc. They could easily have stopped the Russian trolls, CA, and many others who were abusing the data which Facebook offers and the platform for communicating with others.
It's staggering to see companies so willing to sell out their country to make money. I remember a time when showing patriotism beat out personal gain. Now, we have companies like Facebook and the politicians (Republicans) in congress who put their personal agenda and gain above all else (including their own country) and it's truly depressing.