UK, Australia Investigating Facebook Amid Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal (go.com) 40
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.
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According to Wired:
https://www.wired.com/story/what-did-cambridge-analytica-really-do-for-trumps-campaign/ [wired.com]
"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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Gangbang Lookout (Score:3)
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.
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Looks like Facebook is to be the whipping boy
*THIS*. It is interesting that they are going after Facebook rather than going after Cambridge Analytica. A company whose registered address is the home of a dodgy used car sales man. This man is listed on their website as the company director yet denies he is, Cambridge Analytica was registered as a business under the name of his trust, and when asked about it he rushed out to de-register the company. Better still all employees in the company in Australia are fake.
It's amazing how much here is directed at
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Facebook is shady, because people didn't know that it wasn't just their data that was being shared with Farmville, it was their friends' data. And their friends had not agreed to that. And Facebook knew it was happening, but didn't act quickly to stop it.
Just failing to build safeguards against that sort of abuse in the first place is pretty shady. In the EU companies handling personal data have a legal obligation to protect it, and it appears that Facebook failed in its duty.
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It's not only that that's an issue from the memo, but that he admitted Facebook was willfully violating data protection law in countries like the UK. That's a real problem for him because you can be held individually responsible in the UK for data breaches if you willfully engaged in them as he has admitted to with his questionable practices claim.
There is a personal liability clause in most (all?) European data protection law implementations for employees who willfully breach it. It's rarely applied becaus
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How would avatars help when people want to post photos of themselves? And then tag those photos, and talk about seeing "Dave and Jessica at the party"?
Even without your real name, it's not hard to link a profile to you. Especially for Facebook, which has bugs all over the web and a detailed graph of your relationships and acquaintances.
Recently we have been seeing stories about sex workers and clients being recommended to each other on Facebook, despite never having used Facebook for communication. Most lik
Saw it coming (Score:2, Insightful)
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 rid
Trumped up (Score:3)
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.
The ONLY reason this is an issue (Score:1)
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Umm, there are a few differences in HOW Facebook and user data was used by Obama, Hillary and Trump.
http://www.politifact.com/trut... [politifact.com]
A relevant summary from that site:
"The Obama campaign created a Facebook app for supporters to donate, learn of voting requirements, and find nearby houses to canvass. The app asked users’ permission to scan their photos, friends lists, and news feeds. Most users complied.
The people signing up knew the data they were handing over would be used to support a political camp