Facebook Data Collected By Quiz App Included Private Messages (nytimes.com) 30
In addition to the public profile data of up to 87 million Facebook users, political data firm Cambridge Analytica also reportedly harvested people's private messages, too (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source). The New York Times reports: On Monday, Facebook began informing people whose data may have been compromised by Cambridge Analytica through an app developed by the researcher Aleksandr Kogan. In its notifications, Facebook said that while the information harvested was largely limited to what was on people's public profiles, "a small number of people" also shared information from their Facebook timeline, posts and messages. Facebook did not specify how many people's messages were gathered and said it was taking as broad a view as possible when notifying people that their data may have been taken.
Facebook collected it all (Score:1)
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Mark Zuckerberg:
'We believe that we're going to be investigating many apps, tens of thousands of apps. And if we find any suspicious activity we're going to conduct a full audit of those apps to understand how they're using their data and if they're doing anything improper.'
But first we have to support the evil Russian narrative for the overlords, then maybe if you are lucky we'll start being responsible good citizens, maybe, on alternating Tuesdays, during full moons, and leap years, we promise.
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I can put a popup on my website that says, "By clicking 'I accept', I agree to sell you my teenaged daughter for $100."
You can click "I accept", and...
Guess what? It's still illegal for me to sell you my daughter.
Better luck next time, Mark.
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Missing from this whole controversy, (Score:5, Interesting)
is reporting on what happened to all the data collected on people who either never joined Facebook, or left it years ago. FB has made it its mission to collect all data possible on EVERYONE, but it seems only people who have been knowingly drinking that Kool-Aid are being notified and offered sympathy. What about all the private data scraped from people who never belonged to the club, and who therefore never signed on to have their lives on display to the highest bidders?
Seriously, it's starting to look as though the only real solution is to shut down FB, and destroy all copies of the data in their hands. There's still that huge trove of data that's already been let loose in the wild, but going nuclear on Zuckerberg's ass, (and all those investors too), would make the rest of these jerkoffs think twice about playing fast and loose with people's privacy. Sometimes pillaging and burning down a castle or two is the only thing that brings the kings and lords back into line.
We are Big Brother. (Score:5, Insightful)
I was just considering that the other day: party A and party B discussing party C on social media--party C NEVER having been on any form of social media.
It extends beyond simply "discussing." Take for instance name-tagging of friends in photos shared on FB (or on Apple Photos etc), which amounts to submitting a (usually) non-consenting third party's face into a facial recognition database.
The new surveillance state is distinguished from those hitherto existing, by the enthusiastic participation of hoi polloi in their own* surveillance [*as individuals and as a people]. Not only do we willingly carry tracking devices on our persons, we employ them to photograph, film, otherwise record and then publish on "social" media, snapshots and impressions of unwilling bystanders all neatly geo-located and time stamped. We amuse ourselves with shared videos of "public" altercations, without fearing for our own privacy --indeed, ensnared by too simple a division of public/private we are locked out from conceiveing of varying levels of privacy in the world outside our room, without even enjoying it in there.
In an age where everyone always carries a tracking and recording device, everyone is granted the opportunity, at any time, to be an informant.
Re:We are Big Brother. (Score:4, Interesting)
In an age where everyone always carries a tracking and recording device, everyone is granted the opportunity, at any time, to be an informant
Obviously, I agree with your entire comment. But I'd phrase that last part "everyone is granted the status of informant". It's not really 'everyone', of course; but the vast majority of smartphone users are spying on the people around them, simply by being in proximity while having WiFi, mobile data, and location services active.
It occurs to me that mobile phone usage and tracking is a kind of disease vector, and could be modelled with the same techniques and math used for epidemics. And the only vaccine, (and it's only partially effective), is to simply not carry a phone around.
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I signed up for Skype a while back, after avoiding it as long as I could. I denied access to my contacts, but it seemed to know a lot of people I had not spoken to for a decade or more. I guess they allowed it to check their contact lists and it spotted my email address.
Very creepy, not just for the invasion of privacy but being reminded of people I used to know and suddenly having them be able to see my availability on Skype.
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Who cares.
Negative sentiments will fade away, brand recognition will remain. When they as for the worlds most valuable brands, they ask "What brands do you know" and not "Which brands do you like".
There is no such thing as bad press Only no press is bad press.
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That's why the pinto is so successful.
zuckntrump (Score:1)
Two things will be gone by the end of this year: 1) facebook, 2) Humpty trumpty
Private Message (Score:3)
The users actually thought private messages had something to do with privacy?
Its social media, everything is for sale.
Apologies (Score:1)
Whoops, my bad. I'll look into taking steps to not let it happen again, starting......now. Again, sorry about that little detail!
- Mark
(p.s. if you agree with my politics then I have other services I'd like to offer you; everyone else need not apply)