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Facebook Gets Hit With Four Lawsuits Over Cambridge Analytica Scandal (sfgate.com) 102

Posted by BeauHD from the rough-week dept.
Facebook has had a terrible week. Since it was revealed that political data firm Cambridge Analytica obtained information about 50 million Facebook users, the social media company has been in damage control mode, apologizing for its mistakes and conducting forensic audits to determine exactly what happened. SFGate reports today that Facebook "has been hit with four lawsuits in federal court in San Francisco and San Jose thus far this week." From the report: One lawsuit was filed by a Facebook user who claims the Menlo Park company acted with "absolute disregard" for her personal information after allegedly representing that it wouldn't disclose the data without permission or notice. That lawsuit, filed by Lauren Price of Maryland in San Jose on Tuesday, seeks to be a class action on behalf of up to 50 million people whose data was allegedly collected from Facebook by London-based Cambridge Analytica. The lawsuit says that during the 2016 election, Price was "frequently targeted with political ads while using Facebook." It seeks financial restitution for claims of unfair business practices and negligence. Both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica are named as defendants. Cambridge Analytica also announced today that the company will undergo an independent third-party audit to determine whether it still holds any data covertly obtained from Facebook users. "We take the disturbing recent allegations of unethical practices in our non-U.S. political business very seriously," CEO Alexander Tayler writes. "The Board has launched a full and independent investigation into SCL Elections' past practices, and its findings will be shared publicly."

UPDATE: Eighteen enforcement officers have entered the Cambridge Analytica headquarters in London's West End to search the premises after the data watchdog was granted a warrant to examine its records, reports The Guardian.
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Facebook Gets Hit With Four Lawsuits Over Cambridge Analytica Scandal More

Facebook Gets Hit With Four Lawsuits Over Cambridge Analytica Scandal

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  • hypocrites (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Ritz_Just_Ritz ( 883997 ) on Friday March 23, 2018 @07:58PM (#56317015)

    It was fine when Obama was mining facebook, but now worthy of being drawn and quartered.

    If it wasn't for double standards, the left would have no standards at all.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      But Obama didn't use "researches" to get data from unsuspecting people... it's a bit of a difference. They followed the TOS and didn't trick people.
      Still a bit shitty in my book, but a huge difference.

      To say what Obama did and the neo Republican party is doing is bonkers at best. That's like saying, hey... Obama spent lots of time golfing, so that makes it OK for Trump to play golf at his resorts on the taxpayer dime. You're completely ignoring the main issue of Trump making money for his estate and exploit

    • If it wasn't for double standards, the left would have no standards at all.

      Don't tell me you're like the gaslighting Obamabots, still going off of what the man said vs what he did.

    • After Vad poisoned that double agent guy the Brits are not having it any longer. The'll go after everyone with ties to the Russian government. So yes, it was the logical consequence.

    • Re:hypocrites (Score:5, Interesting)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Saturday March 24, 2018 @05:22AM (#56318227)

      It was fine when Obama was mining facebook, but now worthy of being drawn and quartered.

      If it wasn't for double standards, the left would have no standards at all.

      It has nothing to do with Obama and everything to do with nonsensical rage of the day. These days when the media gets a hold of anything it becomes an instant drama, regardless if it represents business as usual, has been ongoing for many years, or is just plain expected.

      Seriously a lady is suing someone for getting political advertisement on a platform that is used for advertisement. The HORROR!

      I think the problem is not red or blue, but rather that everyone has become stupider.

      • The "March for our Lives" gun control march has been kept at the top of the news BY THE MEDIA for the last 30+ days. Do you think a national pro-life (anti-abortion) march would gain the same favorable coverage? Hell no . . . the only coverage it would get would be of its pink hat-wearing counter-protesters.

        • The "March for our Lives" gun control march has been kept at the top of the news BY THE MEDIA for the last 30+ days. Do you think a national pro-life (anti-abortion) march would gain the same favorable coverage? Hell no . . . the only coverage it would get would be of its pink hat-wearing counter-protesters.

          And the relevance is what? It is still the very same example. Media gets a hold of something and dramatises it. If it is something that doesn't get clicks or (for some media outlets) fit their political agenda, then they move on.

          They used to move on from gun control quite quickly as well, but right now it is a hot topic that people show interest in, so they keep running with the stories.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Cambridge Analytica broke not only the Facebook ToS, they broke the law in the UK and maybe the US. The broke the law to assist one side in the EU membership referendum, and one side in the US election.

        Obama's campaign stuck to the rules, they used their own app and didn't harvest data on friends who had not given permission.

      • Gotta get your daily injection of outrage. "I don't know why I'm mad as hell, but I'm sure not going to take it anymore!"

      • Actual foreigners were working at Cambridge Analytica. If they worked on projects for American elections that's illegal. If Americans paid them that's collusion.

        Obama didn't pay foreigners to influence Americans. Everything points to Trump doing exactly that.

        That's why this is different.

        • It's why it's different, but it's not why anyone cares. Why anyone cares is due to rage of the day. Actually the only people here who care about the distinction are partisan defenders of their favourite orange MonkeyOTUS who insist that he can either do no wrong, or when caught that others were just as wrong.

          But that isn't being reflected at all in the media.

    • Russia wasn't heavily involved with Obama's facebook operations. That's the huge difference and why it matters this time. Clearly you get your news from a single source. And that's bad.

    • Well, they could always go to the right if they needed a matching pair of them.

      Need to invert some parts or swap some parts around to make them suitable for their use, is all.

  • Butt Money (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    That's what we call it here.

  • they've now had days to destroy/remove data from the premises. Reportedly, employees have been seen carrying boxes out of their London Headquarters after a judge was reluctant to issue a warrant immediately. Anything gathered from that location at least will likely be worthless. Smacks of a major cover-up/ass covering.

    Time for Wikileaks to get their feed on.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by namgge ( 777284 )
      Hiding or destroying evidence is contempt of court. When the chips are down, very few employees are willing to risk prosecution and jail in order to help their employer.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Unless it is done by Hillary Clinton by bleach-bitting a server or smashing a smart phone with a hammer, right?

    • Re:Cambridge Analytica in damage control... (Score:4, Informative)

      by jrumney ( 197329 ) on Friday March 23, 2018 @09:35PM (#56317357)
      A warrant to search Emerdata [businessinsider.my] would probably turn up all those boxes that were carried out in the past few days.

    • Smacks of a major cover-up/ass covering

      When someone wants you dead you don't give them an inch of rope. No sane company or person would have advanced notice of a suspected raid and NOT clean out their house.

      To the best of my knowledge I have nothing illegal here or on my PC, but if I found out that someone was asking for a warrant to seize my electronics they would find me here three days later with an Amish hat asking the police to explain what a computer or this new concept of "electricity" actually is.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        They could end up in trouble for destroying evidence. They will have to explain how they knew things, where data came from, and when it was deleted. If an email turns up referencing something that was removed in those few days, there are consequences for the cover-up.

        • They could end up in trouble for destroying evidence

          I never said anything about destroying evidence. You can't get in trouble for someone not finding something they expected to find in the location. If the prosecutor knows a document existed and there's evidence that it was destroyed THEN they can be charged. There are plenty of legal ways to avoid handing over something that isn't specifically mentioned. That's what raids are about. Typically when there is a raid on an office you're looking for evidence of a crime without knowing the specifics. If you know

  • Ahhh, got it (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Friday March 23, 2018 @08:09PM (#56317065)
    The sheeple have finally figured out FB's business model, FB is running for the hills figuring the average sheeple has an IQ south of 100, yet being idiots, the sheeple are finally thinking FB is fucking them over big time.

    / never had a FB account
    // been warning friend/acquaintances for years about this
    /// my reward? fuck all. suxs being the prophet of doom when doom shows up
    //// Kids decided the way to keep up with the grandkids was via FB
    //// Still no FB account, see them this weekend, should be interesting

    • Re:Ahhh, got it (Score:5, Insightful)

      by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Friday March 23, 2018 @08:20PM (#56317109) Journal

      The sheeple have finally figured out FB's business model,

      The news has all been, "Facebook has made a horrible mistake," not "this is normal for Facebook." So you know, gosh darn it, they better not do it again back to browsing memes.

    • The sheeple have finally figured out FB's business model, FB is running for the hills figuring the average sheeple has an IQ south of 100, yet being idiots, the sheeple are finally thinking FB is fucking them over big time.

      Most people don't - or more accurately didn't -care a whole lot if they are monetized. In a ideal world, their data wold be used merely to sell them stuff. But it ain't an idealized world, and the sheer amount of money in facebook's hands, the corruption that that much money brings, and outfits like Cambridge Analytica just happy to serve and advance that corruption just made the situation inevitable. So not just the US election, but Brexit are now under scrutiny.

      Now perhaps they might find a big change

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      They got a good few years of growth after the PRISM news.

    • fuck all. suxs being the prophet of doom when doom shows up

      This is doom? This looks like business as usual. I have plenty of other ways to describe it:
      Tempest in a teapot
      Storm in a teacup
      Mountain made out of a molehill.

      I mean some of these people saw ADS! OH THE HUMANITY!!!!!

    • Common sense dictates that one should post only information they are willing to have publicly divulged.
      Why would anyone believe there is any security anywhere outside one's own private world?
      Even our own US Constitutional privacy laws are abused - by even our recent administrations, and corporations!

  • How bad was Facebook's week? (Score:4, Informative)

    by hey! ( 33014 ) on Friday March 23, 2018 @08:09PM (#56317067) Homepage Journal

    Its market valuation dropped 75 billion dollars.

    • The whole market is just above long term support now. If it drops 1% more, it could set off a lot of algo and technical trading that could take it down another 5% in a day or two. Hopefully at that longer term support, they'll start buying again. If that longer term support broached, there is no telling where the bottom is at that point.

      • You think technical analysis actually works. Cute.

        • Well, yes. I retired at 51, after all. Perhaps I was just lucky with my technical picks. A couple 35%+ returns on a big pile and avoiding almost all the decline in 2008-2009 (I was out at 13,200) were all fed by good old fashioned technical analysis.

          More importantly, I believe that a lot of other traders believe it and many Algo's appear to use it. And I've seen the stocks drop 10% within 5 minutes when technical support was broken more times than I can remember.

          I also believe in fundamental analysis.

  • They can just get it from the ISP (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    We all remember Republicans pushing through that bill for ISP's to do exactly what facebook did, right?

  • "What's past is prologue."
    Now the fun begins.

    Sometimes you hate lawyers, sometimes you like them.

  • It is time for Stormy weather (Score:3, Informative)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Friday March 23, 2018 @08:39PM (#56317163) Journal

    Guccifer 2.0, Cambridge Anal. and Species Jumping...

    It's all coming together quite nicely. Trump lawyers heading for the exits is a good sign. Top law firms telling him, "Nah, we're good. Best of luck, Mr President". Hires a warmonger to be his new National Security Advisor. I'm old enough to remember when people said Trump hated foreign wars.

    Trump signs the Democrats' spending bill and headed to Mar-a-Lago for a week. I know what he'll be watching on TV Sunday night. Best believe Melania's got a legal team combing over the pre-nup and the NDA. Stormy's got pictures and video. Karen McDougal's got receipts. Mueller's checking off boxes.

    All this in the last three days. It seems like only last week that his third consecutive endorsee in a congressional election went down to defeat. Oh wait, it was just last week. Oh yeah, I forgot: Breitbart guys were caught on tape trying to bribe a lawyer to lie about his client. What am I forgetting?

    #WINNING

    • Top law firms telling him, "Nah, we're good. Best of luck, Mr President".

      Ooh yeah, baby, when I read about this yesterday--I cannot lie to you: I LOL'ed. You bet your sweet ass I did.

      I'm thinking that they don't see him getting away with trying to flip the script on the Mueller investigation, either.

    • PopeRatzo said:

      Guccifer 2.0, Cambridge Anal. and Species Jumping...

      It's all coming together quite nicely. Trump lawyers heading for the exits is a good sign. Top law firms telling him, "Nah, we're good. Best of luck, Mr President". Hires a warmonger to be his new National Security Advisor. I'm old enough to remember when people said Trump hated foreign wars.

      Trump signs the Democrats' spending bill and headed to Mar-a-Lago for a week. I know what he'll be watching on TV Sunday night. Best believe Melania's g

    • I'm no Trump fan, but how is this "winning"? Let's say, for the sake of argument, he ends of getting impeached (incredibly unlikely even for him, given how historically difficult it is to actually make that happen) -- we all would end up with President Pence. Is that what you really want?

      • Let's say, for the sake of argument, he ends of getting impeached (incredibly unlikely even for him, given how historically difficult it is to actually make that happen) -- we all would end up with President Pence. Is that what you really want?

        It's a start. If you ask people from Indiana, you'll learn that Pence is actually pretty weak and mealy-mouthed and would be little more than a place-holder.

        • I would say, "be careful what you wish for." Because odds are he would have a lot less friction with the Republicans in Congress and be able to get a lot more traditional Republican agenda-type stuff done. I do think Trump is done after this term anyway -- not because he gets impeached, but because he doesn't really want the job (he just wanted to win the election, but is now learning that the job itself is miserable, at least compared to what he's used to) and won't run for re-election. So my guess is t

    • "Guccifer 2.0, Cambridge Anal. and Species Jumping......"

      Off topic I know, but.....

      I just want to say: Mr. Ratzo I love love love your posts so much. Thank you. Please keep on writing.
      (Oh, and welcome to California.)

  • Like hogs at a trough (Score:3)

    by SlaveToTheGrind ( 546262 ) on Friday March 23, 2018 @09:27PM (#56317335)

    Here come the class action lawyers jockeying for position. Something like this is virtually an automatic payoff for not much work.

    • Something like this is virtually an automatic payoff

      Something tell me using a platform that serves you ads and harvests your data with full knowledge and then suing them for seeing and ads and having your data harvested won't be much of a payoff. About the only thing lawyers here will make is attorney fees.

      • Something tell me using a platform that serves you ads and harvests your data with full knowledge and then suing them for seeing and ads and having your data harvested won't be much of a payoff. About the only thing lawyers here will make is attorney fees.

        Something tells me you've never been very close to actual litigation, much less class action. In broad strokes, the deep pocket has just been caught with its hand in the cookie jar (and, if the media accounts are close to correct, has essentially admitted it screwed up). That's a story FB will not want to reach the jury, so it'll most likely settle -- for a lot less than the potential liability in a worst-case jury verdict, but still a sizable sum in an absolute sense. The class action old hands know thi

  • We need to shut down Facebook... (Score:3)

    by Blinkin1200 ( 917437 ) on Friday March 23, 2018 @09:31PM (#56317351)

    We need to shut down Facebook until we can figure out what the hell is going on!

    or something like that. heard a loud orange person say something similar to that.

    I need to pop more popcorn.

  • The entire social network of the US (Score:3, Informative)

    by knorthern knight ( 513660 ) on Saturday March 24, 2018 @12:54AM (#56317779)

    Carol Davidsen, Obama's capaign media director, at a 2015 TED TALK! (YES!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] about what the Democrats did in 2012. They pulled in the entire Facebook social network for the USA into their database.

    The juiciest part is at 19 minutes into the talk. If you don't want to wade through the first 19 minutes, click on the following link that jumps directly to minute 19 of the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] She mentions that Facebook gave the Democrats special treatment "because they were on our side".

    • Selective listening. They got friend lists from people who opted in. That is vastly different from what you said. You know what you want to believe and aren't evaluating facts to see if your beliefs are true.

      You linked directly to it. Watch it again and this time listen.

    • She mentions that Facebook gave the Democrats special treatment "because they were on our side".

      I just listened to the entire TED Talk and she never said that - at least not in that TED Talk.

      She did say

      So Facebook, 2012 election, had the ability for people to opt in. The Obama campaign rocked this, right? We got people to opt in and the privacy policies at that time on Facebook were that if they opted in they could tell us who all their friends were. So they told us who all their friends were.

      They took advantage of the privacy policies that were already set up.

      We were actually able to ingest the entire social network of the US that's on Facebook, which is most people.
      Where this gets complicated is that freaked Facebook out, right?
      So they shut off the feature.

      So Facebook "freaked out" and "shut off the feature" according to her TED Talk.

      I did find the source of your partial quote. It's from a recent tweet [twitter.com] although it's not clear that she's talking about the same thing she was talking about in her TED Talk. It appears to be referencing a 2012 Time article about how they used that data whi

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