Sir McGiven Posted March 24, 2018 Report Share Posted March 24, 2018 You may have heard recently, Facebook's value plunged $58bn over a data breach scandal. For those who haven't heard it yet, i will try to make it easier to follow as simple as i can because the companies, names, and other actors involved in it a little bit complicated... - There are 2 major sides and 2 minor sides involved in it, Facebook and a company named Cambridge Analytica (will be mentioned as CA) which worked for Trump's campaign. Steve Bannon, vice president of the company, used to be a senior advisor to Trump until he was fired in August 2017. Cambridge Analytica is a political consulting firm. - SCL Group, which does the work for CA, is a British PR firm. They are known for the personalized marketing messages, expertise in psychological warfare and influence operations. - And an individual named Alexander Kogan, a Russian-American researcher at Cambridge University. Now, it starts at Kogan. He creates a quiz app on Facebook. 270.000 people took the quiz but that app exposes a loophole and beside the people who took the quiz, it also collects data from the friends of the people who took the quiz, without any concent. It is even against Facebook's own policy and looks like Facebook turned a blind eye to this violation. Eventually, it is a huge data that harvested over 50 million Facebook users and according to the sources it has been majorly used for Trump's campaign and for the sides of Brexit. "OK, they have collected data from 50m. people, so what? How did it affect the elections or Brexit votes? How can anyone use it?" When you have access to such big valuable data, you can easily manipulate the people especially if your expertise on "Personalized Marketing Messages" (SCL Group) For example; To start with, Facebook collects your interactions on your account and turns it into data. Your likes, comments, dislikes, pages you follow, news sources you read every day, every single interaction is being recorded, being used as data and for advertisement algorithms. Of course, it is not hard to guess that FB's algorithms are smart enough to understand your political affiliation. What also Facebook capable to do is "Targeting". Based on your likes, Facebook pushes related ads to you or news or sponsored ads by the companies. So this data gives you an insight into "Who is going to vote for Trump", "Who is going to vote for Hillary" or specifically "Whose vote can change in any minute from any side to another" and you can personalize your advertisements according to that. I mean very sensitive, very very effective ads. as they have your sensitive information. I am putting here a good example I've seen online over what happened and how CA used this data for Trump's campaign. Quote With the kind of data Cambridge Analytica had, they would have been able to target, let’s say, the 12 voters in Riverdale, Arkansas, who it gathered had not made up their minds on whom to vote for, but had a high probability of moving. Or let’s say it could target the pro-Trump campaign to a set of people it was sure were disgruntled with the economic slowdown and resultant jobs. Pushing a certain kind of narrative to these voters over a period of time could certainly help them make up their minds. 1 The same example applies to Brexit as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markjazzbassist Posted March 24, 2018 Report Share Posted March 24, 2018 yeah im debating deleting my facebook profile, they are such a shitbag and zuckerberg is the definition of a capitalist. he just takes the money and doesn't care who's giving it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir McGiven Posted March 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2018 Still, you won't be able to delete your Facebook profile completely Mark as the site won't let you do it. You can only close the account temporarily and data you have provided to them will be stored always. The weird part is, except this one, if you have FB app on your mobile it stores even your phone calls and god knows what else... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibdane Posted March 24, 2018 Report Share Posted March 24, 2018 I went ahead and deleted my FB profile/app, even though I know they still have my data from the past. I'm not surpised that they'd do this. I really just dislike social media in general. Sir McGiven and markjazzbassist 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markjazzbassist Posted March 24, 2018 Report Share Posted March 24, 2018 Yeah I hate social media too and only have FB been looking for a way out, think this is it. Fuck off zuckerberg you scum helping trump and brexit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palfy Posted March 24, 2018 Report Share Posted March 24, 2018 I don't do FB or Twitter my business is on LinkedIn and I only connect to people that would use my services and have asked me to connect but don't message them, once I connect they will get Company email and address then it's down to them. Then I do TT which is a form of social media I suppose and whatsapp then that's me, my missus does FB and some of the stuff she shows me that people I know have posted fucking amazes me, talk about washing your dirty laundry out in public. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibdane Posted March 24, 2018 Report Share Posted March 24, 2018 I have a Twitter that I get on occasionally, but it's way less personal, since I don't post pictures/write statuses/etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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