Facebook Sells User Data

There’s something I’ve taught my kids for years… if you aren’t paying for it, you ARE the product. How did people think Facebook made money?

Facebook is facing a crescendo of questions about how its user data came to be harvested for political purposes as investors continue to take fright at the risk the scandal poses to its business.

Claims by the New York Times and UK media that Cambridge Analytica tried to influence how Americans voted using information improperly gleaned from 50 million Facebook users have already seriously hurt its brand.

The London-based data analysis firm worked on President Donald Trump’s campaign. It has denied the claims and says it did not use Facebook data in the 2016 campaign.

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1006, 20 March 2018

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Culture | Politics | Technology

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6 Comments

okydoky on March 20, 2018 at 11:42 am

I know that is true, i get hacks to my laptop emails and the only way it can be is FB because the 5 people are connected to me but not to ea other. One is now deceased.
Jason on March 20, 2018 at 1:34 pm

I just read that the FTC has opened an investigation into this. I haven’t heard much about what’s been done with Equifax and their loss of far more, and far more personally identifiable data. Priorities are a bitch.
dad29 on March 20, 2018 at 3:20 pm

Facebook CLAIMS that Cambridge’s behavior was prohibited by Facebook.

Really. That ‘s what they claim.
billphoto on March 20, 2018 at 4:31 pm

Tweets from Carol Davidson, former campaign director, on March 19th:

Facebook was surprised we were able to suck out the whole social graph, but they didn’t stop us once they realized that was what we were doing.

They came to office in the days following election recruiting & were very candid that they allowed us to do things they wouldn’t have allowed someone else to do because they were on our side,” she added, in a subsequent tweet.

And Zuckerburg is silent. Hoping the Deep State will bury this?
MjM on March 21, 2018 at 5:23 pm

To be clear: “…Carol Davidson, former [Obama] campaign director….”

Yes, of course FB, Google, Yahoo, etc., etc., sell you. You swanky new iPhone is tracking your every move. Anyone who doesn’t know this is an idiot. Those that don’t care get what they deserve. “Social Media” is anything but. It’s a giant Hoover sucking in all the info you willingly offer up (and even that which you think you are being sly about), and then selling you to whoever asks.

This is not news.
jjf on March 21, 2018 at 5:33 pm

A USA Today reporter found a Wisconsin connection with Cambridge Analytica.

https://twitter.com/BySteveReilly/status/975854771591634944