Trying to understand what Facebook did. This helped me a little.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/20/facebook-data-cambridge-analytica-sandy-parakilas
I may be the densest of the dense but my Facebook is primarily vacation photos. I don’t see how that can be used for any nefarious political purposes.
I can see it. They look for your political leanings from your likes or comments, then they know if they should promote fake news in that direction for you. Or if a campaign should focus campaign lit or get out the vote info for you.
I get the question sometimes when I click on quizzes my friends have done whether I want to grant them access to my FB info. I always say no and skip the quiz/app. But now I think if my friend says yes, and they liked one of my posts, my post/opinion is getting scraped up and used.
I’m inclined to drop friends who do these quizzes going forward.
I prefer to keep my Facebook non-political and not associated with any controversy. To me, Facebook is for light things and fun. So no political group will gain anything by doing any data mining on my Facebook page.
I have my settings such that app platform is turned off so that third parties can’t access my data. I can’t do any quizzes, etc - I have always known those were pfishing for data so made sure I never did them and turned that setting off. I don’t have much personal stuff listed and rarely post anything.
Didn’t read the article, but I’ve been skeptical about FB for a LONG time (though I’m on it, mainly for my son’s college family page and long-distance relatives/friends).
I always wonder if FB can tell whether you read an article, even if you don’t “like” or react to it in any way. And can they tell how slowly you scroll past an ad (thus gauging interest)?
I could see it being a huge data trove.
Has any of you ever ran a paid ad campaign on Facebook? We had to do it for a class assignment. Only $10 to flash a couple of “ads” past a few chosen members… It was enlightening how narrowly the targeted subset can be segmented. Even if your page is completely non-political, if your friends mostly have one type of leaning, it is safe to assume that you are leaning the same way as well. And so on.
We have way more to be concerned about than just Facebook. Google i360 data mining.
It’s not just political ads. Advertisers have assess to your and all your friends’ data and use them in any way they see fit. I think it’s creepy, a bit like newspaper advertisers knowing where you live what you eat?
The particularly bad thing about this is that Facebook has known about it for 2 years and only came forward because the story was coming out anyway. They and others have become more like a public space, or a public utility, and they clearly need more regulation.
BTW - here’s a link to how you can tighten these things up. Most of us wouldn’t know that these vulnerabilities were there, because FB is making money off of them. They used to have a link for apps clearly visible on the left side column, but now it’s more buried.
Known about it for 2 years? You need to go back a little further. https://gizmodo.com/5948282/how-the-obama-campaign-uses-your-personal-information-to-get-your-money-and-your-vote
None of this is new. “Members” are a commodity to big data companies. There is no privacy when using their platforms. They track every click and how long you stay on each page. This should not be a surprise to anyone.
No, but the problem was with FB’s “friends permission” platform. It was buried somewhere under settings, not as simple as setting the privacy of your posts to “friends only” or “friends of friends”. It allowed companies to take all data from all the friends of someone who gave them permission. Those people giving permission likely thought it was a little, automatic thing, but it was much bigger than anyone suspected.
I see a lot of my friends on FB who click on various fun things like “take a test on…” “check out which famous person you look like” etc, after they visit the site it asks if you want to share your results on FB, by saying yes people are allowing that app to access the FB information, so every like you click it is shared by those apps.
Many websites also ask you if you want to log in with your fB acct, I always say no. It may be easier, but I do not want my FB information or what I buy on those sites shared.
My facebook is full of brags about my kids-- who just got a job offer, who aced a math test-- birthday and get well wishes for family and friends, and similar stuff.
I don’t friend students-- my own or the friends of my kids-- because it’s simply not prudent.
But there’s nothing there that couldn’t be on a billboard in Times Square.
Scroll to the bottom. The article link is on the left.
I use fb to a large degree. I don’t think I have been particularly targeted for the fake news as I don’t fit the group they were looking for. Additionally, over time I have frequently hidden from my newsfeed the stuff that is obviously fake.
If I am understanding right, the Obama campaign used the social platform very differently. They connected with voters and potential voters through social media. Yes, if you added their political apps, they had access to your data. That’s not a shock to me, because I don’t just automatically click through everything when I add apps to my phone whether through fb or iTunes. I click no to access to profiles, friends lists, camera, push notifications, location, etc. If I want to grant access, or need it for a feature of the app, I can add it later. These forms aren’t unethical IMO. Going back to the Obama one, if you sign up for a politically based app, then grant them permission to access your info, I don’t see the shock that they might use that info for political purposes.
If I understand correctly with this current controversy, users were tricked. They weren’t knowingly clicking on politically based quizzes or apps. They were playing fun, mindless games and granting permission for those results to be posted. That info and access was then basically stolen in order to target certain types of people for propaganda, fake news and political manipulation.
To compare the two seems more like comparing a typical popcorn commercial with subliminal advertising at a drive in movie.
Fake outrage. Consumer data has been big business for years. That rewards membership at retail establishments – all about data collection. Web email – data collection. Google, same.
It’s more than collecting your name and address that you knew you were giving up. They watch you and collect data about you in a way you don’t realize. Worse your data get collected because of what your friends did without you ever knowing. When I sign up for a rewards membership, which I don’t, none of my friends are affected. With FB, they collect your friends data without them ever knowing.
You don’t need to take a quiz to give up your data. If one of your FB friends participates, they are allowed to collect your data. Here’s some specific ways FB collects and uses your data.
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-find-out-everything-facebook-knows-about-you-2018-3?r=UK&IR=T
I’m a sucker for all those ridiculous things. My favorite is what I’d look like as a glamorous movie star and what country I was meant to live in.
Me, too. Until now. I deleted FB app on my phone. I changed the ad setting to never share. I thought I already did that. They somehow know what websites I visited. I never log in to any website with FB. I am guessing it was the phone FB app.