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[Cambridge Analytica], [Facebook], and Data Security.

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Posts

  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    zeeny wrote: »
    Listening to pod save america talking about the CA data use, it involved an app used for academic purposes? That you would log in via facebook, but not only did it harvest your data but also scrapped info from your friends/contacts list on your facebook.

    Which isn't an exploit, but a default fb settings behavior.

    It was more designed for marketing to you than political propaganda. Let's see if Facebook fixes that. I don't mind Facebook picking up that I have a kid and trying to sell cute little dresses to me. What I *do* mind is Facebook using the same system to send political propaganda.

    Where do you draw the line? At the very least you can have facebook adhere to the same election laws that tv stations have to follow when displaying political ads. That would prevent the foreign entities from targeting you with political ads. VAN/VoteBuilder which is used by the DNC and democratic candidates is built off datasets like what facebook has and it is used to get people out to the polls and to send direct mailers to potential voters. I'm going to wildly guess that most people here are ok with that type of usage?

    VoteBuilder is also regulated by the DNC to prevent abuse. As you may recall, there was a big scandal about that during the 2016 primary.

    XBL: Nox Aeternum / PSN: NoxAeternum / NN:NoxAeternum / Steam: noxaeternum
  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User, Moderator, Administrator admin
    Athenor wrote: »
    Yeah. There is no right to privacy in the US, and a lot of people don't realize that.

    Eh, that's sorta not true.

    There is no enumerated right to privacy but our case law has established a right to privacy.

    I'd be all for an actual amendment to spell it out though.
    There are also the 3rd and 4th amendments, which aren't explicitly about privacy, but are definitely privacy-adjacent (quartering of soldiers during peacetime and the search and seizure amendment). The fourth amendment is often argued as a right to privacy.

    8i1dt37buh2m.png
  • CelestialBadgerCelestialBadger Registered User regular
    Oghulk wrote: »
    spool32 wrote: »
    We could learn a lot from Germany’s overly ambitious and sometimes silly data privacy laws. I think Spool even had the idea for a data bill of rights. Which I agree with for the most part.

    The solution to this is, ultimately, a privacy amendment to the US Constitution. And let's not forget that this forum is Social Media, and crafting laws for Facebook also crafts them for Vanilla and for Penny Arcade!

    German data privacy laws get in the way of business like whoa, but they do protect privacy better than the wild west we have here in the USA.

    Like, I think tube in another thread mentioned that he's fine with data collection for automatic driving. And I agree with that! There are a lot of things where massive data collection and computational observation (as opposed to surveillance) can completely change the way we live. But until we have a serious conversation about our culture and the laws put in place we're gonna end up with more events like this.

    All well and good until Republicans find out how to use traffic data to cheat in elections. Perhaps by figuring out how to place polling stations in Democrat areas inconveniently, so you can't just stop by after work, but must take a special trip down a congested highway with a toll road.

  • ViskodViskod Registered User regular
    Nix wasn’t actually removed from anything because Cambridge Analytica is officially an LLC with zero employees.

    He also admitted to being a conduit between the Trump campaign and its super pacs, which is illegal.

  • VeeveeVeevee WisconsinRegistered User regular
    Hahnsoo1 wrote: »
    Athenor wrote: »
    Yeah. There is no right to privacy in the US, and a lot of people don't realize that.

    Eh, that's sorta not true.

    There is no enumerated right to privacy but our case law has established a right to privacy.

    I'd be all for an actual amendment to spell it out though.
    There are also the 3rd and 4th amendments, which aren't explicitly about privacy, but are definitely privacy-adjacent (quartering of soldiers during peacetime and the search and seizure amendment). The fourth amendment is often argued as a right to privacy.

    Those are just protections against the government doing that. Much like the first amendment, they have nothing to do with interactions between you and another person or corporation. As far as I'm aware, the need to consent to have your data mined isn't really a legal requirement and there isn't a law stating what can and can not be captured. As far as I can tell (IANAL), it seems like the thing holding up companies from fully data mining in secret is the Electronic Communications Privacy Act because secretly recording user information can be interpreted as intercepting electronic communications, but this theory hasn't been tested due to lawsuits being dropped, dismissed, or settled out of court instead of going to any kind of trial.

    Just add this to the long list of things Congress needs to fix.
    Viskod wrote: »
    Nix wasn’t actually removed from anything because Cambridge Analytica is officially an LLC with zero employees.

    He also admitted to being a conduit between the Trump campaign and its super pacs, which is illegal.

    I expect the next time I see him on the news it'll be because he's in a non-extraditing country. Or maybe Assange might get a bunk-mate for his Ecuadorian getaway.

  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    In an interconnected, online world, I think that more and more what we are seeing is the need for blocks of countries, not just single countries, to enact data privacy law

    I would support an international movement to develop basic standards to data privacy and upheld in international courts. When people in the UK do this to US citizens, it's not illegal in the US, but it is in the UK, and that's great and we can bring charges etc. But when it's the other way around? That's not good. We need international cooperation on how we are going to deal with big data, tech giants, social media, data harvesting, digital privacy etc, because it's something that happens in a world where national borders don't really exist in the same way, if at all.

  • JragghenJragghen Registered User regular
    https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/new-york-massachusetts-investigate-cambridge-analytica-facebook-n858401

    New York and Massachusetts have opened investigations into CA and Facebook.
    The New York and Massachusetts attorneys general on Tuesday announced a joint investigation into Cambridge Analytica, the data firm linked to Donald Trump that is accused of harvesting Facebook data of some 50 million unwitting Americans.

    As part of the investigation, the two attorneys general are issuing a letter to Facebook demanding the social media company provide information concerning the potential misuse of user data, which Cambridge Analytica allegedly obtained via a personality quiz. The letter also asks for all contracts, agreements and communications between the social media giant and Cambridge Analytica; its parent company SCL group; its CEO Alexander Nix; University of Cambridge researcher Aleksandr Kogan; and a former Cambridge Analytica employee, Joseph Chancellor.

    The attorneys general are also investigating why Facebook did not tell users or the public that the data was handed over to a third party. Facebook said in a statement on Friday that they learned about the violation of its terms of service in 2015.

    The Federal Trade Commission is looking into Facebook’s use of personal data as well, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

    New York is the fourth state to announce a formal probe since Chris Wylie, who helped found Cambridge Analytica, alleged in The Guardian that the data analysis firm harvested Facebook data partly in the form of unrelated quizzes and then “weaponized” it in order to influence the 2016 U.S. election in favor of Donald Trump. Connecticut and Pennsylvania announced similar inquiries on Monday; so did Massachusetts, which then said Tuesday it would work with New York.

  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    Solar wrote: »
    In an interconnected, online world, I think that more and more what we are seeing is the need for blocks of countries, not just single countries, to enact data privacy law

    I would support an international movement to develop basic standards to data privacy and upheld in international courts. When people in the UK do this to US citizens, it's not illegal in the US, but it is in the UK, and that's great and we can bring charges etc. But when it's the other way around? That's not good. We need international cooperation on how we are going to deal with big data, tech giants, social media, data harvesting, digital privacy etc, because it's something that happens in a world where national borders don't really exist in the same way, if at all.

    We also need a tech industry that doesn't react to regulation much like a vampire reacts to sunlight as well. A lot of the problems we're seeing is in part due to the tech industry's refusal to consider regulation.

    XBL: Nox Aeternum / PSN: NoxAeternum / NN:NoxAeternum / Steam: noxaeternum
  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    And look, we have a new player:
    This has been a big weekend for news on the data firm that claimed to help get Donald Trump elected — Cambridge Analytica and the U.K. parent company SCL Group Limited. And now there’s one more twist, connecting SCL and Cambridge Analytica to someone else grabbing recent headlines, Erik Prince.

    Filings on U.K. Companies House show that the two top executives at Cambridge Analytica are Directors of a company along with one of Erik Princes’ closest business partners.

    On August 11, 2017, the company Emerdata Limited was incorporated in the U.K., and listed SCL Chairman Julian Wheatland as Director and 25–50% owner, and Cambridge Analytica Chief Data Officer, Alexander Tayler, was also listed as 25–50% owner. Both have since been removed as significant owners, but Wheatland is listed as an active Director, along with Alexander Nix, the Chief Executive of Cambridge Analytica.

    Emerdata was orignally located at 16 Great Queen Street London, the address for Fladgate LLP, which is listed in ICIJ’s Panama Papers database. But on February 18, 2018, Emerdata changed it’s address to Pkf Littlejohn 1 Westferry Circus Canary Wharf London, the same address for SCL Group.

    A few days ago the filings for Emerdata were updated, and noted three new Directors, including, Mr Ahmad Ashraf Hosny Al Khatib, Ms Cheng Peng, and Mr Johnson Chun Shun Ko, all appointed on January 23, 2018.

    A tip from @brexit_sham identified that one of the new Emerdata Limited directors, Mr Johnson Chun Shun Ko, is a very close business partner of Erik Prince.

    Erik Prince is Executive Director and Chairman of Hong Kong listed Frontier Services Group “a leading provider of integrated security, logistics and insurance services for clients operating in frontier markets.”

    The Executive Director and Deputy Chairman of Frontier is Mr. Ko Chun Shun, the same Johnson Chun Shun Ko who is a Director of Emerdata with Julian Wheatland and Alexander Nix of Cambridge Analytica. The address for Mr. Johnson Chun Shun Ko in the Emerdata listing is 3901 39 Floor, Far East Finance Centre, 16 Harcourt Road, Admiralty, Hong Kong, the same address as the Hong Kong headquarters for Frontier.

    It all comes back to the same people, doesn't it?

    XBL: Nox Aeternum / PSN: NoxAeternum / NN:NoxAeternum / Steam: noxaeternum
  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Solar wrote: »
    In an interconnected, online world, I think that more and more what we are seeing is the need for blocks of countries, not just single countries, to enact data privacy law

    I would support an international movement to develop basic standards to data privacy and upheld in international courts. When people in the UK do this to US citizens, it's not illegal in the US, but it is in the UK, and that's great and we can bring charges etc. But when it's the other way around? That's not good. We need international cooperation on how we are going to deal with big data, tech giants, social media, data harvesting, digital privacy etc, because it's something that happens in a world where national borders don't really exist in the same way, if at all.

    We also need a tech industry that doesn't react to regulation much like a vampire reacts to sunlight as well. A lot of the problems we're seeing is in part due to the tech industry's refusal to consider regulation.

    More then that what we need is a tech industry that uses a different business model because there's no way to solve this issue while basically every major new platform that comes out depends on harvesting people's private data and selling it to survive.

  • ViskodViskod Registered User regular
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica/cambridge-analytica-ceo-claims-influence-on-u-s-election-facebook-questioned-idUSKBN1GW1SG

    This Reuters story has an image slideshow and one of them is of giant storage crates being wheeled in and out of their offices en mass.

    And driven away in rental vans.

    Which totally doesn’t look like destroying evidence.

    The Information Commissioner couldn’t get their warrant signed off on last night after all and still doesn’t have one.

  • Giggles_FunsworthGiggles_Funsworth Blight on Discourse Bay Area SprawlRegistered User regular
    When Congress went after FB last year over fake news I thought it was kind of silly. Now I’m not so sure. I think a platform creator is responsible for the data they collect and harbor. And so far it’s been used for some really bad stuff. Illegal stuff? Maybe. But definitely bad stuff. The fact that FB engaged in a coverup re: CA issues is kind of surprising since FB pushes a very very power to the user, here’s a fun video of your birthday posts!, company culture and brand. I feel like those days are coming to an end. I would have put my money on Google or Amazon being the first of the big social data people to muck it up but it seems like Facebook went full in.

    To somebody closer to the company (lots of friends and acquaintances there, haven't worked there myself) it's not very surprising. All that shit is marketing.

    Whereas a lot of Google employees take the "Don't be evil." mantra seriously, and Amazon is too focused on implementing the Dark Enlightenment by the book to do something this risky. Facebook (and to a lesser extent Twitter) have always been my bets because they foster an internal company culture that's all about "disrupting" because you're a privileged white tech bro and fuck the long term consequences we're changing the world man.

  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    When Congress went after FB last year over fake news I thought it was kind of silly. Now I’m not so sure. I think a platform creator is responsible for the data they collect and harbor. And so far it’s been used for some really bad stuff. Illegal stuff? Maybe. But definitely bad stuff. The fact that FB engaged in a coverup re: CA issues is kind of surprising since FB pushes a very very power to the user, here’s a fun video of your birthday posts!, company culture and brand. I feel like those days are coming to an end. I would have put my money on Google or Amazon being the first of the big social data people to muck it up but it seems like Facebook went full in.

    To somebody closer to the company (lots of friends and acquaintances there, haven't worked there myself) it's not very surprising. All that shit is marketing.

    Whereas a lot of Google employees take the "Don't be evil." mantra seriously, and Amazon is too focused on implementing the Dark Enlightenment by the book to do something this risky. Facebook (and to a lesser extent Twitter) have always been my bets because they foster an internal company culture that's all about "disrupting" because you're a privileged white tech bro and fuck the long term consequences we're changing the world man.

    What was the motto? "Move fast and break things"?

    Of course, now that le merde is meeting la ventilateur, Zuckerberg is nowhere to be found.

    XBL: Nox Aeternum / PSN: NoxAeternum / NN:NoxAeternum / Steam: noxaeternum
  • mrondeaumrondeau Montréal, CanadaRegistered User regular
    When Congress went after FB last year over fake news I thought it was kind of silly. Now I’m not so sure. I think a platform creator is responsible for the data they collect and harbor. And so far it’s been used for some really bad stuff. Illegal stuff? Maybe. But definitely bad stuff. The fact that FB engaged in a coverup re: CA issues is kind of surprising since FB pushes a very very power to the user, here’s a fun video of your birthday posts!, company culture and brand. I feel like those days are coming to an end. I would have put my money on Google or Amazon being the first of the big social data people to muck it up but it seems like Facebook went full in.

    To somebody closer to the company (lots of friends and acquaintances there, haven't worked there myself) it's not very surprising. All that shit is marketing.

    Whereas a lot of Google employees take the "Don't be evil." mantra seriously, and Amazon is too focused on implementing the Dark Enlightenment by the book to do something this risky. Facebook (and to a lesser extent Twitter) have always been my bets because they foster an internal company culture that's all about "disrupting" because you're a privileged white tech bro and fuck the long term consequences we're changing the world man.

    What was the motto? "Move fast and break things"?

    Of course, now that le merde is meeting la ventilateur, Zuckerberg is nowhere to be found.
    Aaaaaaaaaaaaarg!!

    It's "la merde" and "le ventilateur"!!!

  • Giggles_FunsworthGiggles_Funsworth Blight on Discourse Bay Area SprawlRegistered User regular
    zeeny wrote: »
    Listening to pod save america talking about the CA data use, it involved an app used for academic purposes? That you would log in via facebook, but not only did it harvest your data but also scrapped info from your friends/contacts list on your facebook.

    Which isn't an exploit, but a default fb settings behavior.

    It's a hack but not the way people have come to think of them. It's not a technical exploit but it's definitely exploiting processes and behaviors. Social engineering at scale with a bunch of maths behind it. Calling it a breach was wrong on the part of the NYT though.

  • Giggles_FunsworthGiggles_Funsworth Blight on Discourse Bay Area SprawlRegistered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    Solar wrote: »
    In an interconnected, online world, I think that more and more what we are seeing is the need for blocks of countries, not just single countries, to enact data privacy law

    I would support an international movement to develop basic standards to data privacy and upheld in international courts. When people in the UK do this to US citizens, it's not illegal in the US, but it is in the UK, and that's great and we can bring charges etc. But when it's the other way around? That's not good. We need international cooperation on how we are going to deal with big data, tech giants, social media, data harvesting, digital privacy etc, because it's something that happens in a world where national borders don't really exist in the same way, if at all.

    We also need a tech industry that doesn't react to regulation much like a vampire reacts to sunlight as well. A lot of the problems we're seeing is in part due to the tech industry's refusal to consider regulation.

    More then that what we need is a tech industry that uses a different business model because there's no way to solve this issue while basically every major new platform that comes out depends on harvesting people's private data and selling it to survive.

    The most viable one I've seen proposed is using something like crypto currency miners instead of ads. Time spent on the page running the code results in a fungible resource. The only thing that makes me say it's a horrible idea is how environmentally harmful it'd be; but OTOH, more than the Trump admin?

  • TryCatcherTryCatcher Registered User regular
    When Congress went after FB last year over fake news I thought it was kind of silly. Now I’m not so sure. I think a platform creator is responsible for the data they collect and harbor. And so far it’s been used for some really bad stuff. Illegal stuff? Maybe. But definitely bad stuff. The fact that FB engaged in a coverup re: CA issues is kind of surprising since FB pushes a very very power to the user, here’s a fun video of your birthday posts!, company culture and brand. I feel like those days are coming to an end. I would have put my money on Google or Amazon being the first of the big social data people to muck it up but it seems like Facebook went full in.

    To somebody closer to the company (lots of friends and acquaintances there, haven't worked there myself) it's not very surprising. All that shit is marketing.

    Whereas a lot of Google employees take the "Don't be evil." mantra seriously, and Amazon is too focused on implementing the Dark Enlightenment by the book to do something this risky. Facebook (and to a lesser extent Twitter) have always been my bets because they foster an internal company culture that's all about "disrupting" because you're a privileged white tech bro and fuck the long term consequences we're changing the world man.

    What was the motto? "Move fast and break things"?

    Of course, now that le merde is meeting la ventilateur, Zuckerberg is nowhere to be found.

    Literally nowhere to be found:


    Honestly. In my personal opinion, I remember reading a lot of editorial about how SV was the future and how it was totally A-OK that Dems got cozy with Big Data, even though many people warned "If is free, YOU are the product". Nobody gave a shit that FB and Co. were selling their data to the highest bidder until it suddenly become important. And even now, what is FB's complaint now? That CA managed to get to a bunch of data without paying them. Well, maybe they shouldn't be collecting all that data on the first place.

    All of this is just the chickens coming home to roost.

  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    At least this should kill any of that Zuckerberg 2020 garbage that was still around.

  • MadicanMadican No face Registered User regular
    It's really going to be something if this gets Facebook actual punishment as opposed to say, oh, Experian.

    It's important but it also seems to be showing a bit of a double standard.

  • TryCatcherTryCatcher Registered User regular
    edited March 2018
    Madican wrote: »
    It's really going to be something if this gets Facebook actual punishment as opposed to say, oh, Experian.

    It's important but it also seems to be showing a bit of a double standard.

    Is a complete double standard. But someone has to take the blame of the right wing suddenly winning elections so here we go. I mean, Facebook ran out of good will a while ago, so is not like anybody is going to defend them. Anything to not feel powerless, I guess.

    TryCatcher on
  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    Solar wrote: »
    In an interconnected, online world, I think that more and more what we are seeing is the need for blocks of countries, not just single countries, to enact data privacy law

    I would support an international movement to develop basic standards to data privacy and upheld in international courts. When people in the UK do this to US citizens, it's not illegal in the US, but it is in the UK, and that's great and we can bring charges etc. But when it's the other way around? That's not good. We need international cooperation on how we are going to deal with big data, tech giants, social media, data harvesting, digital privacy etc, because it's something that happens in a world where national borders don't really exist in the same way, if at all.

    We also need a tech industry that doesn't react to regulation much like a vampire reacts to sunlight as well. A lot of the problems we're seeing is in part due to the tech industry's refusal to consider regulation.

    More then that what we need is a tech industry that uses a different business model because there's no way to solve this issue while basically every major new platform that comes out depends on harvesting people's private data and selling it to survive.

    Which, ultimately, comes back to regulation.

    I work in healthcare IT, and the existence of HIPAA changes how we perceive user medical data on a fundamental way. Even a single nonintentional breach can cost $10k, so protected health information (PHI) is treated carefully. Moreover, because the potential for breaches increases with reuse of data, we're incentivized to avoid replication wherever possible, to make sure that PHI stays secure. The lack of such regulation for user data outside of the medical arena incentivizes being loose with data, because there's no real penalty for doing so. Make some regulations where user data breaches will cost real money, and you'll see all these companies start looking at the data they harvest in a very different light.

    XBL: Nox Aeternum / PSN: NoxAeternum / NN:NoxAeternum / Steam: noxaeternum
  • Zilla360Zilla360 21st Century. |She/Her| Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered User regular
    edited March 2018
    What I find [darkly] funny is that all of this shady shit with CA was already covered in 2016 by Adam Curtis in this (widely-ignored) documentary:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation

    Yet when I tried to talk to anyone about this, or explain it; people looked at me like I was some nutty conspiracy theorist, so I eventually shut up about it.
    It is a really long documentary though so sadly most people just don't have either the time or attention spans anymore.

    It's good (and I am sooo glad) that CA are now getting the karmic retribution/ass-kicking they so richly deserve.

    Zilla360 on
  • DirtmuncherDirtmuncher Registered User regular
    Hopefully this will lead to better legislation and public awareness surrounding personal / private data in some parts of the world.



    steam_sig.png
  • Giggles_FunsworthGiggles_Funsworth Blight on Discourse Bay Area SprawlRegistered User regular
    Zilla360 wrote: »
    What I find [darkly] funny is that all of this shady shit with CA was already covered in 2016 by Adam Curtis in this (widely-ignored) documentary:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation

    Yet when I tried to talk to anyone about this, or explain it; people looked at me like I was some nutty conspiracy theorist, so I eventually shut up about it.
    It is a really long documentary though so sadly most people just don't have either the time or attention spans anymore.

    It's good (and I am sooo glad) that CA are now getting the karmic retribution/ass-kicking they so richly deserve.

    I can't vouch for the documentary, but the less sensationalistic bits are old news, yeah.

  • autono-wally, erotibot300autono-wally, erotibot300 love machine Registered User regular
    edited March 2018
    Still! No warrant



    Jon Snow
    Is an English journalist and television presenter, currently employed by ITN. He is best known as the longest-running presenter of Channel 4 News, which he has presented since 1989.


    Meanwhile, loads of files are being carted away



    George Bowden,
    Reporter at HuffPost covering UK politics and news, concerned about poverty and the real world impact of policy


    Is some fucking corrupt piece of shit is slowing it down so they can destroy evidence?
    Sure looks like it

    autono-wally, erotibot300 on
    kFJhXwE.jpgkFJhXwE.jpg
  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    Zilla360 wrote: »
    What I find [darkly] funny is that all of this shady shit with CA was already covered in 2016 by Adam Curtis in this (widely-ignored) documentary:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation

    Yet when I tried to talk to anyone about this, or explain it; people looked at me like I was some nutty conspiracy theorist, so I eventually shut up about it.
    It is a really long documentary though so sadly most people just don't have either the time or attention spans anymore.

    It's good (and I am sooo glad) that CA are now getting the karmic retribution/ass-kicking they so richly deserve.

    If hypernormalization is anything it’s another propaganda piece from the right wing.

    “Both sides are bad don’t bother to vote it’s all controlled by the rich who don’t want you to wake up”. Horseshit. There is propaganda but the entire world isn’t a conspiracy to put you to sleep. It exists because governance is hard.

    wbBv3fj.png
  • HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    Still! No warrant



    Jon Snow
    Is an English journalist and television presenter, currently employed by ITN. He is best known as the longest-running presenter of Channel 4 News, which he has presented since 1989.


    Meanwhile, loads of files are being carted away



    George Bowden,
    Reporter at HuffPost covering UK politics and news, concerned about poverty and the real world impact of policy


    Is some fucking corrupt piece of shit is slowing it down so they can destroy evidence?
    Sure looks like it

    This is insane, several days, they could have time to wipe every single piece of evidence.

    That seems unacceptable.

    PSN: Honkalot
  • ViskodViskod Registered User regular
    Channel 4 really should have given a copy of their reporting to authorities first.

  • HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    The white collar version of flushing heroin down the toilet but now they’re doing it behind a glass pane in view of authorities and media. It’s infuriating.

    PSN: Honkalot
  • TryCatcherTryCatcher Registered User regular
    Facebook is getting sued by their investors:
    Facebook Inc.’s failure to safeguard privacy was blamed in an investor lawsuit for a slump in its share price that followed the revelation user data was harvested without permission by a research firm connected to U.S. President Donald Trump.

    The world’s largest social media network was sued in San Francisco federal court on Tuesday by shareholders in a class action who said they suffered losses after the disclosure that Cambridge Analytica, a U.K.-based firm that aided Trump, improperly obtained profile information on 50 million users.

    Facebook fell as much as 5.2 percent to $175.41 Monday in New York, wiping out all of the year’s gains so far. It was the biggest intraday drop since Jan. 12. The stock dropped another 2.6 percent Tuesday to close at $168.15, after Bloomberg reported that the company is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, citing a person familiar with the matter.

    The suit would represent people who bought shares of Facebook from Feb. 3, 2017, when Facebook filed its annual report and cited security breaches and improper access to user data, through March 19, two days after a New York Times report revealed how data from Cambridge Analytica obtained through Facebook was used without “proper disclosures or permission.” The stock has tumbled more than 9 percent this week.

    “We are committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people’s information,” said Paul Grewal, deputy general counsel at Facebook. “We will take whatever steps are required to see that this happens,” he said in a statement.
    Throughout that period, “defendants made false or misleading statements and failed to disclose that Facebook violated its own data privacy policies by allowing third parties access to personal data of millions of Facebook users without their consent,” according to the complaint.

    Darren Robbins, a securities class action lawyer who isn’t involved in the case, called the Cambridge Analytics case “troubling” for Facebook and the country overall.

    “They have potential culpability in a number of areas,” Robbins said about the social network by phone before the lawsuit was filed. “Whether liability from users, government regulators or investors follows, there are implications for our society given the unique position Facebook occupies in the daily lives of Americans.”

    Investors may be able to sue Facebook successfully if they can show the company induced them to invest based in part on false, misleading or incomplete information regarding practices that might have averted the user privacy issues, Robbins said.

    “That is dependent upon the representations made about the types of actions Facebook has taken to protect this information,” he said. “If the representations made publicly are inconsistent with what actually occurred, is there potential liability? The answer is yes.”

  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    It all comes back to the same people, doesn't it?

    Cambridge Analytica is partially owned and was heavily funded by the Mercer family and Steve Bannon helped found it and was its vice president for a while, so yes.

  • AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    Oh come on. A lawsuit after only 3 days of share prices going down? I'm sorry, but that is absolutely frivolous. If this were sustained over, like, a month, then sure. But this sounds like shareholders trying to squeeze all the money they can get out of the company.

    He/Him | "We who believe in freedom cannot rest." - Dr. Johnetta Cole, 7/22/2024
  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    TryCatcher wrote: »
    Facebook is getting sued by their investors:
    Facebook Inc.’s failure to safeguard privacy was blamed in an investor lawsuit for a slump in its share price that followed the revelation user data was harvested without permission by a research firm connected to U.S. President Donald Trump.

    The world’s largest social media network was sued in San Francisco federal court on Tuesday by shareholders in a class action who said they suffered losses after the disclosure that Cambridge Analytica, a U.K.-based firm that aided Trump, improperly obtained profile information on 50 million users.

    Facebook fell as much as 5.2 percent to $175.41 Monday in New York, wiping out all of the year’s gains so far. It was the biggest intraday drop since Jan. 12. The stock dropped another 2.6 percent Tuesday to close at $168.15, after Bloomberg reported that the company is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, citing a person familiar with the matter.

    The suit would represent people who bought shares of Facebook from Feb. 3, 2017, when Facebook filed its annual report and cited security breaches and improper access to user data, through March 19, two days after a New York Times report revealed how data from Cambridge Analytica obtained through Facebook was used without “proper disclosures or permission.” The stock has tumbled more than 9 percent this week.

    “We are committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people’s information,” said Paul Grewal, deputy general counsel at Facebook. “We will take whatever steps are required to see that this happens,” he said in a statement.
    Throughout that period, “defendants made false or misleading statements and failed to disclose that Facebook violated its own data privacy policies by allowing third parties access to personal data of millions of Facebook users without their consent,” according to the complaint.

    Darren Robbins, a securities class action lawyer who isn’t involved in the case, called the Cambridge Analytics case “troubling” for Facebook and the country overall.

    “They have potential culpability in a number of areas,” Robbins said about the social network by phone before the lawsuit was filed. “Whether liability from users, government regulators or investors follows, there are implications for our society given the unique position Facebook occupies in the daily lives of Americans.”

    Investors may be able to sue Facebook successfully if they can show the company induced them to invest based in part on false, misleading or incomplete information regarding practices that might have averted the user privacy issues, Robbins said.

    “That is dependent upon the representations made about the types of actions Facebook has taken to protect this information,” he said. “If the representations made publicly are inconsistent with what actually occurred, is there potential liability? The answer is yes.”

    One small silver lining that could come out of this is the practice of SV IPOs creating a special tier of stock designed to keep the founders in control dying a deservedly ignoble death. Several big SV firms issued their founders a special tier of stock that grants them greater vote power than common stock, giving them full control of the company. But after this fiasco among others, I could see investors getting nervous about IPOs structured like this.

    XBL: Nox Aeternum / PSN: NoxAeternum / NN:NoxAeternum / Steam: noxaeternum
  • XaquinXaquin Right behind you!Registered User regular
    Athenor wrote: »
    Oh come on. A lawsuit after only 3 days of share prices going down? I'm sorry, but that is absolutely frivolous. If this were sustained over, like, a month, then sure. But this sounds like shareholders trying to squeeze all the money they can get out of the company.

    I'm ok with lawsuits for what should be illegal activity and coverup

  • AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    Xaquin wrote: »
    Athenor wrote: »
    Oh come on. A lawsuit after only 3 days of share prices going down? I'm sorry, but that is absolutely frivolous. If this were sustained over, like, a month, then sure. But this sounds like shareholders trying to squeeze all the money they can get out of the company.

    I'm ok with lawsuits for what should be illegal activity and coverup

    Agreed!

    But complaining about losing share value after 3 days is what I have issue with. The other stuff, that's fine. It shouldn't matter if the price went down or up due to the illegal activity.

    He/Him | "We who believe in freedom cannot rest." - Dr. Johnetta Cole, 7/22/2024
  • nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    Its not about the values its a fundamental breach of investor trust

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    Athenor wrote: »
    Xaquin wrote: »
    Athenor wrote: »
    Oh come on. A lawsuit after only 3 days of share prices going down? I'm sorry, but that is absolutely frivolous. If this were sustained over, like, a month, then sure. But this sounds like shareholders trying to squeeze all the money they can get out of the company.

    I'm ok with lawsuits for what should be illegal activity and coverup

    Agreed!

    But complaining about losing share value after 3 days is what I have issue with. The other stuff, that's fine. It shouldn't matter if the price went down or up due to the illegal activity.

    I'm not an econ professorial, but my understanding is that 1 the value continues to drop, and that 2 a 20 point drop is... quite sizeable.

  • ThawmusThawmus +Jackface Registered User regular
    Athenor wrote: »
    Xaquin wrote: »
    Athenor wrote: »
    Oh come on. A lawsuit after only 3 days of share prices going down? I'm sorry, but that is absolutely frivolous. If this were sustained over, like, a month, then sure. But this sounds like shareholders trying to squeeze all the money they can get out of the company.

    I'm ok with lawsuits for what should be illegal activity and coverup

    Agreed!

    But complaining about losing share value after 3 days is what I have issue with. The other stuff, that's fine. It shouldn't matter if the price went down or up due to the illegal activity.

    But they're not just suing over losing share value. Their investors didn't have all the information they needed. Fucking up privacy concerns is an investment risk, and one that was highly unlikely to have been communicated beforehand.

    If this was how corporate corruption always went down I'd be happy.

    Twitch: Thawmus83
  • DivideByZeroDivideByZero Social Justice Blackguard Registered User regular
    Sleep wrote: »
    Athenor wrote: »
    Xaquin wrote: »
    Athenor wrote: »
    Oh come on. A lawsuit after only 3 days of share prices going down? I'm sorry, but that is absolutely frivolous. If this were sustained over, like, a month, then sure. But this sounds like shareholders trying to squeeze all the money they can get out of the company.

    I'm ok with lawsuits for what should be illegal activity and coverup

    Agreed!

    But complaining about losing share value after 3 days is what I have issue with. The other stuff, that's fine. It shouldn't matter if the price went down or up due to the illegal activity.

    I'm not an econ professorial, but my understanding is that 1 the value continues to drop, and that 2 a 20 point drop is... quite sizeable.

    Also in order to prove standing for a lawsuit you need to show that you were harmed.

    First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKERS
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