Massachusetts says to probe Facebook, Cambridge Analytica

[herding cats]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Massachusetts attorney general said on Saturday her office was launching an investigation after reports that Cambridge Analytica had harvested private information from more than 50 million Facebook users in developing techniques to support President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.

“Massachusetts residents deserve answers immediately from Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. We are launching an investigation,” Maura Healey said on Twitter in a post that linked to a New York Times report on the issue.

Read more: https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1GT0OM?__twitter_impression=true

[rgbecker]

1. The Tiger has been released! GO Maura!

Would not want to be working at Cambridge Analytica right now.

[herding cats]

2. There was a lawsuit filed against them in the U.K. yesterday, too.

A Groundbreaking Case May Force Controversial Data Firm Cambridge Analytica to Reveal Trump Secrets
This US professor is counting on British data privacy laws to get some answers.

Before the 2016 presidential campaign, David Carroll, a media professor at New York’s Parsons School of Design, didn’t know much, if anything, about Cambridge Analytica. Despite studying data collection and privacy, he says he had probably only heard the name of the data analytics company mentioned once or twice. But that was before the election. And it was before, of course, it became clear that the firm—partially owned by Trump mega-donor Robert Mercer and the place where former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon once served as vice president—would help propel Donald Trump into the White House by cultivating vast troves of information on an untold number of American voters to craft controversial and highly targeted political messages.

But even still, it wasn’t until a few months after the election that the alarm bells started going off for Carroll. Paul-Olivier Dehaye, the co-founder of PersonalData.IO, a startup that helps individuals request their data from companies like Tinder, Uber, and Facebook, Carroll says, told him he suspected that Cambridge Analytica, with offices around the world, may have processed the data of American voters in 2016 in the UK. While the company’s tactics were a complete mystery, if that were true, Carroll, an American, could request what information it had on him as allowed by British data protection laws. So in early 2017, the two set out to pull back the curtain on the data tactics of Cambridge Analytica.

“Why does some company incorporated in the United Kingdom have [our data]? What the hell is that for?”
“He was curious,” Carroll, a self-described “data nerd,” tells Mother Jones. “I was curious. It was purely academic curiosity.”

Just a few months later, Carroll would find himself in the midst of a landmark data privacy legal battle.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/a-groundbreaking-case-may-force-controversial-data-firm-cambridge-analytica-to-reveal-trump-secrets/

[C_U_L8R]

3. Maura Healey, my hero

She's unafraid to take it to these bastards.

[Lulu KC]

4. This is really great

and I know the lawsuit and investigation are new, but why did it take so long after this video for all hell to break loose? And the video wasn't the beginning, either. It made my blood run cold.

Link to tweet

?lang=en

I am finding that this entire process (including my beloved Mueller investigation) operates at a slow pace with deja news something I must learn to adapt to. In my heart I feel like we are under siege.

[dalton99a]

7. +1

[BigmanPigman]

9. I saw this posted on DU last fall and my mouth

is still hanging OPEN. I must have posted it on DU at least 20 times and sent it to a ton of people.

http://www.palmerreport.com/politics/facebook-employees-trump-office/4784/
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029566031

I got this info in my gmail yesterday

https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/facebook-must-notify?source=s.fwd&r_by=17836564

[Lulu KC]

10. Chilling

I don't want to open it again, but I remember it as having music that added to the effect of we are doomed.

[BigmanPigman]

11. The woman in the video make my irate...

she giggles like this is a silly little joke. I hate her and people like her...they wohld sell their grandmother for a dollar (no make that a quarter).

[diva77]

5. I'm still wondering why Facebook is a corporate sponsor of NASS.org --

The National Association of Secretaries of State

http://nass.org/membership/corporate-affiliates

Why is FB wanting to interact with the highest level elections officials in the US?

[Maeve]

6. Oooo...possible crimes tRump can't pardon!

[herding cats]

8. Yes, maam!

Those are the best kind of charges.

[laserhaas]

12. The thins we put up with - Shheesshh

Link to tweet

.