Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

neohippie

(1,140 posts)
Fri Mar 23, 2018, 08:36 AM Mar 2018

Facebook had a closer relationship than it disclosed with the academic it called a liar

Last edited Fri Mar 23, 2018, 09:17 AM - Edit history (2)

Source: Washington Post

The psychologist who disseminated Facebook user data to an analytics firm working for the Trump campaign had a closer relationship with the social network than it has let on, co-authoring a research paper based on a massive amount of data that Facebook provided to him.

Facebook last week accused Cambridge University psychologist Aleksandr Kogan of obtaining data on at least 30 million Facebook users and inappropriately sharing it with Cambridge Analytica, the data analytics firm. Facebook has said little about Kogan besides asserting that he lied when he claimed his data-gathering would be used only for academic research.

Two of Facebooks own data scientists worked with Kogan between 2013 and 2015, according to the paper. As part of the research, which was separate from Kogans work for Cambridge Analytica, Facebook provided Kogan with data on 57 billion Facebook friendships, according to the paper.


Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/facebook-had-a-closer-relationship-than-it-disclosed-with-the-academic-it-called-a-liar/2018/03/22/ca0570cc-2df9-11e8-8688-e053ba58f1e4_story.html?utm_term=.caf5fc78d2e4



That said Facebook provided Kogan with data on 57 Billion facebook friendships

This scandal is growing rapidly and needs to be investigated with a lot more scrutiny


The other thing that concerns me is that the firm Cambridge Analytica still has yet to be raided by UK officials more than 4 days since the intention to raid them was announced

https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/22/uk-data-watchdog-still-waiting-for-warrant-to-raid-cambridge-analytica/

I sure hope that the CA whistle blower had documentation of his claims because it looks like CA has had plenty of time to prepare to be raided.

I also found this in that WAPO story which should raise huge ethical questions about what Kogan is aiming at accomplishing with the aid of big data from all kinds of sources


During his contract with Cambridge Analytica, the psychologist tried to acquire medical and genetic records of Americans to combine with troves of online data he claimed to have obtained. To that end, Kogan tried to create a partnership with Harvard Medical School and with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to merge his data sets with medical and genetic data, according to emails.

One of the people I met with at Harvard medical said he might be able to get us millions of medical records and also genetic data to link up to everything. Can you imagine the possibilities then? Kogan wrote to Cambridge Analytica data scientists in a February 2014 email. Its going to be AMAZING.

snip...


Kogan wrote in the email that he wanted to create statistical models that could accurately identify people at risk for various diseases and illnesses by examining their Web browsing and purchase behaviors, and combine that with medical data from Harvard. In the emails, he said he had “sign-ons” from two professors at the schools.

Wylie, the whistleblower, told The Post on Thursday that Kogan was looking for as much data as he could find to inform research that could help model human behavior. “We were looking for a total picture, from your genes to your likes,” Wylie said.


and this

The authors obtained the friend networks of those participants, calculating the current location and the percentage who lived outside the United States. Facebook then provided the authors with data on every friendship formed in 2011 in every country in the world at the national aggregate level. The data set included a total of 57,457,192,520 friendships, according to the paper.

The paper says that participants signed a consent form that detailed all parts of the study. No deception was used, the researchers added.
4 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Facebook had a closer relationship than it disclosed with the academic it called a liar (Original Post) neohippie Mar 2018 OP
Isnt it illegal to spy on US citizens? Maggiemayhem Mar 2018 #1
I don't think it's 'spying' when FB members willingly post every aspect of their lives online. PSPS Mar 2018 #3
Kick dalton99a Mar 2018 #2
k & r scipan Mar 2018 #4
Latest Discussions»Latest Breaking News»Facebook had a closer rel...