Getting tired of seeing the phrase, "Facebook data leak"

[deckeda]

Because I suppose ...

Data Misuse By Cambridge Analytica

... doesn't have the same ring to it.

[deckeda]

I should clarify that I don't think social media should be let off the hook, here. The 2011 settlement Facebook made to the FTC is being questioned, and for good reason.

That second word in "social media" is the one FB (and Twitter) would love to pretend doesn't exist. It's only a matter of time before they get regulated like a media company with regard to advertising and placement of posts that appear innocuous or truthful but are not.

Viacom v. Youtube showed that the DMCA's "safe harbor" against whatever users upload will only take a company so far. People like Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey are still very much "bewildered" at how all of this happened, despite being at the helms of companies where misinformation is spread every second.

[Pam]

There's a lot of parts to this story. Facebook's culpability in allowing 3rd parties to collect data, did 3rd parties give sufficient notice to users that data was being collected, did 3rd parties violate Facebook's terms, can 3rd parties collect data from friends of friends without direct permission, did Cambridge Analytica give data to Russian parties, did Russian parties in turn give data to the Trump campaign, What link is there between the database updates observed between a Russian bank, a server in Trump Tower, and a server at Spectrum Health, and is there a link between data collected and the data obtained through hacked voter rolls.

[deckeda]

Allowing data from friends can only be FB's mistake. In that sense it was "a leak" even if FB never intended for that to happen.

But I think where FB is positing themselves is from CA's app taking the data "it shouldn't have." How many websites and apps let you log in, and create a user login, with FB or Google credentials?

That's almost certainly how CA got the first layer of data. So my question is, if you have your FB privacy settings fairly low, or low enough to allow friends or friends of friends to see more of your stuff, how much of a stretch is it for a smart programmer like the guy interviewed by The Guardian to make the app be able to glean all of it, too ... since people responding to the "survey" gave him the keys?

[deckeda]

Congress is right to question FB, but they have no clue about how to what they might want to legislate, except in the broad terms that broadcasters and print media must abide by legally.

Unless and until somebody goes after Cambridge Analytica, the cycle will continue.

The Cambridge Analytica links are of course Kushner and Bannon, with various others linked to Russia.

Right now there's a lot of he said-she said finger pointing, and the narrative that's forming sure looks like private American citizens gave Russia influence over them via social media Terms of Service. All legal.

[Pam]

Fortunately the British are investing Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. No doubt Mueller and Intelligence agencies (here and abroad) are as well. So congress can sit on their hands, until they can't.

[bfd]

Both places will get slapped on the wrist by FTC with a few hundred thousand in fines, and it'll all be forgotten until the next privacy slip up. Facebook has proven to be one of the worst "inventions" of our time.

[sekker]

I’m seriously considering deleting all of my Facebook profile. They are complicit and know it, and did nothing.

[Rick-o]

sekker wrote:
I’m seriously considering deleting all of my Facebook profile. They are complicit and know it, and did nothing.

I did that about 18 months ago. I'm finished with Facebook. I will NOT return!

[Filliam H. Muffman]

deckeda wrote:
The Cambridge Analytica links are of course Kushner and Bannon, with various others linked to Russia and Wikileaks/Assange.