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I am all for taking a look at these privacy issues and seeing if we can develop some new regulations to address these concerns but the way the media covers this

I am all for taking a look at these privacy issues and seeing if we can develop some new regulations to address these concerns but the way the media covers this story is a complete joke. Obama was labeled a political geniuses who was truly in-touch with the young generation when he used the Facebook graph api to micro target ads but when Trump campaign uses the exact same approach to micro target ads it is a despicable act that assisted in "theft" of the election. EDIT: In an attempt to protect my karma from those who have drunk far to much kool-aid I should point out I did not vote for Trump and I think he is a total clown. I just think the current clickbait/outrage media culture is far more a danger to the american values I cherish then 3 more years of this ass-hat.

unfunco 9y ago
I don't think it's a fair comparison, people weren't (or at least, fewer people were) screaming fake news back then. It's not micro-targeting or advertising that has people riled up, it's the way it is being been used.
- vanattab 9y ago
  Exactly my point! People are not upset by "psychometric advertising" they are upset that the other side making use of the technique. If you honestly think both sides don't use the technique to engage in despicable disinformation campaigns you've probably already drank a fatal dose.
- wu-ikkyu 9y ago
  The people seemingly screaming "fake news" the most in recent times are the same people vanattab is referring to as being misleading. People have always been screaming something synonomous to "fake news" against the other side.
kevinh 9y ago
Trump isn't mentioned once in this article, nor is any theft of an election.
- vanattab 9y ago
  I am obviously referring to the overall media portrayal of the Facebook/CA scandal.
simplify 9y ago
I agree it was wrong to label Obama a political genius for that, but that doesn't make the current movement wrong too.
- vanattab 9y ago
  Hence my first sentence. I am not opposed to topic but I am opposed to the media bending over backwards to pretend like this totally different then what Obama did.
- muthdra 9y ago
  Maybe it was correct. Maybe Obama and whoever puppeteers Trump are both geniuses. This is not about using Facebook. It's about doing shady, manipulative stuff.
MBCook 9y ago
You don’t think there’s a difference between people who signed up/registered/interacted with Obama and just buying 50 million records from a personality quiz that was on FB 4+ years before?
- vanattab 9y ago
  The idea that Obama only collected data from people who signed up and registered is total nonsense. See the comments from Obama's media director in the below article or go back and read the news articles on the topic from 2010-2013 back then they did not even pretend like they were only collecting data from people who signed up. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5520303/Obama-campaign-director-reveals-Facebook-ALLOWED-data.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5520303/Obama-campai...
  - a5huynh 9y ago
    I personally used the OFA Facebook application and the intent is incredibly different. Notably, the folks who authorized the OFA application knew that the data about their friends was being collected. Because that was entirely the point! We were using it to send out requests to our friends to persuade to them to vote/register to vote. If you'd like a more in-depth explanation, I found this post by the former Chief Scientist of Obama For America campaign (2012) that goes into the key differences between how the data was collected & used compared to Cambridge Analytica: https://medium.com/@rayid/why-what-cambridge-analytica-did-was-unacceptable-eb5c313b55f8 https://medium.com/@rayid/why-what-cambridge-analytica-did-w...
    - gfosco 9y ago
      Their friends didn't, though, that's why it's comparable and the intent is irrelevant. A small number of willing users fans out to a massive number of unwitting ones.
dbt00 9y ago
I don't understand why people keep falling for this whataboutism. They're not comparable uses of the facebook API at all.
- vanattab 9y ago
  Please elaborate on how they are not comparable uses?
  - dbt00 9y ago
    This has been answered ad nauseam. The Obama app was clearly a political campaign app They did not use fake quizzes to steal user data they asked supporters to contact their friends explicitly they did not download friend of friend data surreptitiously they did not buy or re-sell data in violation of FB's TOS they did not lie and claim to have deleted it when required they used user submitted data to build a database of potential supporters and contacted them to encourage them to vote they did not engage in psychometrics to spread fear and fake news they did all this domestically with US residents
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

unfunco 9y ago

I don't think it's a fair comparison, people weren't (or at least, fewer people were) screaming fake news back then. It's not micro-targeting or advertising that has people riled up, it's the way it is being been used.

vanattab 9y ago
Exactly my point! People are not upset by "psychometric advertising" they are upset that the other side making use of the technique. If you honestly think both sides don't use the technique to engage in despicable disinformation campaigns you've probably already drank a fatal dose.
wu-ikkyu 9y ago
The people seemingly screaming "fake news" the most in recent times are the same people vanattab is referring to as being misleading. People have always been screaming something synonomous to "fake news" against the other side.

kevinh 9y ago

Trump isn't mentioned once in this article, nor is any theft of an election.

vanattab 9y ago
I am obviously referring to the overall media portrayal of the Facebook/CA scandal.

simplify 9y ago

I agree it was wrong to label Obama a political genius for that, but that doesn't make the current movement wrong too.

vanattab 9y ago
Hence my first sentence. I am not opposed to topic but I am opposed to the media bending over backwards to pretend like this totally different then what Obama did.
muthdra 9y ago
Maybe it was correct. Maybe Obama and whoever puppeteers Trump are both geniuses. This is not about using Facebook. It's about doing shady, manipulative stuff.

MBCook 9y ago

You don’t think there’s a difference between people who signed up/registered/interacted with Obama and just buying 50 million records from a personality quiz that was on FB 4+ years before?

vanattab 9y ago
The idea that Obama only collected data from people who signed up and registered is total nonsense. See the comments from Obama's media director in the below article or go back and read the news articles on the topic from 2010-2013 back then they did not even pretend like they were only collecting data from people who signed up. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5520303/Obama-campaign-director-reveals-Facebook-ALLOWED-data.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5520303/Obama-campai...
- a5huynh 9y ago
  I personally used the OFA Facebook application and the intent is incredibly different. Notably, the folks who authorized the OFA application knew that the data about their friends was being collected. Because that was entirely the point! We were using it to send out requests to our friends to persuade to them to vote/register to vote. If you'd like a more in-depth explanation, I found this post by the former Chief Scientist of Obama For America campaign (2012) that goes into the key differences between how the data was collected & used compared to Cambridge Analytica: https://medium.com/@rayid/why-what-cambridge-analytica-did-was-unacceptable-eb5c313b55f8 https://medium.com/@rayid/why-what-cambridge-analytica-did-w...
  - gfosco 9y ago
    Their friends didn't, though, that's why it's comparable and the intent is irrelevant. A small number of willing users fans out to a massive number of unwitting ones.

dbt00 9y ago

I don't understand why people keep falling for this whataboutism. They're not comparable uses of the facebook API at all.

vanattab 9y ago
Please elaborate on how they are not comparable uses?
- dbt00 9y ago
  This has been answered ad nauseam. The Obama app was clearly a political campaign app They did not use fake quizzes to steal user data they asked supporters to contact their friends explicitly they did not download friend of friend data surreptitiously they did not buy or re-sell data in violation of FB's TOS they did not lie and claim to have deleted it when required they used user submitted data to build a database of potential supporters and contacted them to encourage them to vote they did not engage in psychometrics to spread fear and fake news they did all this domestically with US residents
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]