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Quote from the article: Cambridge Analytica is a scandal that isn’t a scandal: Everyone who has ever worked on or with the Facebook platform knew that for seve

Quote from the article: Cambridge Analytica is a scandal that isn’t a scandal: Everyone who has ever worked on or with the Facebook platform knew that for several years, the platform made data available to third-party developers by design. Why is this news and a problem now? What made the sky fall? If everyone knew, then why has someone been picked to be the bad guy now?

throwaway2048 9y ago
Reducing this problem to tribalistic "oh u mad because trump won!!" is infantile and absurdly counterproductive. Which is of course why its brought up so much...
- HenryBemis 9y ago
  Apologies to USA's readers, no disrespect, I am merely trying to put some sense into throwaway2048's brain :) Dear TA2048, In some/many parts of this planet we don't give a poop about who is the President of the US-of-A. But we care for our own elections (see UK referendum, Greek referendum, Catalonia referendum, elections in Austria, Hungary, Italy, etc.) The problem surfaced NOW, and NOW we are dealing with it. We can't turn back time. Not even slow it down. But we can try/make sure it won't happen again, or at least reduce its impact. Kind regards, Someone-who-believes-in-democracy
  - pcunite 9y ago
    Why did it surface now? Everyone knew.
    - s73v3r_ 9y ago
      Can you provide a citation for that? Everyone who ever used FB knew exactly what was going on?
- arvinjoar 9y ago
  I got really stressed out by Trump winning, but I still think the backlash against social media and tech companies has a lot to do with the establishment being afraid of losing power. When the Arab Spring happens, the free flow of information is an unalloyed good, but when Trump gets elected we suddenly need to curtail "troll factories", and ensure Fake News is being fact checked, and see to it that personal data isn't being used to influence elections. I'm the first person to admit that I'm not impressed by my peers when it comes to electing suitable leaders, but it worries me much more that we're now falling for the temptation of reasoning for them, and protecting them from themselves. I think this straitjacket that we're so eagerly putting on our fellow man for his own good may very well be put on us, or perhaps the truly original thinkers that we yet don't know about. So no, comments like these aren't infantile, they're crucial for maintaining the liberty that we've thus enjoyed on the internet, and that I would very much like to keep enjoying, even if I don't always agree with how people tend to use that freedom.
curiousgal 9y ago
I think part of it is the public lack of understanding of technology. A layman won't understand the phrase "Facebook API allowed access to data" as opposed to "There was a breach".
- kingkongjaffa 9y ago
  The worst part of that is that a layman only "thinks" he understands what "There was a breach" even begins to mean. But what/who do we blame? Is it the education systems staggering lack of ability to prepare people for modern, tech-enabled society in any sort of privacy-as-a-right context.
  - Lionsion 9y ago
    > But what/who do we blame? No one? We shouldn't be assigning "blame" because the public doesn't have the same specialized education that we have to understand the nuances of "APIs" vs "breaches." I think what needs to be done is to create an easily understandable formulation of "privacy-as-a-right" and teach that.
busterarm 9y ago
Everyone hates when "their side" loses. Someone must suddenly be breaking the rules. There must be blame.
4ndr3vv 9y ago
Why is this news now? Because: everyone who has ever worked on or with the Facebook platform != everyone
dredmorbius 9y ago
A substantial group of people knew this was a problem for decades. The New York Times has a good "I Told You So" article on just this point. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/technology/privacy-researchers-facebook.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/technology/privacy-resear... More generally, it's quite difficult to present a problem as compelling when there are no bodies on the ground. Take a look around you at any particular piece of safety equipment, process, practice, regulation, etc., and realise that that price was paid, in blood if not souls. An example I've recently learnt of was of oderised natural gas. That "gas" smell you know is not the smell of methane, which is, in fact, oderless, but a special oderiser, Mercaptan, which as been added to it.[1] The reason it's been added is New London School, New London, Texas. In depression-era 1937, the school found an inexpensive source of heating by way of a local "wet" gas line, related to oil production, that ran near the school. The gas leaked. The explosion killed 295 students and teachers, and is still the deadliest school disaster in the U.S., 81 years later. Texas, a state known for its reluctance to government regulation, required the addition of mercaptan to all gas supplies within weeks of the accident. That's just one of many such stories you'll find in the world of industrial and engineering safety. A significant aspect of unintended consequences is that they are non-apparent consequences. It takes time, and evidence, and quite often bodies, to make the point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London_School_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London_School_explosion ________________________________ Notes: 1. The scent is exceptionally notable and detectable at low levels. Mercaptans are part of the hazard warning system in mines, environments in which visual or audio signals might not be readily apparent.
carapace 9y ago
It's almost as if it's gone viral...

throwaway2048 9y ago

Reducing this problem to tribalistic "oh u mad because trump won!!" is infantile and absurdly counterproductive. Which is of course why its brought up so much...

HenryBemis 9y ago
Apologies to USA's readers, no disrespect, I am merely trying to put some sense into throwaway2048's brain :) Dear TA2048, In some/many parts of this planet we don't give a poop about who is the President of the US-of-A. But we care for our own elections (see UK referendum, Greek referendum, Catalonia referendum, elections in Austria, Hungary, Italy, etc.) The problem surfaced NOW, and NOW we are dealing with it. We can't turn back time. Not even slow it down. But we can try/make sure it won't happen again, or at least reduce its impact. Kind regards, Someone-who-believes-in-democracy
- pcunite 9y ago
  Why did it surface now? Everyone knew.
  - s73v3r_ 9y ago
    Can you provide a citation for that? Everyone who ever used FB knew exactly what was going on?
arvinjoar 9y ago
I got really stressed out by Trump winning, but I still think the backlash against social media and tech companies has a lot to do with the establishment being afraid of losing power. When the Arab Spring happens, the free flow of information is an unalloyed good, but when Trump gets elected we suddenly need to curtail "troll factories", and ensure Fake News is being fact checked, and see to it that personal data isn't being used to influence elections. I'm the first person to admit that I'm not impressed by my peers when it comes to electing suitable leaders, but it worries me much more that we're now falling for the temptation of reasoning for them, and protecting them from themselves. I think this straitjacket that we're so eagerly putting on our fellow man for his own good may very well be put on us, or perhaps the truly original thinkers that we yet don't know about. So no, comments like these aren't infantile, they're crucial for maintaining the liberty that we've thus enjoyed on the internet, and that I would very much like to keep enjoying, even if I don't always agree with how people tend to use that freedom.

curiousgal 9y ago

I think part of it is the public lack of understanding of technology. A layman won't understand the phrase "Facebook API allowed access to data" as opposed to "There was a breach".

kingkongjaffa 9y ago
The worst part of that is that a layman only "thinks" he understands what "There was a breach" even begins to mean. But what/who do we blame? Is it the education systems staggering lack of ability to prepare people for modern, tech-enabled society in any sort of privacy-as-a-right context.
- Lionsion 9y ago
  > But what/who do we blame? No one? We shouldn't be assigning "blame" because the public doesn't have the same specialized education that we have to understand the nuances of "APIs" vs "breaches." I think what needs to be done is to create an easily understandable formulation of "privacy-as-a-right" and teach that.

busterarm 9y ago

Everyone hates when "their side" loses. Someone must suddenly be breaking the rules. There must be blame.

4ndr3vv 9y ago

Why is this news now? Because: everyone who has ever worked on or with the Facebook platform != everyone

dredmorbius 9y ago

A substantial group of people knew this was a problem for decades. The New York Times has a good "I Told You So" article on just this point. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/technology/privacy-researchers-facebook.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/technology/privacy-resear... More generally, it's quite difficult to present a problem as compelling when there are no bodies on the ground. Take a look around you at any particular piece of safety equipment, process, practice, regulation, etc., and realise that that price was paid, in blood if not souls. An example I've recently learnt of was of oderised natural gas. That "gas" smell you know is not the smell of methane, which is, in fact, oderless, but a special oderiser, Mercaptan, which as been added to it.[1] The reason it's been added is New London School, New London, Texas. In depression-era 1937, the school found an inexpensive source of heating by way of a local "wet" gas line, related to oil production, that ran near the school. The gas leaked. The explosion killed 295 students and teachers, and is still the deadliest school disaster in the U.S., 81 years later. Texas, a state known for its reluctance to government regulation, required the addition of mercaptan to all gas supplies within weeks of the accident. That's just one of many such stories you'll find in the world of industrial and engineering safety. A significant aspect of unintended consequences is that they are non-apparent consequences. It takes time, and evidence, and quite often bodies, to make the point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London_School_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London_School_explosion ________________________________ Notes: 1. The scent is exceptionally notable and detectable at low levels. Mercaptans are part of the hazard warning system in mines, environments in which visual or audio signals might not be readily apparent.

carapace 9y ago

It's almost as if it's gone viral...