4 ms·

Cambridge Analytica’s Virtual Currency Plans

59 points by bmahmood 9y ago

fake-name 9y ago
Because of course they are.
- rdiddly 9y ago
  [checks calendar] Nope, not April 1st...
tbodt 9y ago
No.
- Froyoh 9y ago
  Yes.
macawfish 9y ago
"Blockchain will change the world," they said. But if we aren't careful, blockchain might just end up chaining the world instead.
auvi 9y ago
i quickly checked whether it is april 1 today. no it is not./s
ocdtrekkie 9y ago
The funny thing is, due to the fact that they are now a worldwide household name... it'd probably bring in some serious cash... Title should probably indicate better that these plans are not brand new, from the article it seems they've been working on it for a while.
logfromblammo 9y ago
Oh, good. With all their recent press, I wasn't sure whether they were engaged in any legitimate business ventures. Now I can be certain that they are not.
stillbourne 9y ago
Who wants a bunch of money to disappear down a hole?
gringoDan 9y ago
This is the most 2018 headline I've ever seen.
philfrasty 9y ago
they „pull a Kodak“ [1] [1] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pull%20a%20Kodak https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pull%20a%20K...
adamnemecek 9y ago
The writing staff of reality should be fired. This is just like really bad writing at this point.
JumpCrisscross 9y ago
Could we get the title (currently, "Cambridge Analytica planning ICO") fixed to the article's own ("Inside Cambridge Analytica’s Virtual Currency Plans")? The HN title (as of now) implies an upcoming ICO. Yet the article [1] says "Brittany Kaiser...left Cambridge Analytica in February and has been sharply critical of the company since then" and that "as far as she knows, the coin offering has not moved forward." EDIT: Thank you [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/technology/cambridge-analytica-initial-coin-offering.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/technology/cambridge-anal...
- dang 9y ago
  Sure. Title changed from "Cambridge Analytica planned an ICO".
  - JumpCrisscross 9y ago
    Whoops, misread. My apologies.
    - 64738 9y ago
      No worries, you had it right. My news reader still shows the title as "Cambridge Analytica planning ICO".
csisvunit 9y ago
Another way for Russia to fund their attack on democracy. How is this company still in existence?
- corporateslaver 9y ago
  How brainwashed can you be? Hillary was doing the same thing through another company and so did Obama. The Obama campaign bragged about it
  - root_axis 9y ago
    You can hold a different position from someone else without insulting them as brainwashed. Further, this talking point is disingenuous because it glosses over the fact that people who downloaded the Obama app knew they were downloading an app in support of their preferred political candidate while CA deliberately hid their political associations which might have had an impact on who chose to download the app. Additionally, unlike CA's app, Obama's app did not scrape private conversation messages which is a gigantic breach of trust relative to scraping friends lists (which is still a scummy thing to do even when the app is explicitly up front regarding its political motivations)
glup 9y ago
I think CA doing an ICO might be the PR equivalent of a squid spewing ink everywhere. I hope this doesn't work.
decision_tree 9y ago
> "Who knows more about the usage of personal data than Cambridge Analytica?" Ms. Kaiser said. This has to be a joke.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
powmedia 9y ago
“We’re going to see a new type of economy emerging where people can start to take ownership of their data and monetize on their data. And that is only possible through the blockchain.” - What about the blockchain makes this possible? What's stopping another company from getting access to your data and then simply selling it on to others?
pgodzin 8y ago
> The goal of Cambridge Analytica’s own coin offering? Raise money that would pay for the creation of a system to help people store and sell their online personal data to advertisers, Brittany Kaiser, a former Cambridge Analytica employee, said in an interview. The idea was to protect information from more or less what the firm did when it obtained the personal data of up to 87 million Facebook users. Wow.

59 points by bmahmood 9y ago

fake-name 9y ago

Because of course they are.

rdiddly 9y ago
[checks calendar] Nope, not April 1st...

tbodt 9y ago

No.

Froyoh 9y ago
Yes.

macawfish 9y ago

"Blockchain will change the world," they said. But if we aren't careful, blockchain might just end up chaining the world instead.

auvi 9y ago

i quickly checked whether it is april 1 today. no it is not./s

ocdtrekkie 9y ago

The funny thing is, due to the fact that they are now a worldwide household name... it'd probably bring in some serious cash... Title should probably indicate better that these plans are not brand new, from the article it seems they've been working on it for a while.

logfromblammo 9y ago

Oh, good. With all their recent press, I wasn't sure whether they were engaged in any legitimate business ventures. Now I can be certain that they are not.

stillbourne 9y ago

Who wants a bunch of money to disappear down a hole?

gringoDan 9y ago

This is the most 2018 headline I've ever seen.

philfrasty 9y ago

they „pull a Kodak“ [1] [1] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pull%20a%20Kodak https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pull%20a%20K...

adamnemecek 9y ago

The writing staff of reality should be fired. This is just like really bad writing at this point.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago

Could we get the title (currently, "Cambridge Analytica planning ICO") fixed to the article's own ("Inside Cambridge Analytica’s Virtual Currency Plans")? The HN title (as of now) implies an upcoming ICO. Yet the article [1] says "Brittany Kaiser...left Cambridge Analytica in February and has been sharply critical of the company since then" and that "as far as she knows, the coin offering has not moved forward." EDIT: Thank you [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/technology/cambridge-analytica-initial-coin-offering.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/technology/cambridge-anal...

dang 9y ago
Sure. Title changed from "Cambridge Analytica planned an ICO".
- JumpCrisscross 9y ago
  Whoops, misread. My apologies.
  - 64738 9y ago
    No worries, you had it right. My news reader still shows the title as "Cambridge Analytica planning ICO".

csisvunit 9y ago

Another way for Russia to fund their attack on democracy. How is this company still in existence?

corporateslaver 9y ago
How brainwashed can you be? Hillary was doing the same thing through another company and so did Obama. The Obama campaign bragged about it
- root_axis 9y ago
  You can hold a different position from someone else without insulting them as brainwashed. Further, this talking point is disingenuous because it glosses over the fact that people who downloaded the Obama app knew they were downloading an app in support of their preferred political candidate while CA deliberately hid their political associations which might have had an impact on who chose to download the app. Additionally, unlike CA's app, Obama's app did not scrape private conversation messages which is a gigantic breach of trust relative to scraping friends lists (which is still a scummy thing to do even when the app is explicitly up front regarding its political motivations)

glup 9y ago

I think CA doing an ICO might be the PR equivalent of a squid spewing ink everywhere. I hope this doesn't work.

decision_tree 9y ago

> "Who knows more about the usage of personal data than Cambridge Analytica?" Ms. Kaiser said. This has to be a joke.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

powmedia 9y ago

“We’re going to see a new type of economy emerging where people can start to take ownership of their data and monetize on their data. And that is only possible through the blockchain.” - What about the blockchain makes this possible? What's stopping another company from getting access to your data and then simply selling it on to others?

pgodzin 8y ago

> The goal of Cambridge Analytica’s own coin offering? Raise money that would pay for the creation of a system to help people store and sell their online personal data to advertisers, Brittany Kaiser, a former Cambridge Analytica employee, said in an interview. The idea was to protect information from more or less what the firm did when it obtained the personal data of up to 87 million Facebook users. Wow.