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Facebook investigates data firm Crimson Hexagon
- mtgx 8y agoHas Facebook investigated Peter Thiel's Palantir yet?
- koboll 8y agoGood luck getting them to investigate a company owned by a major Facebook shareholder.
- 908087 8y agoIf you took Zuckerberg's word for it, you'd be left thinking Facebook had never heard of Palantir.
- koolba 8y agoHis word in an interview or PR bulletin is one thing. His word during testimony before Congress is another. Out of the entire Zuckerberg / Congress sideshow,m I thought this part stands out as clearly lying to Congress. Not knowing the number of data points isn't out of line (10? 1000? 10000?), but there's no way he doesn't know the term "shadow profiles" in the context of tracking people without Facebook accounts. > Lujan: Facebook has detailed profiles on people who have never signed up for Facebook, yes or no? > Zuckerberg: Congressman, in general we collect data on people who have not signed up for Facebook for security purposes to prevent the kind of scraping you were just referring to [reverse searches based on public info like phone numbers]. > Lujan: So these are called shadow profiles, is that what they’ve been referred to by some? > Zuckerberg: Congressman, I’m not, I’m not familiar with that. > Lujan: I’ll refer to them as shadow profiles for today’s hearing. On average, how many data points does Facebook have on each Facebook user? > Zuckerberg: I do not know off the top of my head.
- 908087 8y agoI was specifically referring to his playing dumb about Palantir during that testimony. I agree that his pretending to be unfamiliar with shadow profiles was one of the more egregious lies presented to congress, though.
- tzs 8y ago"Facebook is investigating whether secretive firm Palantir had 'improper' access to user data" [1] "Facebook ‘Looking Into’ Palantir’s Access to User Data Harvested by Cambridge Analytica" [2] [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/26/facebook-investigating-if-palantir-had-improper-access-to-user-data.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/26/facebook-investigating-if-pa... [2] https://gizmodo.com/facebook-looking-into-palantir-s-access-to-user-data-1825566161 https://gizmodo.com/facebook-looking-into-palantir-s-access-...
- microdrum 8y agoWeird how Facebook keeps signing lucrative contracts with companies whose behavior then surprises and astounds them.
- matt4077 8y agoFacebook did not get any money for Cambridge Analytica's use of their API.
- schwabacher 8y agoFacebook got money for the ads bought based on Cambridge Analytica's use of their API.
- microdrum 8y agoCorrect.
- microdrum 8y ago"Weird how Facebook keeps signing lucrative contracts with companies whose behavior then surprises and astounds them." Another way to put this: perhaps the morally and legally culpable behavior is. . . Facebook's.
- rfc 8y agoThere was no contract between Facebook and Crimson Hexagon regarding data. All data mined was publicly available to anyone.
- ourmandave 8y agoCrimson Hexagon sounds like something from a "nefarious organization" random name generator.
- snikolic 8y agoIt's a reference to cipher from a Borges story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Library_of_Babel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Library_of_Babel
- Rjevski 8y agoMaybe instead of "investigating" data companies, just realize that data companies' sole purpose is to profit off violating user's privacy? I mean it says it right there in the name, no investigation required. If a company uses data for anything else than providing legitimate service to its user, it should be kicked off the platform.
- snikolic 8y agoIn this case, it sounds like CH is using publicly available data only. That doesn't sound like a violation of user privacy, unless Facebook is misleading users about what portions of their information are publicly available.