4 ms·

I think Facebook would like to be perceived as a liberal tech startup but keep in mind they knowingly sold the user info to Cambridge analytics for the republic

I think Facebook would like to be perceived as a liberal tech startup but keep in mind they knowingly sold the user info to Cambridge analytics for the republicans. The truth is their in it for the money like every other company. Apart of that means maintaining public perception.

beaconstudios 8y ago
I think it would be reasonable to assume they sold user info to anyone who could afford it.
- paganel 8y ago
  Afaik the Democrats had done the same thing in 2012 with their micro-targeting "strategy" and they were praised for doing that (even here on this website). From here[1]: > They used classic micro-targeting online advertising to reach those groups. Obama's team's use of Facebook this time was also very clever, tapping into Facebook's individual profile data. A million users downloaded the Obama 2012 app on Facebook. The app was able to identify their Facebook friends that fit favorable profiles located in key swing states, encouraging them to contact these friends to remind them to vote. Sources say one in five of those contacted this way were influenced positively by this contact. If it matters I'm not a US citizen and I've never set foot in the States so I had almost no direct stake in the 2012 and the 2016 US elections. [1] https://www.mediavillage.com/article/how-data-and-micro-targeting-won-the-2012-election-for-obama-antony-young-mindshare-north-america/ https://www.mediavillage.com/article/how-data-and-micro-targ...
  - specialist 8y ago
    Overtly. With opt-in. Big difference.
    - paganel 8y ago
      > A million users downloaded the Obama 2012 app on Facebook. I'm pretty sure that the friends of those 1 million people that had opted-in were not consulted about anything, though, but I may be wrong of that. And I'm pretty sure that those friends were the real target of said campaign.
      - specialist 8y ago
        People shouldn't encourage their friends to vote?
        paganel 8y ago
        Yeah, if he calls me directly on the phone or via text messaging (SMS, chat), there's nothing wrong with that. A definite no about my name and other info being in the database of a political party without my consent, based only on my friend's approval.
        specialist 8y ago
        Just so I understand: You oppose 3rd party voter databases, like these: https://www.ngpvan.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGP_VAN https://www.i-360.com https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/I360 You support foreign intelligence agencies covertly, anonymously meddling with our elections. Especially through our social media platforms, like Facebook. Because Obama's campaign had an app.
        beaconstudios 8y ago
        no-one in this comment chain has supported intelligence agencies meddling in elections. Please don't be disingenuous. If anything, the parent was arguing against both.
        paganel 8y ago
        Yeah, I most certainly oppose 3rd party voter databases like the ones you linked to, I only see them as tools to win elections by using "sales marketing"-like strategies. I think that winning elections in such a manner is very bad for the future of democracy as you cannot fool the electorate indefinitely, because at some point the electorate will resort to other political "products", meaning the general populace will start looking at democracy and the electoral process as a "fake product" (as it usually happens to products that are pushed down consumers' throats based on marketing alone) and will choose other, "truer" products (like the rule of a sole individual that will not rely on the electoral process etc). I don't generally support intelligence agencies but I most certainly do not support them meddling in any country's elections. I was just saying that the Obama campaign had used tactics similar to the ones used by the Trump campaign in 2016, that is all.
  - SeanAppleby 8y ago
    I think there is also a distinction in the granularity of the data harvested and what it was used for. Knowing someone's location, age, etc and using that to classify whether or not someone should reach out to them to remind them to vote is one thing. Harvesting everything they've liked on facebook to classify them by big five personality type to predict how to use disinformation to manipulate someone (often by scaring them into thinking they needed a gun to defend themselves, or that they needed to deport immigrants because they were gangerous, or into thinking islamic extremism was a real threat to their lives, as people high in neuroticism are more heavily motivated by arbitrary negative emotional impulses) into skewing their political preferences is an entirely separate game.

beaconstudios 8y ago

I think it would be reasonable to assume they sold user info to anyone who could afford it.

paganel 8y ago
Afaik the Democrats had done the same thing in 2012 with their micro-targeting "strategy" and they were praised for doing that (even here on this website). From here[1]: > They used classic micro-targeting online advertising to reach those groups. Obama's team's use of Facebook this time was also very clever, tapping into Facebook's individual profile data. A million users downloaded the Obama 2012 app on Facebook. The app was able to identify their Facebook friends that fit favorable profiles located in key swing states, encouraging them to contact these friends to remind them to vote. Sources say one in five of those contacted this way were influenced positively by this contact. If it matters I'm not a US citizen and I've never set foot in the States so I had almost no direct stake in the 2012 and the 2016 US elections. [1] https://www.mediavillage.com/article/how-data-and-micro-targeting-won-the-2012-election-for-obama-antony-young-mindshare-north-america/ https://www.mediavillage.com/article/how-data-and-micro-targ...
- specialist 8y ago
  Overtly. With opt-in. Big difference.
  - paganel 8y ago
    > A million users downloaded the Obama 2012 app on Facebook. I'm pretty sure that the friends of those 1 million people that had opted-in were not consulted about anything, though, but I may be wrong of that. And I'm pretty sure that those friends were the real target of said campaign.
    - specialist 8y ago
      People shouldn't encourage their friends to vote?
      - paganel 8y ago
        Yeah, if he calls me directly on the phone or via text messaging (SMS, chat), there's nothing wrong with that. A definite no about my name and other info being in the database of a political party without my consent, based only on my friend's approval.
        specialist 8y ago
        Just so I understand: You oppose 3rd party voter databases, like these: https://www.ngpvan.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGP_VAN https://www.i-360.com https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/I360 You support foreign intelligence agencies covertly, anonymously meddling with our elections. Especially through our social media platforms, like Facebook. Because Obama's campaign had an app.
        beaconstudios 8y ago
        no-one in this comment chain has supported intelligence agencies meddling in elections. Please don't be disingenuous. If anything, the parent was arguing against both.
        paganel 8y ago
        Yeah, I most certainly oppose 3rd party voter databases like the ones you linked to, I only see them as tools to win elections by using "sales marketing"-like strategies. I think that winning elections in such a manner is very bad for the future of democracy as you cannot fool the electorate indefinitely, because at some point the electorate will resort to other political "products", meaning the general populace will start looking at democracy and the electoral process as a "fake product" (as it usually happens to products that are pushed down consumers' throats based on marketing alone) and will choose other, "truer" products (like the rule of a sole individual that will not rely on the electoral process etc). I don't generally support intelligence agencies but I most certainly do not support them meddling in any country's elections. I was just saying that the Obama campaign had used tactics similar to the ones used by the Trump campaign in 2016, that is all.
- SeanAppleby 8y ago
  I think there is also a distinction in the granularity of the data harvested and what it was used for. Knowing someone's location, age, etc and using that to classify whether or not someone should reach out to them to remind them to vote is one thing. Harvesting everything they've liked on facebook to classify them by big five personality type to predict how to use disinformation to manipulate someone (often by scaring them into thinking they needed a gun to defend themselves, or that they needed to deport immigrants because they were gangerous, or into thinking islamic extremism was a real threat to their lives, as people high in neuroticism are more heavily motivated by arbitrary negative emotional impulses) into skewing their political preferences is an entirely separate game.