3 ms·

"used stolen Facebook data" Is that factually correct? I was under the impression that facebook gave them API access.

by sschueller 7y ago

thomasmarcelis 7y ago
They had API access but extracting and using the data in the way they did was against the terms of use IIRC
- shadowgovt 7y ago
  Essentially. The root failure mode of FB's API solution is that it's an API for accessing private data and their only protection against clients abusing that access was a terms of service. Back in the mid-'00s, we started implementing something against FB's API and I was more than a bit shocked to discover that their solution for preventing someone from building a parallel network of friend relationships out of the available dataset was "Please don't do that, and anyway if you try to do it at scale we'll probably detect the bandwidth consumption and shut you down." Not great.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
everdev 7y ago
They were getting a small number of users to fill out quizzes on Facebook. Unfortunately, the Facebook API gave them information not just about the user who filled out the quiz, but of all of that user's friends. It was against the Facebook ToS, but the data was still provided easily via the API. That's what allowed them to quickly build a database of most eligible voters with very little direct outreach.
dfxm12 7y ago
The developer of the app "thisisyourdigitallife" handed over data collected from that app to Cambridge Analytica. Facebook claims this violates their TOS. Based on that, the data can be called stolen. https://www.vox.com/2018/3/17/17134072/facebook-cambridge-analytica-trump-explained-user-data https://www.vox.com/2018/3/17/17134072/facebook-cambridge-an...
- StuffedParrot 7y ago
  > Facebook claims this violates their TOS. Based on that, the data can be called stolen. They can call it that sure, but if they didn’t restrict access it’s hard to take this as anything but Facebook covering the entire point of their api—to get user data. Hell, if this is theft I should add “master burglar” to my resume—scraping in spite of being an obvious TOS violation is common in the industry. It’s certainly not a crime.

"used stolen Facebook data" Is that factually correct? I was under the impression that facebook gave them API access.

thomasmarcelis 7y ago

They had API access but extracting and using the data in the way they did was against the terms of use IIRC

shadowgovt 7y ago
Essentially. The root failure mode of FB's API solution is that it's an API for accessing private data and their only protection against clients abusing that access was a terms of service. Back in the mid-'00s, we started implementing something against FB's API and I was more than a bit shocked to discover that their solution for preventing someone from building a parallel network of friend relationships out of the available dataset was "Please don't do that, and anyway if you try to do it at scale we'll probably detect the bandwidth consumption and shut you down." Not great.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

everdev 7y ago

They were getting a small number of users to fill out quizzes on Facebook. Unfortunately, the Facebook API gave them information not just about the user who filled out the quiz, but of all of that user's friends. It was against the Facebook ToS, but the data was still provided easily via the API. That's what allowed them to quickly build a database of most eligible voters with very little direct outreach.

dfxm12 7y ago

The developer of the app "thisisyourdigitallife" handed over data collected from that app to Cambridge Analytica. Facebook claims this violates their TOS. Based on that, the data can be called stolen. https://www.vox.com/2018/3/17/17134072/facebook-cambridge-analytica-trump-explained-user-data https://www.vox.com/2018/3/17/17134072/facebook-cambridge-an...

StuffedParrot 7y ago
> Facebook claims this violates their TOS. Based on that, the data can be called stolen. They can call it that sure, but if they didn’t restrict access it’s hard to take this as anything but Facebook covering the entire point of their api—to get user data. Hell, if this is theft I should add “master burglar” to my resume—scraping in spite of being an obvious TOS violation is common in the industry. It’s certainly not a crime.