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Makes sense. Last time a university wanted to scrape user data from from Facebook users (with their permission) "for research purposes", it didn't end so well f
by bryan_w 6y ago
Makes sense. Last time a university wanted to scrape user data from from Facebook users (with their permission) "for research purposes", it didn't end so well for Facebook.
- takeda 6y agoIf you meant Cambridge Analytica, that wasn't an university.
- SpicyLemonZest 6y agoCambridge Analytica got most of their data from a university researcher Aleksandr Kogan, who promised Facebook the data was being used only for academic research but was secretly handing it over to Cambridge Analytica.
- finnthehuman 6y agoSo... the problem with university research is that frauds who claim to be university research aren't university research?
- SpicyLemonZest 6y agoSorry, I don't follow. If you're thinking I was trying to communicate some hidden message with my comment, rest assured I was not.
- disgruntledphd2 6y agoHe wasn't a fraud at the time, he was a postdoc at Cambridge (which is a pretty well-respected university). He gave the data to Cambridge Analytica without permission, though.
- bogomipz 6y agoExcept that Cambridge University did not scrape any data from Facebook nor were they behind Cambridge Analytica. Aleksandar Kogan was a former assistant Professor at Cambridge University who subsequently developed and sold an app to Strategic Communication Laboratories(SCL), the parent company of Cambridge Analytica. That's the entirety of the connection to Cambridge University. This NYU project is the very antithesis of Cambridge Analytica. This project is part of The Online Political Transparency Project. All of the data is public: https://onlinepoliticaltransparencyproject.org/ https://onlinepoliticaltransparencyproject.org/ From the NYU Ad Observatory page: >"The Facebook Ad Observatory is part of the Online Political Transparency Project, which operates from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. This nonpartisan, independent project is focused on improving the transparency of online political advertising, by deploying traditional methods used in cybersecurity to evaluate the vulnerabilities of online sites. The Project builds tools to collect and archive political advertising data, and makes these available publicly. We encourage journalists and researchers to use these to fuel analysis of online political advertising."