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No they were not. Please see this post from Dr David Stillwell from the Psychometric Centers at Cambridge University who responded to a post here a few weeks ag

No they were not. Please see this post from Dr David Stillwell from the Psychometric Centers at Cambridge University who responded to a post here a few weeks ago about this very point: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24912986 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24912986

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
Thanks for the link, but I'm sure you can understand my skepticism of a naked assertion that the reporting on this issue was wrong - especially since this was Mr. Stillwell's only comment ever.
- bogomipz 6y ago
  Is it really that implausible that someone have have forwarded him a link to a site he has no interest in and he saw a comment he felt compelled to comment on? Since when is the number of of past comments a barometer for legitimacy? I mean Hacker News even gives you the option to post from a throwaway account. Further the comment is simply refuting one Wired article with an earlier article Wired published on the same subject in which he participated in. It's not like some crazy idea was being posited in the comment. Lastly Dr Stillwell has made the assertion many times that the app and data he and Dr Michal Kosinskis developed for their "MyPersonality Quiz" app at Cambridge University is neither the same app or data as Aleksandar Kogan's My Digital Life" app that Kogan developed for Global Science Research and their client SCL Elections. The "MyPersonality Quiz" app was simply based on Stillwell's earlier work.
  - SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
    I really don't follow your point here. It's plausible, but lots of things are plausible - it's plausible that the original reporting is correct, plausible that Stillwell is embarrassed about his involvement, plausible that Cambridge was involved in some way that didn't involve Stillwell. You seem to have reached a stronger conclusion, that Stillwell's statement is definitely correct and the reporting was definitely wrong, and I don't see how you got there by just looking at plausibility.
    - bogomipz 6y ago
      I actually provided a link that to a well-researched article by Wired Magazine. I have also pointed out that the differentiation between the two different apps is well-documented. In that I have given you the two key points that you could easily use in your own Google search. What have you provided? You have provided exactly nothing to substantiate your "strong" conclusion. It's hard to see how you yourself "got there" based on nothing other than it's just your opinion.
      - david_stillwell 6y ago
        The story is unfortunately complicated, so many news outlets get it wrong. myPersonality was my app that ran from 2007-12. Michal and I published papers based on its resulting data, which was collected with user consent and only from users who used the app (not their friends). We worked in the Psychometrics Centre - a research group in Cambridge University. Prof. Kogan joined Cambridge University later on in 2013 as an independent faculty member not in the Psychometrics Centre, created his own app 'mydigitallife,' and went on to work with Cambridge Analytica using data from users of his app and their friends. So key points from my perspective are (1) My app isn't the same as Kogan's app, (2) I didn't work with Cambridge Analytica, (3) Kogan was independent faculty, not part of the Psychometrics Centre. As you've noticed from my post history, I don't usually use this website. I do, however, have an alert set up that pings me links when someone uses my name online. I have it set up so that I can attempt to correct journalists who write about me and my research group and get the facts wrong. Hope this clarifies things Edit: Since I'm here. I think it's critical that NYU's Ad Observatory continues and that academics have freedom to collect data and report results that might embarrass rich and powerful companies. Tweet #9 in this thread is the key one ( https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1329873620353515520 https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1329873620353515520 ) - how do we know that FB's own ad library isn't good enough? Because Ad Observatory found that it wasn't reporting all instances of political ads.

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago

Thanks for the link, but I'm sure you can understand my skepticism of a naked assertion that the reporting on this issue was wrong - especially since this was Mr. Stillwell's only comment ever.

bogomipz 6y ago
Is it really that implausible that someone have have forwarded him a link to a site he has no interest in and he saw a comment he felt compelled to comment on? Since when is the number of of past comments a barometer for legitimacy? I mean Hacker News even gives you the option to post from a throwaway account. Further the comment is simply refuting one Wired article with an earlier article Wired published on the same subject in which he participated in. It's not like some crazy idea was being posited in the comment. Lastly Dr Stillwell has made the assertion many times that the app and data he and Dr Michal Kosinskis developed for their "MyPersonality Quiz" app at Cambridge University is neither the same app or data as Aleksandar Kogan's My Digital Life" app that Kogan developed for Global Science Research and their client SCL Elections. The "MyPersonality Quiz" app was simply based on Stillwell's earlier work.
- SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
  I really don't follow your point here. It's plausible, but lots of things are plausible - it's plausible that the original reporting is correct, plausible that Stillwell is embarrassed about his involvement, plausible that Cambridge was involved in some way that didn't involve Stillwell. You seem to have reached a stronger conclusion, that Stillwell's statement is definitely correct and the reporting was definitely wrong, and I don't see how you got there by just looking at plausibility.
  - bogomipz 6y ago
    I actually provided a link that to a well-researched article by Wired Magazine. I have also pointed out that the differentiation between the two different apps is well-documented. In that I have given you the two key points that you could easily use in your own Google search. What have you provided? You have provided exactly nothing to substantiate your "strong" conclusion. It's hard to see how you yourself "got there" based on nothing other than it's just your opinion.
    - david_stillwell 6y ago
      The story is unfortunately complicated, so many news outlets get it wrong. myPersonality was my app that ran from 2007-12. Michal and I published papers based on its resulting data, which was collected with user consent and only from users who used the app (not their friends). We worked in the Psychometrics Centre - a research group in Cambridge University. Prof. Kogan joined Cambridge University later on in 2013 as an independent faculty member not in the Psychometrics Centre, created his own app 'mydigitallife,' and went on to work with Cambridge Analytica using data from users of his app and their friends. So key points from my perspective are (1) My app isn't the same as Kogan's app, (2) I didn't work with Cambridge Analytica, (3) Kogan was independent faculty, not part of the Psychometrics Centre. As you've noticed from my post history, I don't usually use this website. I do, however, have an alert set up that pings me links when someone uses my name online. I have it set up so that I can attempt to correct journalists who write about me and my research group and get the facts wrong. Hope this clarifies things Edit: Since I'm here. I think it's critical that NYU's Ad Observatory continues and that academics have freedom to collect data and report results that might embarrass rich and powerful companies. Tweet #9 in this thread is the key one ( https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1329873620353515520 https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1329873620353515520 ) - how do we know that FB's own ad library isn't good enough? Because Ad Observatory found that it wasn't reporting all instances of political ads.