6 ms·

Settlement for Australian users impacted by Cambridge Analytica incident

76 points by ajdlinux 2y ago

thomas598brown 2y ago
[flagged]
bigs 2y ago
How do you know if a friend installed This is Your Digital Life?
- stephen_g 2y ago
  There's a link you can go to when you're logged in to Facebook and it tells you. It came back that none of my FB friends had used it for me.
  - denkmoon 2y ago
    I wonder where this link can be found?
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - gregoryl 2y ago
      Posted it below, but the link is https://www.facebook.com/help/1873665312923476 https://www.facebook.com/help/1873665312923476
rukuu001 2y ago
> Individuals should be aware that scammers may use this media release to falsely claim to help them get payments. If you receive a call… I can just imagine the heavy sigh that accompanied the decision to put this at the end of the media release.
- b112 2y ago
  This is a tangent, but the Bank of Canada is where dormant bank accounts go. I've known this for years, and I suspect like many who find out -- you look for some. Especially ones you had as a kid, that you haven't thought of for years. Point is, after that you start to look for relatives. Just in case they didn't realise. And while I did not find a person I thought was a relative, they did have the same last name. So I Googled a bit, found their relative, and called. The guy started yelling at me first thing. Telling me to go to blazes, and so forth. I just said "YOU contact them, I don't want any part of it! I just hate the idea of $1M sitting in a dormant account!" Nope. From the sound of the screaming and blathering on the other end of the line, this guy had been beset by endless scammers calling. Repeatedly. All the time. Trying to "do all the work" for 10%, this sort of thing. Still his response was incredibly over the top. Didn't start off with "I am NOT interested", but instead with screaming. How many calls per month, per week? Per day?!
ganeshkrishnan 2y ago
50 million is chump change for Facebook. In a fair world, we would have competition against facebook and there would be choices for consumers. In this real world we are stuck with the bottom feeders like facebook which just works with impunity. Not only did facebook lose all the data, it disabled customer support chat in Australia for all services including advertising. Our company fb account (for travelers) was disabled due to "Suspicious activity" and then permanently deleted. But they conveniently left the ad account on which we can neither login nor disable. If we do a charge back, Facebook will instaban the instagram account as well and in process we could lose our 16 year account. There is a huge group of such people here https://www.reddit.com/r/facebookdisabledme/ https://www.reddit.com/r/facebookdisabledme/ Both reddit and facebook belong to trash of history (for different reasons)
- protocolture 2y ago
  I have an account like that that simply exists but can never interact. Support requests (even when I figured out how to make them) do nothing. They just say "It will be fixed within the week"
- grugagag 2y ago
  Not in your case as a business but for majority of people being banned on facebook and other social media could be a blessing in disguise.
- ipaddr 2y ago
  In fairness facebook has many competitors and it's possible to create a clone for a small sum. That doesn't include the scaling components which are world class. But a profile some photos and videos has been done successfully by vk for example. How to you get everyone to signup? This is how facebook did it. Start in top universities and only allow people from there to sign up. Repeat at other universities. Open it up to all .edus. Get press coverage about this site many are talking about but only college kids can use. Open it up to everyone but setup cities regions where content is shared. Introduce a tool that reads your hotmail and emails everyone to join. Add games. Groups. Kill games. Promote flame bait. Replace content with ads. The facebook rollout was magical and hard to replicate. Having people within the same colleges on a public/private network created communities. Places where parents/relatives/past school mates wouldn't see that content. Lost some magic with cities but it still created communities. Killing games started the decline. Everyone you know from your grandparents to your little sister joining killed the original feel. Politics killed conversations. Facebook had many paths to choose and they ended up here. If you started a similiar journey you could make different choices and end up somewhere else.
29athrowaway 2y ago
"Justice"
nomilk 2y ago
Kinda weird. We (Australia) have a new major data breach every month. Seems strange to single out Meta, what about Optus, St Vincent’s, Dymocks, the AFP (!), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (hardly surpising, with their 1990s website), Pizza Hut, the Royal Women’s Hospital, and about 100 (not hyperbole) others?
- urig 2y ago
  I dunno, techbro. Somehow Meta being the victim here is not the key takeaway that springs to my mind, you know?
- guidedlight 2y ago
  Because it’s harder to prosecute incompetence.
- BLKNSLVR 2y ago
  My understanding is that the difference is that the Meta-Cambridge Analytica situation wasn't a 'hack' data breach, it was Facebook sharing data in breach of existing Australian privacy laws. ie. Meta is at fault, as opposed to a criminal intruder.
  - vasco 2y ago
    It was an API. After years of getting shit for not opening their social graph. To this day I don't understand how the world decided that was a big deal.
    - blitzar 2y ago
      I don't recall any complaints about facebook not posting everyones private information publicly or selling it to the lowest and highest bidder.
      - vasco 2y ago
        I do, before there was a sea of games on facebook, before facebook apps, people were clamoring for the API access. It was supposed to be the next big thing and everyone made integrations with it, you'd log your spotify listening queue to it, etc. Developers were very happy when the API came to be. Then later people became aware of how much access you could actually get and especially if you saved the data locally. Then the FTC fined them for it and everyone tightened things down, not just Facebook. I at least remember it like this, with that first part.
jongjong 2y ago
How are we supposed to know if someone in our network used the 'This is Your Digital Life app'? I feel like there is so much more behind this. Personally, I feel like I've been secretly blacklisted for 5 years straight. Even LLMs are telling me that it seems like I've been blacklisted and that it appears like there is 'an element of coordination' when I describe some of the bizarre work experiences that I've had in the tech (esp. crypto) industry. I can't even talk about some of my experiences (at least not the full extent) because they are too weird and the motives make no sense.
- gregoryl 2y ago
  You can check with this support article; you need to be logged in to a Facebook account. https://www.facebook.com/help/1873665312923476 https://www.facebook.com/help/1873665312923476
dylan604 2y ago
It’s crazy to me that the CA debacle is still reverberating as unsettled this many years later. For a breach that’s been known for a decade to just now coming to a settlement is insane. Delay delay delay tactics should get push back from judges.
- whamlastxmas 2y ago
  The $50 million settlement would be worth $217 million today if it was paid as Facebook stock in 2016

76 points by ajdlinux 2y ago

thomas598brown 2y ago

[flagged]

bigs 2y ago

How do you know if a friend installed This is Your Digital Life?

stephen_g 2y ago
There's a link you can go to when you're logged in to Facebook and it tells you. It came back that none of my FB friends had used it for me.
- denkmoon 2y ago
  I wonder where this link can be found?
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - gregoryl 2y ago
    Posted it below, but the link is https://www.facebook.com/help/1873665312923476 https://www.facebook.com/help/1873665312923476

rukuu001 2y ago

> Individuals should be aware that scammers may use this media release to falsely claim to help them get payments. If you receive a call… I can just imagine the heavy sigh that accompanied the decision to put this at the end of the media release.

b112 2y ago
This is a tangent, but the Bank of Canada is where dormant bank accounts go. I've known this for years, and I suspect like many who find out -- you look for some. Especially ones you had as a kid, that you haven't thought of for years. Point is, after that you start to look for relatives. Just in case they didn't realise. And while I did not find a person I thought was a relative, they did have the same last name. So I Googled a bit, found their relative, and called. The guy started yelling at me first thing. Telling me to go to blazes, and so forth. I just said "YOU contact them, I don't want any part of it! I just hate the idea of $1M sitting in a dormant account!" Nope. From the sound of the screaming and blathering on the other end of the line, this guy had been beset by endless scammers calling. Repeatedly. All the time. Trying to "do all the work" for 10%, this sort of thing. Still his response was incredibly over the top. Didn't start off with "I am NOT interested", but instead with screaming. How many calls per month, per week? Per day?!

ganeshkrishnan 2y ago

50 million is chump change for Facebook. In a fair world, we would have competition against facebook and there would be choices for consumers. In this real world we are stuck with the bottom feeders like facebook which just works with impunity. Not only did facebook lose all the data, it disabled customer support chat in Australia for all services including advertising. Our company fb account (for travelers) was disabled due to "Suspicious activity" and then permanently deleted. But they conveniently left the ad account on which we can neither login nor disable. If we do a charge back, Facebook will instaban the instagram account as well and in process we could lose our 16 year account. There is a huge group of such people here https://www.reddit.com/r/facebookdisabledme/ https://www.reddit.com/r/facebookdisabledme/ Both reddit and facebook belong to trash of history (for different reasons)

protocolture 2y ago
I have an account like that that simply exists but can never interact. Support requests (even when I figured out how to make them) do nothing. They just say "It will be fixed within the week"
grugagag 2y ago
Not in your case as a business but for majority of people being banned on facebook and other social media could be a blessing in disguise.
ipaddr 2y ago
In fairness facebook has many competitors and it's possible to create a clone for a small sum. That doesn't include the scaling components which are world class. But a profile some photos and videos has been done successfully by vk for example. How to you get everyone to signup? This is how facebook did it. Start in top universities and only allow people from there to sign up. Repeat at other universities. Open it up to all .edus. Get press coverage about this site many are talking about but only college kids can use. Open it up to everyone but setup cities regions where content is shared. Introduce a tool that reads your hotmail and emails everyone to join. Add games. Groups. Kill games. Promote flame bait. Replace content with ads. The facebook rollout was magical and hard to replicate. Having people within the same colleges on a public/private network created communities. Places where parents/relatives/past school mates wouldn't see that content. Lost some magic with cities but it still created communities. Killing games started the decline. Everyone you know from your grandparents to your little sister joining killed the original feel. Politics killed conversations. Facebook had many paths to choose and they ended up here. If you started a similiar journey you could make different choices and end up somewhere else.

29athrowaway 2y ago

"Justice"

nomilk 2y ago

Kinda weird. We (Australia) have a new major data breach every month. Seems strange to single out Meta, what about Optus, St Vincent’s, Dymocks, the AFP (!), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (hardly surpising, with their 1990s website), Pizza Hut, the Royal Women’s Hospital, and about 100 (not hyperbole) others?

urig 2y ago
I dunno, techbro. Somehow Meta being the victim here is not the key takeaway that springs to my mind, you know?
guidedlight 2y ago
Because it’s harder to prosecute incompetence.
BLKNSLVR 2y ago
My understanding is that the difference is that the Meta-Cambridge Analytica situation wasn't a 'hack' data breach, it was Facebook sharing data in breach of existing Australian privacy laws. ie. Meta is at fault, as opposed to a criminal intruder.
- vasco 2y ago
  It was an API. After years of getting shit for not opening their social graph. To this day I don't understand how the world decided that was a big deal.
  - blitzar 2y ago
    I don't recall any complaints about facebook not posting everyones private information publicly or selling it to the lowest and highest bidder.
    - vasco 2y ago
      I do, before there was a sea of games on facebook, before facebook apps, people were clamoring for the API access. It was supposed to be the next big thing and everyone made integrations with it, you'd log your spotify listening queue to it, etc. Developers were very happy when the API came to be. Then later people became aware of how much access you could actually get and especially if you saved the data locally. Then the FTC fined them for it and everyone tightened things down, not just Facebook. I at least remember it like this, with that first part.

jongjong 2y ago

How are we supposed to know if someone in our network used the 'This is Your Digital Life app'? I feel like there is so much more behind this. Personally, I feel like I've been secretly blacklisted for 5 years straight. Even LLMs are telling me that it seems like I've been blacklisted and that it appears like there is 'an element of coordination' when I describe some of the bizarre work experiences that I've had in the tech (esp. crypto) industry. I can't even talk about some of my experiences (at least not the full extent) because they are too weird and the motives make no sense.

gregoryl 2y ago
You can check with this support article; you need to be logged in to a Facebook account. https://www.facebook.com/help/1873665312923476 https://www.facebook.com/help/1873665312923476

dylan604 2y ago

It’s crazy to me that the CA debacle is still reverberating as unsettled this many years later. For a breach that’s been known for a decade to just now coming to a settlement is insane. Delay delay delay tactics should get push back from judges.

whamlastxmas 2y ago
The $50 million settlement would be worth $217 million today if it was paid as Facebook stock in 2016