Here's an interesting exercise
Trump lost the 4 key swing states by only 60 to 70,000 votes.
Take the Russian targeted ads through social media that supposedly reached 126 million Americans
Add Cambridge Analytics influence over Facebook for 50 million highly targeted voters
That's 176 million voters that were viewing highly targeted and negative ads at the same time the FBI was making public declarations about investigations into Clintons emails.
It is not hard to believe that all this activity influenced 70,000 votes in key swing states to win all those electoral college votes that gave Trump the election
5
Thank you for the reminder about the cookies. I don’t access information from companies and organizations that are too lazy to maintain their own websites. When
I see that Facebook has exclusive gatekeeper status I see a bright red flashing light ‘Intruder Alert!!’ Now I am wondering about all those little Facebook icons on the bottom of the page.
2
This is an excellent article worth sharing (Is it possible to 'safely' Facebook anymore?), and a quote that pretty much says it all:
"It's not possible to use Facebook safely because the platform is about putting vast amounts of personal information in one place," said Goyle. "Technology is so well developed that it can accurately analyze scraps of information to reconstruct whole profiles of valuable user data. Facebook itself cannot fully protect users from companies and people who want to make use of that information - nor does it seem to want to."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/is-it-possible-to-safely-faceb...
2
Facebook makes its money by advertising. It does this by using information on its users to direct ads to target demographics. The more accurate the targeting, the more effective the ads and the higher the ad revenue. The catch is that Facebook needs to know as much about its users as possible - maybe by answereing quizzes, maybe by recording which "news" is being viewed, maybe by who one's friends are. And Facebook isn't shy about sharing its users' data, their claims to the contrary. Whenever you give data to Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon or whomever, you should consider that data as part of the public domain. Life can go on without Facebook and users need to decide if compromising their personal data is worth the experience of having some Facebook "friends" or getting bogus news - possibly from Russia, or Bannon and Mercer, or some other malefactors. For me, it's a no-brailer. Never. Joined and sure wouldn't join now.
6
Totally agree. After working in the tech industry during the rise of the Internet for 20 years it quickly became clear that engaging in these platforms is all "buyer beware." Never signed up for Facebook and never will.
3
Facebook's view of itself:
"Protecting people’s information is at the heart of everything we do..." Paul Grewal, VP & Deputy General Counsel, 3/16/2018.
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/03/suspending-cambridge-analytica/
2
Zukerberg should be prosecuted ASAP! He knew exactly what he was doing when he accepted Rubies from Russia. It's all about greed on his part. CEO of Twitted needs to be hauled before congress as well. Absolutely no oversight which is very bad business. 'Their' collective behavior in this matter is unpatriotic and Un-American. Some of this behavior seems treasonable as well. Russia is here to break democracy and the US. That's why this is treasonous. Go Muller!
7
Geez Two of Trump Favorite==California and Tech ---targeted
Facebook took money from Russia to cause unrest and revolts around the World. Facebook does not want a real investigation because profits would be hurt. Facebook helped Trump win so GOP will give them a pass. Ray Sipe
3
I wonder if Facebook’s utterly lame and inept response to this crisis is related to something no one has mentioned, at least I don’t think they have. Mark Zuckerberg is only 33 years old. He is a technical wizard who, with his team, has built one of the world’s most influential businesses in an amazingly short time. But at that age, one simply does not have the nuanced and mature judgment that only comes with age. Yes, some older people are the world’s biggest jerks. Witness our president. But I think Zuckerberg would be well served by consulting a few white-snouted dogs.
3
When a company wants me to sign in with Facebook to view their content, I close out my browser immediately and make sure there are no cookies left behind
8
I use Facebook to play some games and post pictures on occasion because I feel it is too invasive and really don't trust what they do with my information. I don't allow just anyone to contact me even if they are a friend of a friend and try to keep the settings very restrictive.
All thru the Presidential campaign I saw unbelievable facts and then watched as some of my Facebook friends re posted. I also can't believe they did not check the source and accepted fake news at face value. They are still doing it today. Not the kind of fake news Trump talks about. I understand the dislike for Clinton, but the man who talks about nothing but fake news put it out there and they re-posted it. And I know the "liberals" do fake posts also. But I don't think the Russians trolled for her.
Today I also found my friends taking the stupid surveys what you favor color says about you. What type of flower you are. Good God people these sites have been found to be FAKE and data trolling and apparently do not THINK it is in fact, a gathering of personal information tool.
Facebook owes everyone who uses it the truth about who our information was sold too. I don't want to hire an attorney to review the policy I want a simple statement of who they sell the information to that I can quickly understand and say no to this info. But they hide it, do not make any statements about it. Another company only interested in profits not in our privacy that is sold to make more profits.
2
For an extra dollar of profit, Facebook and Zuckerberg would gladly sell society's soul to the devil. This will never change.
7
Will some very smart and very computer/internet savvy commenter, with the help of the NYT in publishing your comment, show us all how to delete our Facebook accounts in the fewest steps possible in a comment here?
And please don't tell me that I can look it up online or youtube. I want to see it here in these comments. This is my form of social media - and it is strong.
Socrates - you out there reading this now from Verona? How 'bout it?
4
Is it possible to 'safely' Facebook anymore?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/is-it-possible-to-safely-faceb...
1
Our congressional clowns make me laugh. Why bother having Zuckerberg and other Facebook CEOs testify? So we can watch our congressional representatives sit around and do their usual nothing while Zuckerberg and his cronies plead the 5th?
5
I quit Fakebook in 2016 after I realized that most of the stuff I was reading and seeing vis a vis the election was fabricated.
I have not looked back and at the time, I predicted that others would eventually do the same.
The time is now. Social media is an anachronism and as a society, we need to relegate it to the trash bin of history or leave it to the crazy cons who call themselves Republicans like we did with talk radio.
Delete your profile and free your mind!!
4
The New York Times tracks every article a subscriber visits, and every page visited. The Times does not even provide an "opt-out" option to readers. The Times' privacy policy regarding use of this state includes this text: "In the future, we may sell, buy, merge or partner with other companies or businesses. In such transactions, we may include your information among the transferred assets."
The Times needs to practice what it preaches.
3
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this is common practice with most every major site. We are being tracked and documented everywhere, constantly. Look at all the cameras that track our movements when we shop, walk down the street, enter a building. And then there is GPS. Don't get me started. This isn't unusual, yet we all seem so shocked!
2
For those that think Facebook or Russian media trolling had nothing to do with Trump's victory have forgotten that he himself said, if you repeat a lie often enough, people believe it.
5
I think this is less about data and more about identity. To me, the issue is whether Facebook is a social media company or really just an old fashioned media company. By all accounts it long ago stopped being a social platform for users, evolving into a global media company making revenue selling advertising and subscriber lists/data. No other media outlet — a newspaper, magazine, or television network — would be able to print or air bogus ads for bogus groups. Or allow subscriber information to be manipulated in such an underhanded way.
Ethical journalism requires media companies to vet their advertising to some degree to make sure it is not fraudulent. You will not see a fake ad for a miracle drug in Time Magazine, nor would you see a Russian Troll ad in the NYT. Political ads always push the boundaries of being misleading, but they do get pulled or rejected if found to be totally baseless.
Facebook wants to claim that they are just a "platform". But this is simply not true anymore. I think it is time to call Facebook what it is, a giant media company and regulate them as such. They want to be hands-off "social platform" when it suits, and be a "media company" when it pays. Mostly, they have proven that the Frankenstein they have created is capable of handing us a monster for president.
Is that really worth sharing dog pictures with friends?
2
I didn't see a chapter in Sheryl Sandberg's ridiculous and condescending book about "Lean In To Theft, Deception, and Political Manipulation To Make Me Rich." Is my copy defective?
6
Post only fake data in Facebook. Never use your real name, birthday, location, schools.... And do NOT use any apps that request access to your personal data, and the personal data of all your friends.
3
Methinks Facebook will be going the way of My Space.
2
I miss MySpace, which used to be the cool “bad neighborhood” of the internet where artists, writers and musicians lived.
Unfortunately that platform didn’t keep up technologically as the best place to post our songs and movies. And Facebook never attained enough street cred to attract the Bohemian lifestyle. MySpace was the inner city while Facebook was a suburban gated country club that never shook its Ivy League roots.
1
Wow! $40,000 per day times 50,000,000 accounts is $2 trillion dollars just for a single day. The F.T.C. could fine Facebook many trillions of dollars for this one incident and wipe them out. Maybe that would get these tech companies to start taking users' data seriously.
3
I deleted Facebook 6 years ago and have never looked back.
2
Almost all educated (degrees does not matter) and wise people think that "greed and stupidity are what will end human race" (Stephen Hawking).
Stupidity includes both religious and political allegiance, mainly religious, and they are very closely connected. Unfortunately, a large part of it that allegiance is hereditary. American corporate greed and their uncanny ability to influence many, probably most, American Congressmen in public policy is a growing concern. They are systematically destroying public education since early 1980s (Reagan era), making every effort to make and keep general public as stupid as possible, reducing the influence and role of Government as much possible. Sometimes in the name of personal freedom and bribing (in the name of tax cut). It's so unfortunate from seemingly educated and talented people heading many such extremely greedy American corporations like Mark Zukerberg behave more like moles of authoritarian regimes and desperate to kill American democracy and middle class by its huge influence to shape public opinion. I do not know how they think they themselves will flourish and remain safe once they successfully kill the goose that used to lay golden eggs for them since long.
Previously, we used to think that education would reduce its (religion) impact. Now we know that's not true unless conscious effort is given to developing a sense of logic, courage and honesty to uphold truth, as evident by objective scientific research.
2
How many people took the time to read, let alone understand, FB Terms of Service and what it really meant? Nothing is ever put into plain English so that it can be understood by those of us without law degrees! Most people don't even understand exactly what FB & others collect on us or how it is used. FB might not be quite so popular if that information was known.
Most people thought the information collected was for companies to identify people who would likely use their products and services! We didn't know they were going to manipulate our beliefs through fake news and assist Russia or other bad actor states to influence our elections!!!!
Congress must act to regulate FB, Twitter, Google, etc. immediately. But, the 1st thing they need to do is implement Net Neutrality as law. These things go hand in hand. Comprehensive legislation will take time to craft. It cannot be done in a couple of months by people who don't fully understand how things work.
In the mean time, they should be prevented from releasing or selling any data. Because there is not time to implement anything before the 2018 elections, FB, Twitter, et. al. need to be shut down for 2 months before the election. Additionally, we need to use paper ballots exclusively and protect our electric grid and other sensitive infrastructure.
This is about as Orwellian as it gets!!!
3
funny lady... so sweet... thinking that every congressman
on the planet would shut down FB... before an election...
and miss out on the chance to buy FB's targeted data sets..
that could get them reelected...
2
Byron
Do you even get how condescending “funny lady... so sweet...” is to women?
1
An article in yesterday's Guardian makes clear that Cambridge Analytica was just the tip of the iceberg where illicit FB data mining is concerned. Thousands of data mining companies paid FB for access to user profile info, without users being at all aware this was going on.
I was as careful as I knew how to be when initializing my FB account some years ago and I took care to safeguard (so I thought) the privacy settings to my account, but after a couple of 'how to' articles yesterday guided me to the bowels of FB privacy settings FB purposefullly keep buried deep within their interface, i.e. I never even knew this area on the site existed, nor could I find it through their search bar, but instead found it through a link provided by a watchdog article, I discovered highly detailed profiling of all aspects about me, highly personal, that clearly were tailored not for my benefit, but to sell to the likes of Cambridge Analytica. Mark Zuckerberg, in the name of profit, has been a longterm, major player in illicit data sale for the purpose of creating propaganda. He's in bed with Brave New World totalitarian thugs.
5
Zuckerberg cant hide in his hoodie anymore
2
The lack of regulation in this area of social media data harvesting is extreme. It calls to mind the lawless old West, and the carelessness of meat packers leading to Upton Sinclair’s novels.
4
Good idea Mark!
Somebody should write a sequel to “The Social Network”
Money goes to money. Mark Zuckerberg hides out and shuns responsibility with each breach and problem. Here is major U.S. election interference by Cambridge Analytica, owned in part by Robert Mercer, the largest contributor to the Trump campaign in 2016. Facebook needs to grow some ethics and users need to boycott Facebook.
2
It's a giant vampire squid. Avoid like the plague.
1
Did you ever think that there are those out there in powerful places, including Trump, that see the public as nothing more than a herd or rats that respond to a bell to get something they like. It's called stimulus response.
2
When you hear them say, “ we remain strongly committed to protecting peoples’ privacy,”. You know that they don’t remain, nor were they ever, committed to protecting peoples’ privacy. I’ve asked myself, what my life was like before Facebook... the answer keeps returning like a clarion call, BETTER!
2
So 270k people took a "personality quiz" on FB.
Then the quiz app creator was able to download 30 or 50 million profiles and their data via the "friends of friends" feature.
Isn't that awesome tech ?
3
I am appalled at Mr. Zuckerberg's cowardice and his lack of transparency. He hides behind his lawyers afraid to even meet to answer his employees' questions. Sounds like we only know the tip of the iceberg.
4
Facebook is being scapegoated. Facebook is raw meat you are careful with preparing. A lot of potential toxic involved, just be careful. Hard to believe Mark Zuckerberg had evil intent. First Russia, Now Facebook, who's really behind this?
1
A good idea regarding building a community and keeping in touch with friends has been ruined by greed, political influence peddling and the compromising of millions and millions of innocent users personal information.
There is only one person responsible for this abhorrent situation, and it is Mark Zuckerberg. It is time to pay the price for your corruption, Mark. Watch as your user base flees with rapidity and a sure hand.
2
Facebook has some big time explaining to do. It will be interesting to see what kind of lame excuse Zuckerberg comes up with for this fiasco. The lesson here: Don't post anything on Facebook that you do not want to be used for political or special interest purposes.
3
And stop “liking” things
2
"At Facebook, we have unique storage scalability challenges when it comes to our data warehouse. Our warehouse stores upwards of 300 PB of Hive data, with an incoming daily rate of about 600 TB. In the last year, the warehouse has seen a 3x growth in the amount of data stored. Given this growth trajectory, storage efficiency is and will continue to be a focus for our warehouse infrastructure."
That's 600 TB per day... collected by FB... the fact that they store that much
per day.... that data must be usable... otherwise why store it.... that data is
what FB sells... for over 40 Billion a year in income... the data is the product..
(that's you)... everything about you... over a hundred data points per person..
If you are friends with someone that has a facebook page and you never log
into FB... they still collect everything about you... it's way bigger than you think... 600TB per day bigger...
1
“We remain strongly committed to protecting people’s information,” Facebook’s deputy chief privacy officer, Rob Sherman, said in a statement.
Great quote. Just change one word and it will actually be accurate: Change the word "committed" to the word "selling". Facebook remains strongly committed to selling people's information.
1
Here’s how the internet works:
If you’re not paying for it you’re not the customer you’re the product.
4
There is only one way to send FB a message: deactivate your FB account. It's easy. And liberating.
5
FB has had a flawed business model from the start, and even one of its first vc investors, Roger McNamee, stated recently that he was not able to convince either Zuckerberg or Sandberg to change it. In the interests of revenue generation, growth and Wall St. expectations, they have consistently treated privacy violations as PR problems as opposed to fundamental business defects.
Now it has come to light that they were fully aware of nefarious security breaches for the past couple of years, and still resisted full disclosure and transparency to Federal authorities.
Whatever company value is lost, and whatever price both of them and their cohorts end up paying, it will never cover the damages they've cost their individual customers, America's global reputation, America's democracy and democratic institutions globally.
The only lesson these folks understand is financial penalties, so shut down your accounts, stop using them for advertising, stop using them for private group communications, and deprive them of the oxygen they need to survive, which is user-generated content.
Let FB die a well-deserved, ignominious death, and if they are ever successfully indicted and convicted of crimes, the punishment should include clawbacks of personal compensation for their greed, deliberate public deception and wholesale damage to our peace and wellbeing.
3
Thank you for this. Hope other readers are paying attention.
1
I thought Cambridge Analytica was a defunct English encyclopaedia.
1
Social media is an Orwellian means of manipulation and control. We now inhabit an American distopia. Unplug, turn off the screen. We just might restore the human community.
5
These two points may not be worth anyone's reading time.
1. I don't value my privacy as the rest of the world seems to, glad to be known BUT whenever a human being learns something about me, I want to know a similar something about that person, whoevere and wherever she or he may be -- in an office in the NSA or a corporate marketing division or ,,,,.
2. A friend of mine, trying to protect me from a stranger impersonating me on my website inadvertently caused the FB system to lock me out of my site as the impersonator! Now FB's system won't let me log in until I fax or e-mail them photographic evidence that I am who my website says I am. I've never used FB much anyway and don't have fax or photo facility. So I'm a not unwilling pioneer in quitting FB.
1
I don't understand this outrage. The social media exists because it could sell the info about you. We don't pay for social media, so they should make money somehow. Selling info is one way. Don't want your info to be used, don't use the social media
2
The single reason why no one should have ever signed up for Facebook is that it was developed by an individual who has a significant social learning disorder.
It is beyond this reader why anyone would entrust their personal information to a guy, although brilliant, invented an artificial/electronic method to make "friends".
"All the trouble with Facebook these days" was entirely predictable ten years ago, when Mr Zuckerberg launched this gigantic (now failing) social experiment.
8
I have never worked for Facebook and I only use it to respond to posts by my 24-year old daughter, but I did consult to Google on their electricity generation strategy.
Watch out, their clouds are using more and more electricity and the Silicon Valley firms with clouds are looking for ways to cut costs. In 2010 Google was interested in following Billy Gates down the nuclear road and wanted my advice as Stanford's premier nuclear economist. I told them that Billy didn't know what regulatory mess he was walking into, and there was no professional staff at Google who had any training in nuclear science or engineering. "Just walk away!" I told them.
They wanted to compete with Billy and if the US NRC was going to regulate them, they would build their nuclear power plant in Tonga (they knew the Prince of Tonga, whose brother had died in a car accident after visiting Google: Google it!) Anyway, after March 11, 2011, with the accident at Fukushima, they didn't want anything to do with nuclear power or me.
These multi-millionaires and billionaires in the Silicon Valley (and New York) think that they are above the law. NO LAWS APPLY TO TECHNICAL PROGRESS! (Watch the "Circle" or read the book, it gives you a sense of their view of the world.)
It is time to rein them in! You see what they have let happen to democracy. They killed the democracy as we knew. Now it is now almost dead!
5
I use my FB to store pictures and keep track of peoples contact info and nothing else. It's a great way to keep your pics from being lost. I don't understand why anyone would do anything besides that on FB.
2
Sorry to burst your bubble but if you store your pictures and the pictures are tagged you have avoided nothing. Even if you don't tag them Facebook uses facial recognition technology to tag them any way. Contact info is no different. It is all captured, analyzed and tracking you as well as everyone you communicate with on FB. Try as you might you cannot escape exposing your life to scrutiny and analysis.
1
I would happily leave Facebook and its messenger service if I had the phone, email details and even addresses of those people I truly know and am friends with. Such sharing however appears to be "old hat". However, as those people continue to rely on Facebook for their communications, I feel "stuck".
1
If you do NOT have the phone, email and address of someone then you DO NOT "truly know" them and they are not "truly" your friend!
1
If you do have the phone, email and address of someone you DO NOT "truly know" them and they are no "truly" your friend!
1
It is interesting to note that those that say Facebook had nothing to do with the Trump victory argue that Trump won the election because Clinton was a bad candidate, stole the nomination and believed it. Where did that get that information?
3
I guess from the mainstream press that published her advantages and shortcomings, the polls and scandals of emails, Benghazi and leak of DNC emails
Facebook markets its own analytical services to advertisers, saying it can microtarget people who are more likely to buy something. In a sense, Cambridge Analytica was competing with FB analytics. To me, if FB is selling analytical services and providing platform, it should be responsible for the content that goes with the analytical services and platform.
I've read a lot in recent days how Cambridge Analytica was not considered very effective. People need to understand that this is new research. The algorithms get better over time, and the more you work with the data, the more you can detect gaps in expected outcomes. You patch, tweak parameters, and you get improvements. Just because Ted Cruz campaign did not find it effective does not mean the learning effects were not more pronounced when it came to Trump.
When people say it's not effective, they are trying to sooth the public outrage so the experimentation and collection of data can continue. Researchers will learn more about how to do this, and advertising is a key component. Why should fb not be responsible for unscrupulous ads that it has promoted to micro-targeted audiences? Vulnerable people are taken to the cleaners, sent over the edge, weaponized ... we need effective laws here.
5
What everyone needs to understand is that Facebook's business model is to sell this information, which they've already done to the tune of $500 billion in market capitalization. That's why they're so freaked out.
Let this sink in: Facebook has sold this very same data many times over to the likes of Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever (not a US company), GM and Ford. Any of these companies, were they so motivated, could repurpose their data for political ends.
Another reason Facebook is quaking is because they have likely also sold this data to businesses like Koch Industries, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation (Adelson) and many, many foreign corporations. The genie is irretrievably of the bottle, and they know it.
If you read Facebook's SEC filings, you'll learn that they clearly identify their product as data, their customers as corporations, and the providers of their product as DAUs (Daily Active Users) and MAUs (Monthly Active Users), aka unwitting chumps.
In a footnote to Facebook's corporate customers: Now that you've got the data, you don't need to keep paying. Why are they still in business? The railroad has been built.
5
You might think Mark Z. is the bad guy... he is not... FB started out with
a great idea... social media... social interaction... on the internet... You think
FB has lots of data on you?? think again... chump change... ever heard
of Google?? ever heard of Microsoft Edge?? you use a "smart phone"??
you seem to think FB is the only player?? think again...
2
Oh gee..... the Facebook users seem to be just figuring out that all their data & information is being used by others to sell them stuff or get them to do stuff.
How utterly clueless to not have known that is the whole purpose of Facebook.
The only reason Facebook is upset with Cambridge Analytica is because Facebook did NOT GET PAID for the data. After all Facebook provided the Obama campaign with the same info but did get lots of money for it. Here Facebook let the researcher get the data for free & the researcher sold the info. Poor Facebook - it missed out on the $$$$.
I do not use Facebook. Have the account but it is locked down & I gave it no accurate info - not correct age, not address, not location, not anything & if I did have to provide info to create the account, I made it up. After all even the NYT links to Facebook for a login.
I refuse to ever login to Google or to use Chrome. Google is invasive enough without letting it track me. I have an extension in my system that blocks Google from tracking & shoving ads at me
Facebook is not necessary for life. Want to stay in touch? Email or call. You can even send the same email to several people at once.
Trust me on this - no one is really interest in seeing pictures of the dinner you had last night or seeing pictures of you drunk on your butt or looking at endless photos of your life that you present as "perfect'
If you need Facebook to feel you have value or are connected to people, you are sad & pathetic
4
Facebook, growing out of a dorm bulletin board of all things, has become the equivalent of Equifax, et al, a storeroom chock full of data on people. In some ways, the information is more revealing than finance transactions. Same can be said of Google. And why aren't these and other electronic card files being treated on the same basis as the credit agencies? Maybe, once again, Europe can lead the way in curbing their behavior, or at least making them pay for their damages, like making BP pay for the Gulf Oil Spill.
3
Facebook isn't the only "friendly" tech company that vacuums up your personal data and sells it to advertisers or any other entity that ponies up the cash. Google is the prime offender. Apple, too, has gone from a benign maker of great computers, phones and operating systems into a data sucking demon that tracks everything you do online or on your phone. Big Brother incarnate! Then there are all the apps and games that track what you do and the web cookies and Flash cookies and tracking pixels, etc. etc. etc. Whatever you do on your phone or online, someone is tracking you and selling your data. Europe is ahead of the pack in recognizing this danger to personal privacy but the USA will not act without a change of administration and tremendous lobbying by a public who is simply fed up.
3
Zuckerberg is not and never will be Steven Jobs.
To me, he has always been an opportunist, ever since he "outsmarted" and ran ahead of his would-be partners to take a leading edge.
He and his FB platform has been deliberately fooling all of us worldwide by selling all of our private lives to the highest bidders and the prove is right in front of our won eyes to see with this scandal.
I personally will be glad to see this wimpy and innocent looking grey T-shirt wearer be taken down from his own company. I closed my FB account on the 31st of Dec and could not be happier.
4
There is an analogy here. The ecology of the natural environment has been endagered by companies and company leaders who see their enrichment as a higher priority than bearing the cost of non-poluting practices. It wasn't until regulations made it more costly to endanger the environment than to protect it that we began to see changes. So too, the ecology of the man-made information environment is now endagered by the same kind of companies and company leaders. Facebook (and they are by no means alone) has contributed to the polution of the information environment. And, until it is more costly to endanger that environment than it is to protect it, history is doomed to repeat itself. It's very unnerving that the current presidential administration is spending so much energy dismantling regulations in the name of profit.,
3
The key point: Nobody is forced to participate in Facebook. This is the logical outcome when we understand that Facebook generates income by sharing one's personal likes, dislikes, and information with advertisers. What other possible outcome could any reasonable person expect?
3
I deleted my Facebook account after the election. Its influence on people, especially the young, and people vulnerable to coercion and lacking critical thinking skills makes it very dangerous. The problem is, it's also very addictive, by design. The fact that it's so hard for people to just give it up, is a sign that they should.
4
Facebook is the king of data collection but they obviously aren't the only company doing it. So many websites you visit have advertising trackers, tracking your clicks on webpages. For the people who think they are immune to this kind of tracking by not using Facebook, your browsing habits are being gathered everyday when you use the internet.
If you have the Chrome or Firefox browser, install the extension named Disconnect to see just how much you are being tracked and block trackers.
3
Lots and lots of holier than thou comments about never using FB and this is why I knew not to use FB. That's all well and good, but we are a connected world now and even if you don't use FB you use other things, google, shop online, shop at Target, you use gmail or yahoo, and all of those entities are doing the same thing, hoovering up our data and selling it and not protecting it.
The solution is to hold all American companies responsible under data protection laws and improve those laws. The problem is the Republicans don't care about issues like this.
5
Facebook claims that they will be in compliance with GDPR, the European data privacy regulation scheduled to take effect on May 25. The fines are high, perhaps chump change to FB. With the right wing in control in the USA, Americans have no chance of ever being having the 'right to be forgotten', as Europeans will. Our private data is worth too much $$$ to consumers of such data. My plan to to 'move' in FB to Europe (via VPN) and then request my data, and who has had access to it.
3
Personal privacy is antithetical to the business model of Facebook. The public persona of Facebook is benign "User to User," the corporate business model is that of a advertising platform and salable data source.
Corporate entities in the US enjoy eternal life and other advantages that citizens do not. They legally exist solely to benefit shareholders, and only exhibit patriotic tendencies when their leaders wish. Despite reported warnings that there was suspicious activity antithetical to the interest of democracy, it seems Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg chose corporate profit and exhibited willful ignorance, all while using the system that made them already wealthy beyond belief.
3
This is why I am not on Facebook. I will never be on Facebook. People are giving away what should be private information for Facebook to,sell it.
I don’t know why people are not leaving Facebook in the millions. You are allowing yourselves to be exploited.
4
The seminal work in harvesting FB data, along with other social media sources, and combining with political data was Obama '08. Since then both parties have invested big in combining data science. social media, and political operations. We haven't heard much about how HRC leveraged FB but I'm pretty sure it was the same. This is a good wake-up call for people to look at the power of social media data and being transparent about who can use it for various purposes.
2
If Trump did win the electoral vote but not the popular one (as Trump critics always love to remark) how can be sustained that Russia (with FB's help) did manipulate the elections ? Russia must have worked behind the scenes in just 3 States to "push" Trump ahead of Clinton . But how could Russia have known in advance that that was necessary in order for Trump to get the majority of the electoral votes ? To me all this thing is pure science fiction !
3
Kushner used the stolen FB data provided by dirty tricksters Cambridge Analytica to pinpoint the states where Russia needed to concentrate their illegal "hacking" efforts. That is the collusion, and Trump Sr. is right in the thick of it.
1
I'm not understanding this Facebook hysteria. Everyone knew they shouldn't have handed over their actual birthdate to any entity on the internet. Everyone who uses the internet knows what a cookie is. And every time someone wanted to join Candy Crush or Farmville a pop-up window warned that it would harvest your data including your preferences and complete friends list.
5
But until Trump took office it was illegal to share that personal data without notifying the user. Now it's open season on all of us. Harvesting data is different from sharing and selling data. I came close to needing a lawyer after I asked Facebook to delete my account forever and they wouldn't. They took me off FB but they told me they would save my data in case I ever changed my mind. Baloney. They were saving it so they could sell it.
And then they turned around and sold the data to Russia knowing they were selling it to a sanctioned foreign power. That is totally illegal. I don't get why people don't understand that.
2
What??.. wait... you mean it's not free?? I was supposed to actually
read the "terms of service"??... but it's so many pages... and the
print was so small... really... who actually reads that stuff...
2
The calls for Facebook executives to testify before Congress are fine. But, what about Steve Bannon and the Mercer family? Their fingerprints are all over arguably criminal and unethical conduct in the extreme.
6
Well... actually... nothing illegal about "targeted marketing"
Cambridge Analytica's only "crime" was not paying FB for the data..
It's all for sale... even you could buy it... where did you think FB's
40 Billion in annual income comes from??....also nothing criminal
about steve or the mercer's making sure the donald wins... that's
called "get out the vote".... as you remember that's also how obama
won... these guys just took it to the next level...
2
But what about the rule that foreigners can't influence, be involved in directing, influencing, American elections? I am less alarmed about data being manipulated (I know this is already happening); the issue is collusion, and a possible conspiracy of Trump people, colluding with Cambridge Analytica, which may also have a pipeline into Russian intelligence.
1
Will someone explain why we need Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc? Why do you need to correspond with someone you will never know? Why do you care what someone thinks of you if you will never meet that person? Do you really need that feeling of belonging? How do you know, and you don't, that that person really exists? Social media has gone beyond sensibility.
8
Strange comment from someone posting to strangers.
It is interesting to note that those that say Facebook had nothing to do with the Trump victory argue that Trump won the election because Clinton was a bad candidate and stole the nomination and got that information from Facebook or other suspicious sites and believed it?
2
For companies like Facebook that now fall under the jurisdiction of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) approved by the EU 14 April 2016, this is no joke. Those personal data protection laws have real teeth in terms of accountability and demonstrable compliance requirements.
10
It’s telling that Facebook threatened to sue The Observer to stop it from publishing the story but not a peep about suing Cambridge Analytica and the Mercers, it’s billionaire creators.
5
actually... it is a pretty big joke.... the "fine" is $40,000 per violation...
and that is chump change... 2 Billion dollar fine for an outfit that
takes in 40 Billion per year... nothing to see here... just the cost of
doing business...
1
Comcast, Verizon, cellular phone companies, your bank, credit cards, et al, ALL of them have tracking and collection of ALL of your personal data. ALL of it.
Each and every keystroke on your computer, every mouse click or like and even what you are watching on TV is collected, saved, analyzed and sold to whoever has the money to buy it. This is not a FB thing alone.
7
yaa... you left out some of my favorites... Google and Microsoft Edge...
1
Ah but there is a difference between selling you stuff and trying to change your political views.
The commenter Mr. Bruno B states that he does not write fluent English. On the contrary, his perception of our political paradigm is more toward the truth and reality than is that of half of America's population and electorate. Thankfully, sir, the other half of this nation is also concerned about the 2016 election melee. Yes, our politicians are beholden to the notoriously rich Mercers, Kochs, and company. Greed and money are the rulers of this country. And Trump? Well, in today's Times, former CIA Director Brennan suggests that Russia "may have something on President Trump." He may just be right. Finally, yes indeed, Pacta sunt servanda - agreements must to be kept - are words which are anathema to this administration.
4
And we thought using our data was like telemarketing, a nuisance but tolerable.
3
The USA needs strong data privacy laws, like those in the EU. Personal data should belong to the people, not to the media conglomerates, and permission should be obtained for any use of that data. Congress won't pass data privacy laws, since they are dependent upon money that they get from the same businesses that are abusing the privacy of Americans.
Personally, I've had enough. I am deleting my Facebook account now, and encourage everyone else to do the same. Email and phone are good enough for staying in touch with people.
3
Cause... Well... nobody would track and read my email's or track my IMEI
number on my phone and learn everything about me... keep pinging off
all those cell towers... cause nobody could figure out where i go or what
i do 24/7... there is a reason microsoft, gmail, FB and everybody else
wants your cell number... and it's not why you think (security authentication?)
it's for tracking you... welcome to the real world...
1
This is how the Robber Barons win. All social media are "investor" constructs to make money from OUR private, personal information. When one "app" or gadget fades from popularity they create another one. A few people in the world own/control ALL markets. A small "investor" makes $1, they make
$1,000,000.
Now those BIG investors are suing facebook - the company they created - for breach of information. Class action lawsuit so THEY win.
What about us - the people whose information is being traded like sacks of beans? As Dictator Grover Norquist said about his Grandma being thrown under the bus with his "no new taxes" pledge - Sorry People.
They think they have the system rigged so only they win. Sorry, Grover and your fellow Robber Barons, WE THE PEOPLE will not stand for it. WE must bombard the judge with NO INVESTOR LAWSUITS. Lawyers are the only ones who win with class action and the BIG investors have made plenty of money off us.
WE THE PEOPLE must stop using facebook, google and all it's "affiliates like you tube, amazon and all the other Robber Baron money-suckers. WE must DEMAND serious regulation of the entire internet community.
Start by breaking up amazon, google, microsoft, at&t, disney and all the other multi-platform companies who are sharing OUR information. Outlaw "push" technology where the internet companies decide what comes into OUR computers, phones and smart appliances. Fine them BIG to pay for health care. That's a start.
11
The very fact that the Facebook allowed the dubious firm, Cambridge Analyrica, to harvest vast user personal data, about 50million, for commercial and political use without informing the person concerned in itself is a big crime and breach of trust. This assault on the privacy rights of the citizens warrants serious action against the Facebook.
4
you don't seem to get it.... you already gave FB permission to do
whatever they want with your data.. and to sell it... to anybody..
for any purpose... it's in the "terms of service" notice that you "clicked"
on when you signed up for FB.... FB did nothing wrong... FB also owns
everything you post on your page and can do anything it wants with that..
like sell it... FB is collecting 600TB PER DAY of info.... you want to buy
some?? it's for sale... Cambridge Analylica is only in trouble cause they
did not pay FB for the info.. not cause they have it...
2
Facebook and other social media companies and online retailers, and Google and Apple with their app stores, bear a great deal of responsibility for misuse and abuse of our personal data.
On the other hand however, we consumers bear much responsibility for indiscriminately and quickly clicking yes to give our consent to user agreements, and voluntarily sharing too much information far too often.
6
Hearings into Facebook will be a joke. They will state that Cambridge Analytica violated FB policies. Well, shame on Cambridge. The only punishment available is to banish them from FB. Oh, the Horror! The Horror!
The reason FB doesn't 'fix' the many vulnerabilities is that they simply DON'T KNOW HOW! Neither does anyone else have the answer - at least not yet.
Any hearing should also look into companies like Ancestry, 23andMe, etc. who have a treasure trove of DNA from thousands of individuals. Someone hacking into those data could do real damage to those thousands. Should we trust that those databases are protected and have very little vulnerability? I, for one, am not ready to take that leap of faith.
6
Comcast, Verizon, cellular phone companies, your bank, credit card, et al, all of them have tracking and collection of ALL of your personal data. ALL of it. Every keystroke on your computer keyboard, every mouse click and what you are watching on TV is saved, analyzed and sold to whoever has the money to buy it.
1
Well, Facebook already has a class-action suit filed against it in CA. There will millions more. It also has a shareholder lawsuit file against it in CA. This is necessary to get Facebook and other social media companies to act responsibly. It won't happen under a Republican administration and a Republican Congress. Republicans in Congress have already demonstrated that they work for the benefit of the rich and re-election only. And, they do this to the extent that we see them as UN-American. Trump should have been impeached months ago. Where's Paul Ryan's leadership and Americanism. So, it's money, loss of share value, profits, that will get Zukerberg's and Sanderberg's attention.
There is certainly criminality here. Laws have been broken. These thieves require jail time.
1
is anyone surprised that a billionaire who got that way by swiping an idea lacks integrity all the way down? Is anyone surprised that someone else without integrity was using the billionaire’s app for market research on memes like “build a wall” two years before the election? Is anyone surprised that the American love of profits over people is destroying is?
Many or most of the problems with American democracy, healthcare, banking, and so on come down to one thing: too much concern about profit and too little will to do anything about it.
And on top of this, we have Democrats —- supposedly the good guys —- voting to repeal banking regulations. Will we ever learn from our own mistakes?
11
Blaming Facebook for Trump's victory is ridiculous. We all know the #1 factor in 2016 presidential election was Hilary...she was a lousy candidate. The Democrats should be exploring how Clinton managed to steal the nomination.
1
Liberal white men have a privilege problem. Stop ignoring the plight of women and minorities. Stop attacking fellow democrats. The Republican Party is overthrowing democracy. Into the breach everyone. Stop this quibbling. We have to make room for a majority and not turn into a self-righteous pompous but oh-so-right losing minority. Bernie and Hillary are both too old and too white, but I'd rather have either of them than what we have now..
1
Interesting that your argument for why Clinton lost is exactly what you say can't happen. Did you not get information on Facebook or other troll sites that said Clinton was a bad candidate and stole the nomination and you believed it?
You get what you pay for. FB, and all other internet services pay the r bills somehow. I use FV , not socially, no "friends", but to access a very few. very specific sites. (I pay for my NYT online subscription.) sure, I am bombarded by ads, here, on TV, in print media, but I do not either read them or purchase based on what is put in front of me. This "news" is simply logic, and FB is not the only transgressor, just the current 9 days wonder. To believe that any media is without bias, and , yes , potential corruption is naive.
2
Took the words out of my mouth...nothing in life is free...ever. Do people really think businesses are releasing all these "free" apps and social media sites out of the kindness of their hearts?
"Free" is just the latest trend the savvy use to entice people to hand over their valuables.
I've just deleted my Facebook account.
9
Too late/it already has everything.
1
Lock down your FB security. Stop taking those FB quizzes -- you are handing over very personal info to get some meaning less 'score'.
7
Facebook needs to be shut down until all of this is sorted out and regulations are in place to delimit them. We must protect the integrity of the midterm elections and I doubt a meaningful fix will be in place before then. Hence, shut the down. Meanwhile, delete your Facebook account and take steps to minimize your profile. Delete information from it and ‘like’ nothing
6
“We remain strongly committed to protecting people’s information,” Facebook’s deputy chief privacy officer, Rob Sherman, said in a statement.
“And we are more than happy to sell it for profit to anyone willing to pay for it. No questions asked,” said Jim Drehfal sarcastically in a comment made today regarding Rob Sherman’s statement.
6
Cambridge Analytica was caught on undercover reporting "fixing elections". Trump campaign used Cambridge Analytica in 2016 campaign. Facebook shared 50 million users data with Trump campaign. Some of those users were Floridian. INVESTIGATE THE CONNECTIONS OF CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA TO TRUMP. Ray Sipe registered Florida voter AARP member
8
Facebook and all the social media are profiteers who need strong regulation. Ray Sipe
2
I think the first regulation has to come from ourselves ! We are acting on FB as children who freely play and do things without thinking of the consequences. And we are even "remembered" by FB self that our posts and our likes can be seen from others (outside eyes), but simply we don't care. We should know that we act in a transparent glass case !
1
If anyone believes Facebook will project your privacy over making money sent me your email -- I have this wonderful bridge for sale on the lower east side; goes right into Brooklyn... on special today only!!! call me!
4
This story is a huge nothing-burger. Here's the deal. If you have an account on Facebook, Reddit, Instagram etc.,. The cow has left the barn several times when it comes to your intimate personal information or data. Additionally, FB is probably in little to no serious legal jeopardy, because that AGREE box you check when you signed up is filled with hundreds of pages of legalese which basically says that by clicking AGREE you consent to FB pretty much doing whatever it wants with your most intimate personal data. Finally, it's also incredibly laughable and asinine that anyone thinks an FTC run under the Trump administration is going to take any meaningful action with regard to this or any other such issue.
4
Zuckerberg doesn’t care but will do hops best to sincerely show he’s listening. Its all about maintaining his wealth and power. And that means our personal security doesn’t matter! Facebook never has been an open platform! Its built to control users lives. The vast majority have no idea how much of their personal information is being gathered and marketed to expand zuckerbergs wealth. I’m afraid there’s no solution short of facebook’s demise.
After all these years of problems and leaks and hacks, anyone who puts any kind of personal information or identifiers on these "social networks" is moronic. And no one has hundreds or thousands of "friends", this is just an ego trip that gets you(sooner or later) in trouble.
4
You don't even need to put personal information into FB: just a like is "personal" enough. Neutrality does not exist !
If you are still on FB, you are not paying attention. Get off of it asap.
12
When the Obama campaign mined Facebook data they were described as "forward thinking and brilliant." When Trump does it he is just pure evil. The feigned outrage by the media knows no bounds.
4
Obama’s campaign did not lie about how or why they were using the data. The ads they used clearly identified the source. None of those ads contained blatant lies designed as propaganda. It is not the same.
2
Not true at all. In 2012, Obama’s campaign used the same technique of scraping Facebook and vacuuming data, including getting people to download an app and then getting access to everyone on their friend lists. Here’s an article from Time.
http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/20/friended-how-the-obama-campaign-con...
I am familiar withe use of computers since 1960. It has given us many comforts and enriched our life And I have learned that in evil hands, it is powerful crime tool. I have also learned that you should be very careful about giving your personal information to any third party you don't know,especially pubic media. This is one reason, I do not us FACEBOOK, TWITTER or other sites like Indeed and so on. Because once, it has it, uo have no control over who else will get it. And their are enough evil people and novice fools like Facebook founder and its CEO. They may be smart in technologyand making money and even management but either grredy or inept to understand their obligation to their customers to live up to the trust customers have put in them. And let us not excuse the customers who foolishly provide their pesonal informatin to someone they do not know.
2
I think in the modern society we live all somehow in a show case made of transparent glass. FB is "emerged" because of its size (that means even bigger showroom) but don't you see after you sign for a bank account or you buy a car or an insurance, how many ads you receive by mail or email ?
Facebook has amassed huge amounts of data about all citizens, and adversary nations such as Russia are leveraging this data to manipulate our nation, including by helping elect a president who is more likely to serve their interests.
Facebook is Russia's biggest cyberweapon. Just as private companies would not be allowed to stockpile WMDs, private companies should not be allowed to stockpile so much digital information either. This is a national security issue.
5
Zuckerberg will again provide an explanation of how this has already been handled and that there is a new task force that will monitor ... blah blah blah....
He has been duping the world now for a decade.
9
Facebook corporate leadership. A lethal blend of naiveté, hubris, and naked greed.
6
Note that when you attempt to "share" an article to Facebook using the share button icon on said article, it requires you to have the platform turned on. That's OK, but, in addition, doing so automatically resets the "shared by others" mode which means that even if you have disabled the settings will reset to Facebook presets which means...whenever a friend of yours opts into an app, your data is available to the app as well (even if you yourself have zero apps). It's insidious and should be illegal. Presets should all be set for maximum privacy.
5
If we go down the Cambridge Analytica rabbit hole, we will find out that manipulation of the electorate by these means has been going on for at least the last 3 presidential elections.
Here’s an article from 2012 in which Obama is praised for scraping Facebook for data.
http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/20/friended-how-the-obama-campaign-con...
1
Americans who oppose Trump, Putin and Zuckerberg need to dump their Facebook accounts.
Today.
7
Why doesn't someone write an article on how to delete one's FB account? This would be very useful. Googles instructions are useless. Come on journalists! Help out!
2
I did delete my Facebook account but then FB told me they were keeping my data for me in case I ever decided to go back on Facebook. It took quite a lot of persuasion on my part to get them to permanently delete the information. Who knows if they ever did. They said they did but of course I don't believe them.
The longer you stay silent, Mark Zuckerberg, the more contemptible you appear.
4
Sorry, but he was starting to look "contemptible" way before that.
1
And all because you had to brag about your vacation or share endless photos of your kids.
9
Anyone think Apple, Google, Amazon, etc. etc. etc. is susceptible to data being mishandled? The imagination entrails are mind numbing.
At $40,000 per day per breach I suspect there is a lawyer out there, maybe two, who is doing some quick figuring.
1
Years ago, I was told that anything I put on FB can be viewed by anybody. My company said that photos of me in uniform were not permitted on FB and even the behavior of your relatives could be scrutinized by the company. So, I never yielded to the temptation of social media. But what struck me as odd was that people I know that were on FB had a disproportionate view of HRC. I could not understand how they could believe such horrible things about her. The conspiracies were rampant.
Now I see what was going on and I am sure glad I didn't get sucked in to that world.
4
The know-it-alls at Facebook assumed they could create a platform that would become an informational free-for-all. They have little understanding that they've built a giant news organization with few gatekeepers to control how and what kind of information is broadcast around the globe. It would be as if The Times pulled back on its editors and editorial standards, and handed over its pages to its readers to do pretty much whatever they wanted. But it's not cool for techies to educate themselves about the model used by those dinosaurs in the mainstream media, even though that model has worked for decades to deliver important news and other information that, unlike much of Facebook's drivel, can usually be counted on for its truth.
I kind of chuckled when Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg thought she had amassed so much life experience that she could counsel everyone to "lean in." Now, when Facebook is in a serious crisis, she's silent. Looks like she's doing a lot of "leaning out" these days.
3
"Investors are reacting to fears of regulation." Sigh. Will we ever, ever read that investors are reacting to the moral bankruptcy of a company and the possibility of rigged elections by a foreign power? No, we won't. How about "regulatory backlash," being replaced by "long overdue regulations"?
Why do I think that this mindset also has something to do with paying slave wages to teachers. We have gone off the rails. BTW where is Mark Zuckerberg when a so-called leader needs to step forward? Maybe Sheryl Sandberg isn't leaning in, she's just hiding under her desk.
1
Too late. No way of getting that genie back into the bottle, especially when there's a profit to be made.
Too bad the cost has been our democracy.
3
I do not use so called social media sites. But I routinely secure information on household items for clients on the internet. Within hours my online pages of the NYT are flooded with advertisements for like items as is my spam folder. This problem extends beyond social media. We are desperately in need of regulation of these social media sites and search engines to protect not only our privacy but to save us from these harassing ads.
3
Facebook should be aware that if it does not change their business model, it will be regulated by the government. Ignoring the problem or dithering about solutions will only serve to take the solution out of Facebook's hands. If they want to continue with a viable brand they better get on with it pronto.
1
Dont hold your breath. With an anti-regulatory administration whose election benefitted from their model, do you really think they’re worried?
Talking about the government that is not willing to regulate gun use? Even with people being sick of hearing about school shootings nowadays no government official moves a finger. Come on, we all know that government cannot and won’t regulate social media. People can easily regulate the social media by using common sense. Easiest way, don’t use it. Or at least don’t share your private information. If you cannot do this, then I am sorry but please don’t complain.
More likely they will up their lobbying game.
I find it funny that the What's App guy is criticizing Facebook. Probably the problems I've had isn't his doing, but when I downloaded his App now owned by facebook I had to delete it because the terms of use required me to give the App complete access to my contacts data. I'm a privacy advocate and that was too much for me, so I deleted the What's App without ever using it or agreeing to the terms for installation. Nevertheless, a whole bunch of guys I didn't know whose accounts were in the same foreign language as my friend who wanted me to use What's App to talk with him were suddenly suggested by Facebook to become my friends. I could not even read a sentence about these people. CREEPY. I never even told Facebook a thing about the existence of my What's App friend, but he was in my contacts data. Later, I deleted my Facebook account completely when they literally gave me a friend without me ever inviting it or approving it. At least in that case it was somebody I knew: the person who married my wife and I. And my wife has NEVER been on facebook. When Facebook becomes Typhoid Mary, it is time to quarantine it without any more visitors.
3
It's not just Facebook. Under Trump, all the privacy rules for basic internet privacy were taken away without a period of public comment. All our information can be tracked and sold.....It's a terrifying time with damaging widespread consequences for our society, our democracy and basic decency for human beings.
2
I wish our Congress would value our privacy as I have been reading European countries do. I feel helpless each time I need to accept long obscure "Agree to these terms" statements. I avoid Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Just the other day, coupons that used to arrive in my physical mailbox were made available only if I downloaded an app and printed the coupons out. "Agree to the Terms; what is your name? Address? E-mail address? I backed out and will forego the coupons.
Congress needs to pass legislation that requires voluntary opt in if any information gathered from the user will be shared with any other individual or entity.
Now, I understand our very democracy depends on that.
1
Facebook is a business, not a new social community, and they care about their bottom line. This is all about the money for Zuck.
I am not interested in how you keep up with your family, friends, random people you met 10 years ago- if you still maintain a Facebook account at this point you are blindly feeding this monster that seeks to devour our democracy, civil discourse, and privacy.
And you have no one but yourself to blame.
16
Beyond it's owners, users and customers Facebook has no ethical, legal nor moral obligations.
2
No, that's not true. Until March of 2016, after Trump took office, the FCC had very strict rules in place about data privacy:
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-341938A1.pdf
The data mining of Facebook started in 2014 so the law was indeed broken.
Once Trump took office, of course he and Congress stripped away all users' rights to keep their personal data private. And BTW, the word is its, not it's. It's is only used as a contraction of "it is."
2
Once again for those who are slow:
Social media companies are NOT your friend.
No matter what your privacy settings say, your data (all your posts, pictures, your profile, your browsing history) is not private and is being sold to third parties.
There are huge back doors to all of these platforms and we do not know who has the keys.
There really are bad people on the internet.
If you insist on using these services, act as those everything you do is being viewed by lots of other people.
12
Facebook’s entire business model revolves around acquiring enough data to influence each of us. This means that it is not enough for them to invade our privacy, they want our very sovereignty.
4
Why is there such outrage and surprise over this? Facebook and all those apps everyone uses are not there for your social interaction and amusement. They collect data, lots of data, when the terms of service are accepted. Their purpose is to make money and data is where the money is, to sell, mine, etc. Profits! It's the American way.
Look at the advertisements on Facebook. They are based on the analytics of cookies and captured data to target the user. This information is a huge money maker.
Facebook was deceived? How were they deceived since they sell the data? Were they deceived because Facebook did not agree with the use of the data? Would they have agreed if it were not Trump's campaign? Let's be fair. Once the data is sold it is gone for many purposes.
People are outraged because the data was used to target voters and assist Trump's election. What if the same data was used (and I am reasonably sure it was- although not as effectively) to support Clinton? If not, then yet another reason Clinton's campaign strategy failed.
Be outraged, be upset, but don't act as if this is a surprise. The same targeted analytics are gathered every day we all are on the internet, shop, scan loyalty cards, use credit cards, etc.
10
So Trump is right - there was no collusion with Russia; it was the UK.
NO you don't have to be a techy to understand Facebook's business model:
Let people sign up for free, keep them amused, and SELL their personal info.
9
What incentive does Facebook have to abide their agreement with the FTC if the penalty for violating it is $40,000 per day? What is $40,000 to a company like Facebook. They probably spend more than $40,000 per millisecond on employee snacks everyday.
9
I thought it was 40K per violation. The news reported a potential figure in the _trillions_ last night.
No per day- per violation. At 50 million violations, that's a heck of a lot.
As longer as major services like Google, Facebook, and others are free, their infrastructure will be driven to benefit marketing interests and not individual users.
I would be willing to pay for email and social media that offered written guarantees how that information is used. Of course, with email such arrangements are meaningless unless the majority of users are enrolled in services that don't regarding internet communications as fodder to be data mined.
4
Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg, your silence is deafening. We are so disappointed in you both. Your company and future political careers are over.
It is time to come out of hiding.
It is time for you both to speak to Congress, and do some explaining.
Congress, it is time to demand transparency and regulate all social media platforms. Humans rarely, if ever, police themselves well.
Congress, it is time to hold FB (and others) accountable for their criminally negligent conduct in the 2016 election.
Citizens, it is time to ‘lean away’ from Facebook and other social media sites. If you value your privacy and care about having a healthy democracy, unplug today. It is obvious that FB (and others) is unwilling and unable to fix its problems.
28
This latest episode with FB serves to remind the public that sites like FB are not benign and do not have consumers' best interests at heart. Consumers are the "marks" in this game - which is what this is. Hence the constant, unsolicited suggestions of new "friends" with whom to connect and the extreme reluctance of management to be proactive and forthcoming with the public about any issues or concerns. And, of course, FB is free to use, yet has a market cap (this morning) of $488Bn - now, why do you think that is?
#deletefacebook
15
This is a complex systemic problem that has plagued the internet since it's inception - with special significance to protected health information.
This incident provides an opening for critically important policy reform globally - we cannot let this opportunity pass.
At one level, the problem is trust - has the party to whom you are disclosing personal information been forthright about its usage, and has that party obtained informed consent? There are many nuances - emergencies or security concerns warrant unforeseen disclosures.
Disclosures to third-parties are complicated - one should assume trust is absent and enforceability is currently nonexistent.
Digital information is infinitely replicable unless protected by measures above and beyond those currently present as default settings in today's operating systems.
Digital rights management schemes are one approach to securing protected information for unauthorized use. The creative arts industry has been somewhat successful with this approach.
Restricting user interaction to view-only/read-only access to online content is also becoming increasingly common.
In highly decentralized digital ecosystems, any proposed solution will likely require new protocols and standards applicable to a broad range of information and activities.
It will result in a more structured, regulated and safer internet.
The libertarians and cyber-anarchists will finally be forced to grow up or get tossed out of cyberspace. Good riddance.
5
Face it, since the beginning anyone joining Facebook became a commodity to be bought and sold. The limitations the stranglehold Facebook has on commercial and cultural entities puts on non-members is maddening. If all this breaks up some of that, that’s fine with me.
If you don't think your information is bering tracked every time you use your credit card, then I have a bridge to sell you. I enjoy FB for many reasons, but have always been careful not to take their "personality quizzes" or fall for their "click bait" ads. I don't post my hometown, nor the year I was born. Any communication tool can be used unwisely. And there are many unwise people out there.
5
And you will be categorized accordingly. There is no safe stance except to delete your account
But please remember that when you delete your account, Facebook is not deleting your data. You have to go through a whole other process to get rid of the data.
Why no mention of the tweets a couple days ago from Carol Davidsen, Obama campaign director of media analytics in 2012? She basically said Obama did all the things Trump did with Facebook user data (and more), but Facebook let them do it, AND EVEN HELPED THEM AND ENCOURAGED IT because FACEBOOK WAS ON THEIR SIDE! The Trump/Cambridge angle is being way overplayed here. This is nothing that Obama wasn't doing years earlier.
6
Important differences #1 this was a foreign corporation, #2 foreign money. Both of those things are felonies If it was a political PAC or campaign with money from donors, the campaign side would be legal, though possibly the Facebook side would still be illegal.
10
This has nothing to do with Obama or blaming him or Trump. Facebook offered help to BOTH Clinton and Trump. They are not on anyone's "side". They are about advertising and power. Don't get duped by Fox or the other media propagandists trying to make this a political issue designed to hurt Trump.
1
Read the tweet from Davidsen Sunday night. She SAID the following: "They (Facebook) came to office in the days following election recruiting & were very candid that they allowed us to do things they wouldn’t have allowed someone else to do because they were on our side."
I set up a completely fake FB account 10 yrs. ago in order to keep tabs on FB, their activities and user behavior. My motivation was that I didn't believe their mantra about "connecting the globe", and I didn't care for their insistence that I divulge quantities of personal information that would allow hackers to "connect the dots" among FB and other platforms.
Subsequent reported hacker activity on Yahoo Mail, LinkedIn, Twitter, EBay, as well as the Federal OPM, Equifax, TJX, Target, etc. convinced me that candor on the Web is more beneficial to criminal hackers than consumers.
My landline telephone works just fine, thank you, and I only give out my personal email address to friends and relations.
Sadly, we have not yet been successful at ridding society of unwanted telemarketing calls, but my answering machine at least allows me to frustrate those pests as well.
The scammers, hackers, hucksters and now state-sponsored criminals are way ahead of Homeland Security, and American consumers have already paid far too high a price for digital security and protection that should be provided by digital business enterprises.
Tech companies need to be held accountable for their cavalier behavior and inattention regarding these matters. For the present, consumers have only one sure course of action, and that is to deactivate their accounts, stay away from offensive platforms and "starve the beasts".
19
I agree. How is it that the companies allow telemarketers, phishing and other scams? It has to be clear as a bell for the phone company to see all those calls from the same hubs going out, and just as easy to shut it down.
6
Beware EJ! Do you really think you are not being monitored in spite of your caution? Your landline may be taken away from you as telecom companies refuse to maintain old fashioned landlines. Your email address is known to those who have already gotten to your friends and relatives. Nowhere is safe from hackers, legal and illegal, unless you are entirely disconnected.
1) By Federal law, the telecom companies are required to provide basic phone service to everyone regardless of ability to pay.
2) I monitor FB, I don't connect with anyone there.
3) I maintain multiple email addresses in the event that one becomes compromised, as was the case due to Yahoo's reckless disregard for the security of their 1.5 billion users who were hacked. Verizon bought the platform, and Marissa Mayer walked away with her $180 Million golden parachute.
4) I agree that there is zero security on the Internet, but one can make oneself less of a target by being prudent.
1
Selling members' data to American advertisers is no better than selling to Russian meddlers. Once any company considers the information they hold on users to be data they can sell, it's all over. The issue here is the commercialization of all aspects of our lives, as though we are simply pawns in the great game of greed, and it extends everywhere, medical care perhaps the best example.
12
I have never used Facebook and never will. And I believe Google does the same thing Facebook does but Google is sneakier about it. I have a Gmail account that I opened after Verizon shut down Verizon email accounts. I notice that I get a lot of promotions in my Gmail account for tennis rackets and sportswear. Could it be because I log on to the ATP Men's Tennis site to get tennis scores and read the articles?
11
i have a gmail email account also but never get emails from websites that i look at unless i sign up for them. though i do see more 'ads' on web pages for the types of things that i google. but it is certainly less annoying than the telemarkers who call my US-based cell phone number while i am in europe....
All these media companies are looking to grow their shareholder value and the ways to do that are add subscribers and grow revenue - through advertising and sharing user data for a price. From the beginning Facebook's business efforts have been all about how to "monetize". While the focus here is the sharing of personal data the growth in advertising and it's intrusion is increasingly challenging. From 3 minute long repetitive TV commercials, to my computer screen jumping up and down when I am reading, to the radio in the car and good old Facebook and Twitter. The "solutions" for some are to buy subscriptions (Syrius radio, Netflix, Hulu, etc) - spend more to reduce the bombardment. But wait, many are concerned about us being watched as we watch our Smart TV's. We are out of control!!
“Consumers have a right to know how their information is used — and companies like Facebook have a fundamental responsibility to protect their users’ personal information,” Mr. Schneiderman said.
This is retatded. How is Facebook any different than the US census, or Neilson rating for tv and radio (which No one signs up for), or writing comments on this website? The user agreed to Facebook terms, correct? So why are you complaining? Users voluntarily give their information to Facebook. The US Postal service reads your letters. Let's investigate them.
Hey, wait a minute —
Do Not liken this behavior to the Census. The Census people work hard to maintain privacy. Individual records are not released until decades later. Data is released in the aggregate.
However like many city, county, state and federal agencies, they do struggle with very old computers and software that would be laughable in the private sector. (AS400 ?!)
America: penny wise and pound foolish, the “lowest bidder” mentality that gets us bridge collapses.
Except for the military of course, which contributes nothing long term towards our infrastructure or future as a country. We are becoming Russia, and at an increasing rate since 2017.
Zuckerberg has led Facebook with shoddy business practices for much of its life, violating user privacy time and again. He's made billions while dodging everyone's attempts to stop him from taking what belongs to others, and each case seems an escalation. Maybe this episode was finally that step too far, but he has had more than a year to do worse since then -- we just don't know what that is yet. There's a reason he and Sandberg have been silent for two days, and it's probably not because they're innocent.
11
Imagine a club or amusement park you could get into for free. Let's call it Club Facebook. But you had to wear a device that tracked everything you did. Inside were all sorts of vendors who could sell you things or advertise products to you. Club Facebook made money charging fees to those vendors and also selling data about your activities and preferences. Pretty much like Facebook, right?
Now imagine that some of those vendors were ripping people off. That data collected about you was being sold to anyone at all, even criminals intent on robbing or deceiving you. Club Facebook says that they are not the bad actors, and they are not responsible for those who are ripped off, exploited or deceived in their club. After all you agreed to the Terms of Service.
Could any club or amusement park exist if those who entered (even though there is no entry fee) were continually victimized, but the club owners said it wasn't their fault or their problem?
14
That sounds less shady than Vegas. At least some of the vendors would be offering an honest product.
Certainly if they persuaded Wall St. traders to gamble on them.....
How is this different from Disneyland?
I set up my Facebook account a few years ago, never used it much. One friend I know well sent me a friend request when I first opened the account, I accepted. I have not logged on since.
Yesterday I logged on just to see. Facebook had identified about thirty people that it suggested I send friend requests to as I might know them, according to Facebook. And, in fact, I knew all of them.
I deactivated and deleted my account.
I encourage all who care about their privacy and our democracy to do the same.
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I set up an additional Facebook account because of a name change. Every once in a long while I sign on to it. No activity whatsoever.
One wonders how long before the American public and its regime wake up to the reality that the tech companies, including the despicable FB, twitter, micro$oft. and apple are not some wondrous, amazing, benign entities and need to be FAR more heavilyu regulated, if not broken into 100 parts each.
apple forcing people to buy new phones and computers with its built-in obsolescene is an atrocious business model, and twitter/FB requiring the public to enter private, personal data such as their phone number which prevents anonymous participation - are likely first amendment violations.
Given that both platforms are massive monopolies, and that to participate in today's political conversation one must be on FB/twitter, it is unacceptable that they require this personal data. There is nothing in the first amendment that says one must give up one's entire personal data file to enjoy their bais right to free speech.
I STRONGLY advocate that the federal government regulate FB/twitter, instagram, etc as monopoliies and not only force them to no longer require telephone numbers, but break them apart into many smaller pieces and disallow the collection of personal data nor the sales of it.
22
I deleted my Facebook account. I encourage others to do the same. A company that cannot or will not protect my privacy does not deserve my business.
At minimum, I encourage everyone to take a hard, critical look at their social media use. What might you do with that time otherwise?
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I just read an article authored by writers at the NYT about why we should not cancel our Facebook accounts. As I understood, it boils down to having more influence on the company if we stay. I disagree, and cancelled my account months ago after seeing how uncooperative and unconcerned they where about how they and we were used by Russian hackers. I believe that cancelling our accounts will have much more influence on them than staying with them. In our country, it's always about the money.
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You're right of course. The ONLY thing, it seems these days, that commands any attention is M-O-N-E-Y! You can whine and march and write editorials until the cows come home and it will do little good except for some lip service that will be put out by the PR department with absolutely no follow up.
Cut the number of subscribers 30-40% and the advertisers will demand lower rates , the stock price will tank and the money will start to dry up. Ya' know...instead of many hundreds of billions it'll only be a few hundreds of billions. Enough to give any corporate board worth its salt pause...where doing the right thing doesn't even get on the board meeting agenda!
I was persuaded by a friend in 2011 to join FB. I did not read the terms for a few months, but when I did, I immediately de-activated the account. Read the terms, folks...FB owns everything you post, Every. Thing. And they can sell it to Any. One.
Get out. Now.
1
Also notice that the NY Times, like almost every other company, wants you to use your Facebook identity to sign in and to be "identified". The NY Times used to REQUIRE a Facebook profile in order to be a pre-approved commenter in these forums. Do they still?
A government of, by and for the people only works when citizens educate themselves on the issues and vote. If we are being duped, it is because we don’t check Facebook posts and ads with multiple, reputable sources. Social media is not the enemy of our democracy. As Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
8
That is pretty ignorant. Why there is no doubt that any form of media can be used for good or bad, online is more easily manipulated, subverted and can pretend to be your friend, or the friend of your friend. And unlike other kinds of media it see what you do online and then feed you what you want. Which technically isn't news. It's propaganda.
I hope junior and senior high school students are being taught about the various communication systems available, their up and down sides and how to evaluate them. The current leaders of our country are loathed to regulate the quality of drinking water so I doubt they will offer much consumer support in the area of communications. Best to be a critically thinking consumer these days for sure.
24
It would help if you'd inform us how to quit Facebook (I've been unable to so.) When they start losing their "customers" whose privacy they've allowed to be violated both for commercial and now, even more outrageously, political purposes such as backlash might finally force them to act responsibly.
30
You can find the steps detailed many places on the web by searching “how to delete Facebook”. Note that deleting your account is different from deactivating it.
If you choose to delete, you will get a message saying your account is scheduled for deletion within 14 days. Do not log back into Facebook, or you cancel the whole process and have to start over again.
Google "How to delete your Facebook account." Follow the instructions.
1
Google: how to de-activate my Facebook account.
1
“We remain strongly committed to protecting people’s information,” Facebook’s deputy chief privacy officer, Rob Sherman, said in a statement.
That response from social media networks that get caught mishandling personal data from its users is starting to sound hollow and meaningless.
It is sad that top executives coupled with pressure from big investors at Facebook can do so much harm to a concept that, in its pure form, have done so much good in re-connecting distant family members and friends.
It is obvious that time has come for users to be given or demand more power over their own personal data that is collected by these companies. Specially, since profits always trump protecting this data.
13
While the FTC put a ruling in place in 2011 governing Facebook's future handling of their customer's privacy, it was ignored with arrogance and impunity. There are two ways to hit them, one is with a major class action lawsuit, the second with legislation by Congress, or State legislatures, or both. Politicians need to stop being spineless jellyfish. Let's face it, Facebook does not produce anything significant for society. It is a convenient platform for people to share their family, cat and dog photos, announce events and spread their, or someone else's latest ideas. They have proven to be incapable of con trolling their site from hackers and bots during an election. When you get down to it though, it is like a pet rock, despite their rhetoric, it does not accomplish anything to truly help society. Facebook to their detriment ignores their clients privacy and has made a tidy sum over the years, selling their customers data. That needs to end. Congress and state legislatures need to come up with a Social Media Consumer Bill of Rights which governs how these platforms share your data with other firms. The consumers must be allowed to say NO if they do not want their information exchanged. If Congress and state legislatures do not take this action, consumers should sue them into bankruptcy and make Zuckerberg feel a financial pinch. Society will not lose if this were to happen.
25
You forgot your Economics 101. There is a third way to hit FB. Close your account. My goal for this week.
1
The only people who should use Facebook are foreigners. No one seem interested in collecting their data. If you're American you risk being fired, not getting a job, becoming a crime victim, lose friends, the list is long just by using Facebook. If you're a domestic worker from the Philippines working in a country like Kuwait or other ME countries then Facebook comes in very handy to stay in contact with family or help rescue you from an abusive employer by going live so your contacts are aware of the abuses.
14
I find it odd that FB makes it so difficult to delete your account. A few years ago I closed my account, but then found out it was still sitting out there. I had to watch a YouTube video to learn how to actually delete it. If you don't go through the detailed process of deleting your account, FB retains your information indefinitely.
74
Quite so. Once you are on most sites is difficult to get off of it, or, they just ignore you when you try.
I can't tell you how many unsolicited emails I've "unsubscribed" to over the years only to have my request (through their own "unsubscribe process") totally ignored.
The emails from these organizations/companies etc just keep on coming, even though I never "knowingly" subscribed in the first place.
Alas, I suspect nothing will be done to remedy this as the powers that be have been bought and paid for to do nothing.
1
You find it odd?
Like it or not, we live in a world where information is flowing more freely. The biggest danger, in my mind, comes when people are willing to accept whatever shows up in their social media feeds as true. A close second to that danger is the willingness to lump a wide swath of journalists into a category and discount their reporting. People will need to pay attention and seek out quality information in order to make informed decisions. I fear too few of us will be willing to do that.
12
It's far past time to acknowledge Facebook and other social media platforms for what they are: the infrastructure of a surveillance/propaganda state. The only rational response is legislation and regulation that prohibits these companies from transferring user data to any third-party or affiliated entity (including the government) without the express assent of the user to each transfer on an individual, case-by-case basis. Revitalizing and expanding our dormant antitrust law might also be a good idea.
35
Merritt, will corporate America go along?
Corporate America does not want ANY privacy laws, so we have none. Other countries are now waking up and passing and trying to pass basic privacy laws.
19
Facebook is but one of the players in this "privacy arena" which include YAHOO, GOOGLE, MICROSOFT, SPRINT, ATT, and a legion of smaller entities who prey on our private data and contact lists carried on our cell phones.
We the consumers are paying these companies for the privilege to dine on us.
39
Sadly, Facebook is still the best way for me to keep in touch with far away relatives and old classmates. I try to be careful about my privacy settings and what I post and will be more so in the future.
9
The problem is that much of the information is gathered by association, so no matter how careful you are, your friends and their associates are part of what expose information about you. Where you live, where you work, your political views, what you buy, which ads you click on, their political views, the composition of your family, your income, or age... They don't need to be provided by you: If most of your contacts are between 30 and 40, a good number work at X company, most of them are in this state clustered around this city. Facial recognition, date and GPS location on photos. Do you seriously think everyone you know is going to be careful about their settings and what they post?
Were you part of the Experian hack, or any other hack? It would be foolish to believe those databases are not being integrated.
Were you aware that virtually every site you are likely to go to has a link back to Facebook? I found that out by accident when I started using an application that looks at what other sites I use look at. Do you have cookies enabled? Share passwords between applications?
My suspicion is that the data exposed by social media sites may be more dangerous than that exposed by financial sites. This is Pandora's box on steroids.
1
Letters and phone calls. Yes, you can use letters and phone calls. Pretty old school and pretty great. They actually gotta hear your voice and or read your carefully written words. You gotta put yourself on the line and commit yourself to these forms of communication. If they're really your dear friends and family they are worth it, right?
1
The only privacy setting that can be trusted is your own self-censorship.
1
As Forbes magazine and many other influential media and political figures have said recently, "Facebook with 2 billion users, is “more like a country” than a company quipped Senator John Kennedy".
While the actual import of such statements and comparisons may seem a bit 'over the top', I would suggest that in one respect Facebook should take seriously the impact of its power and it basic choice of how to behave in this important binary aspect of how countries and powerful global corporations should act:
Like our own country, Facebook has to decide whether it basically wants to 'act like an Empire' or act in the interest of 'we the people'.
Who knows --- if Zuckerburg makes the correct decision for his powerful global firm, to act in the interest of the people, maybe he can have some influence over Emperor Trump, and convince his fellow 'Empire-builder' that our country should serve the people instead of acting like an Empire.
9
I'm not an american citizen, I do not write fluent English, but the outcome of US elections concerns me, specially when it drives us to a world where International law is reneged (ex Jerusalem) where treaties (like Paris agreement) are repudiated, as are thousand years of international practice expressed in the old Roman principle "Pacta sont servanda".
Facebook took its bad part in the present situation, but I think that it is made a scapegoat for problems affecting particularly the US that most people seem happy to overlook.
Cambridge Analytica was created and funded (for aroud 20 millons $ by the Mercer family in support of Ted Cruz. When the US will put a ceiling on caampaigns financing, and put a term to this era of big money politics where politician have to be sold to wealthy interests, and subservient to billionaires extremists like the Mercers, Cox Brothers, Sheldon Adelson or Steve Wynn ?
105
Thank you for your very good question. Everything I read seems to ignore or take for granted the power and the scale of the money behind these attacks on our fragile and failing democracy. Either the donor class of oligarchs are very good at hiding, or the free press is negligent in sharing their lives and stories with the public. Or both. Thank you for writing.
1
Don't hold your breath on getting hugely wealthy "billionaire extremists" like Rebekah Mercer out of puppeteer roles for stooges like Trump. The Citizens United Supreme Court ruling blew the lid off monetary limits previously placed on these domestic cartels, albeit with the requirement that (1) persons who donate to campaigns must be identified/disclosed and (2) wealthy families' Political Action Committees/PAC cannot lawfully having any interface or engagement with the candidate or his/her campaign.
The glory of watching Trump and his cronies, especially the Mercers, is that they're likely to honestly report about $70M in contributions toward this President's election AND the arrogant daughter is dim-witted enough to brag about her/her PAC being Trump's puppeteer. SEE yesterday's WAPO reporting on these wealthy nitwits . . .likely to be brought down by Federal Election laws and our judicial "checks and balances." Arrogance has its price. Sometimes, admittedly, it is a painful wait for results.
fron a retired federal Courts attorney! Hide and watch.
1
So many defend the practice by saying it's no big deal, that they just read all the Facebook pages and collected data visible to all. However the article says they "collected private information from their profiles and from those of their friends." Facebook allowed app developers to collect data from users' friends without the friends' knowledge or permission. While the unscrupulous don't see a difference that seems like horse of a different color to me.
42
Why in the world would anyone trust any information to Facebook for any reason? And why would anyone be surprised that data would then be used without permission?
But when all is said and done, can anyone cite any specific ad or piece of information that made him change his vote to Donald Trump when he had already decided to vote for Hillary Clinton? Please let me know and I will then consider the whole affair slightly less than preposterous.
11
Please allow me to come into your house, whenever I want, look at all your stuff, copy any paper records, search your computer, download all your personal information. I promise not to use it for any nefarious purpose. And tell all your friends. And where do you keep your valuables, guns,.... Just askin' for a friend.
1
You clearly have no clue how a propaganda machine works. No one specific ad will cause a change in vote. Your question is ignorant.
Propaganda is the barrage of misinformation over time to change your opinion.
Your comment is an interesting non-sequitur. I am on no social media period and would never be on any. I just do not know how your question applies. You seem to be agreeing with me.
Facebook may know everything about my past, and there isn't much I can do about it.
But there's no reason that it needs to know anything about my future...and it won't.
111
I closed my account yesterday and will not reactivate until Zuckerberg and Strandberg appear before Congress and provide verifiable assurances that FB data is safe.
1
Last year, the Congress passed and the president of the United States signed legislation that allows internet service providers like Comcast, Verizon and Time Warner to share or sell people’s web browsing history. How is that different than what Facebook is doing?
127
And what about the credit card companies who keep track of everything I buy and then sell that information?
3
What this Congress of Corporate Toadies signed is worse. (Anyone surprised?) We don't have to be on Facebook but if we need internet for work or homework we can't opt out and we have little choice in services.
2
The only thing facebook needs to do is allow it's members to block all advertisements and sites they don't trust.
1
Few people would opt into being advertised and advertising is how Facebook makes money.
7
Not off me they don't.
1
Those of us who use programs like AdBlock don't have to worry about seeing advertisements.
1
While this is a disturbing turn of events, I'm baffled as to why people are so surprised and upset that Facebook data was used for political data mining purposes. I never signed up on Facebook precisely because I expected that one must accept having your data stolen or used if you are going to post it all online. Granted, one could ask that their data be kept private, but does anyone really believe that is possible in the day of Equifax leaks and hackers lurking around every corner?
It seems that this is our responsibility, not Facebook's, IMO. If we're going to post our data, photographs, etc. then we need to accept the consequences. Sorry to be such a spoil sport, but anyone who believes otherwise may be just a bit naive.
71
What you are missing here is that FB while FB did have terms of use that described how data may be used, they also claimed to have protections in place for your data, then they ignored their own security in the name of money.
Yes, most of us FB users were aware our data could be used. However, FB absolutely did not enforce the protections they claimed to have in place.
Are we users responsible for FB ignoring their own data security?
8
Correct. In this day and age, one can assume that any electronic transmission of information can be obtained by others. How is it that there is so little common sense about potential consequences of putting personal info "out there"? Have never been, will never be involved w/FB or any social media outlet.
So, in your view it is the fault of the users - not this large, very opaque corporation?
Do you always blame the victims?
Facebook has been used to cause far more harm than good, and the company leadership is completely culpable, having tolerated the darker side with depraved indifference. Allowing their product to be used for criminal gain and not putting a stop to it or alerting authorities is a crime, and some of these leaders most likely belong in a jail cell rather than their luxury mansions. We’ll see what happens......
52