Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, the 2016 Election, and a colossal misappropriation of social media data

News about the media frenzy linking a whole lot of high profile news stories together – Facebook CEO Zuckerberg’s disappearing act, Cambridge Analytica’s ‘harvesting’ of 50 million FB users’ data [without permission – and directed by Steve Bannon] which helped explain the role that the company played when it was embedded with the Trump campaign in 2016]; the Mueller investigation, the Comey book, the McCabe firing, and the weather (happy Spring – enjoy Washington’s biggest snowstorm of the season) is yet to reach a crescendo, so hang in there. Along with the impact of the DC area snow storm on budget funding deadline, we are also waiting for Facbook’s official response to yet another ‘breach’ of trust and data, and more evidence about how the social media data of tens of millions of users was appropriated and used by a UK conglomerate that has some very troubling history with its involvement in elections in the US and UK and beyond – and it use of self destructing email to cover its trail.

I posted over a dozen references and sources on this issue when it began to break, and I use the word ‘began’ cautiously. The massive, unmonitored [dubbed harvesting] collection of social media user data is far greater than users of various applications have been willing to address, or even attempt to mitigate against future harvesting efforts [if they have any capability of doing so in the first place – which remains unclear]. This premise stands completely separate from the concept of any regulatory function or layer that may exist between users and the companies, here and abroad, that acquire our data (often at no cost at all) and use it until such time that a whistleblower or two enter from stage left and lift the curtain on all the backend techie sausage making. Being a life long vegetarian and having a healthy respect for privacy, civil liberties and democracy, I will continue to track the inevitable waves that will continue to break here and around the world as it may actually bring some clarity to the cacophony of conflicting and now overlapping stories that have been expanding out of their respective lanes to create a larger and possibly more overarching set of facts, and maybe, some conclusions?

And via Cory Doctorow – Yet Another Lesson from the Cambridge Analytica Fiasco: Remove the Barriers to User Privacy Control

See also via MIT Technology Review – The Cambridge Analytica affair reveals Facebook’s “Transparency Paradox”