'Utterly horrifying': ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

[scipan]

Source: The Guardian

Hundreds of millions of Facebook users are likely to have had their private information harvested by companies that exploited the same terms as the firm that collected data and passed it on to Cambridge Analytica, according to a new whistleblower.

Sandy Parakilas, the platform operations manager at Facebook responsible for policing data breaches by third-party software developers between 2011 and 2012, told the Guardian he warned senior executives at the company that its lax approach to data protection risked a major breach.

“My concerns were that all of the data that left Facebook servers to developers could not be monitored by Facebook, so we had no idea what developers were doing with the data,” he said.

Parakilas said Facebook had terms of service and settings that “people didn’t read or understand” and the company did not use its enforcement mechanisms, including audits of external developers, to ensure data was not being misused.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/20/facebook-data-cambridge-analytica-sandy-parakilas

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Facebook didn't care about misuse of its data and looked the other way. Time to delete our accounts?

[Achilleaze]

1. "All your data are belong to us." - FaceBorg

[brush]

2. Seems consent should be obtained from individuals by data gathers.

Facebook didn't care about that apparently.

Their servers were freely accessible to nefarious actors?

Unbelievable.

[volstork]

3. "Facebook didn't care about misuse of its data.... Time to delete our accounts?"

Done. Deactivated years ago. Deleted for good this past weekend.

If I want to keep up with friends and family, I use email. It's not impervious, but it's a helluva lot safer.

[samnsara]

4. Im not deleting mine.. ppl should have known that FB is a giant data collection machine...

..i post anti trump stuff and dog stuff and i log on once a month to catch up on crafting stuff. Other than that I was never enamored by FB so I didnt stay on long enough to give up all my personal info nor was I on there long enough to be caught up in any ads tossed my way.

Ppl just have to be careful. If you leave a wad of cash laying around, someones gonna take it.

[rzemanfl]

5. Gotta wash socks. BBL. n/t

[LanternWaste]

6. And bless the little hearts of anyone lazy enough to focus on FB only

And bless the little hearts of anyone lazy enough to focus on FB only; bless those too invested in trendy, homeopathic, hispter arguments small enough to fit on a t-shirt to realize that what Facebook did is what the entirety of the internet does. Everyday.

Bless them, for they have their eyes on a shiny.

[apnu]

7. Say nothing on the Internet that you don't mind the whole world knowing.

That includes here on DU.

Not that DU is selling big data, that I'm aware of, but these forums are wide open, anybody can see our comments here.

That includes gun crazy neo-nazis and white supremacist dickwads.

HI YOU FUCK HEADS!

[Blue_Tires]

8. You know it's bad when even Snowden is changing his tune and calling it out

and for FIVE fuckin' years he'd maintained that corporate/private data collection was nothing to worry about...

Hell I STILL remember the DUers who piled on me for even mentioning it

[thomasafine]

9. No surprise

I don't know why it's surprising, these companies are always going to maximize profit. That's the explicit primary purpose of almost all stock-owned corporations.

Twitter has claimed they purged a bunch of bot/troll accounts a few weeks ago, and yet I'm completely sure they barely scratched the surface. It's trivially easy to find bots on Twitter, and while I realize a lot of people make claims like this, I just put an article up on Medium where I found a collection of trolls working together, and put up the data analysis to prove it.

We need new rules for social media, or just new social media, that gives us the ability to have meaningful oversight over the practices of handling our data.

tom

[thomasafine]

17. Complacency?

I'm seeing something in the responses here, and in the responses around the web, and if I'm being honest I now see it in what I was saying (but did not intend).

There's a huge groundswell response right now of "so what" in the face this news of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. It's expressing itself in terms of "This is just what Facebook does" (sort of what I was saying), and "I'm not so easily manipulated", "Americans aren't sheep".

It's important that we don't miss the point here. What CA did with Facebook is probably a violation of their contract, and if it isn't then what Facebook did is probably a violation of their privacy agreements. And when CA worked with both the Trump campaign and Superpacs with the same data and the same strategy, they broke campaign finance laws (all of them together not just CA).

There's every indication that CA shared this same data with Russia (because Russians have said this, because the actions of the trolls bear it out, because CA has shown they will leave no illegal stone unturned in their quest to win an election). Foreign involvement in our campaigns is illegal. And every American should consider this weaponized use of stolen data by a foreign interest against us as an attack on our country. Every red-blooded patriot should be responding accordingly, not picking partisan fights or saying "nothing new".

Because it is new. It is illegal in multiple ways. And it is an attack on the values and principles of our great nation.

Your going to say my outrage is fake? I'm going to say your complacency is 100% what the Russians want and hope from you right now. So way to go. My outrage is now even stronger.

If you're a true American, yours should be too.

[Mosby]

10. someone should start a non-profit FB type thing

I would donate a little every year for that, just like I do for DU.

[backtoblue]

11. Yes! nt

[

[Lokilooney]

12. I'm Shocked!

Shocked I tell you to find out a company created to harvest and sell data for profit is harvesting and selling data for profit!

I just hope I never hear that Google is doing the same thing or that credit card company's are taking all our purchasing info and selling it or that...well I'm just glad we found out it is Facebook that is doing it. Now if you will excuse me I'm going to go grocery shopping, I have a nifty card that I can get discounts if I use it with every purchase!

[Skittles]

14. can you believe all this faux outrage

HOW STUPID ARE PEOPLE???

[Lokilooney]

15. You just think more people would be aware of this by now

An Onion article from 2010: https://www.theonion.com/google-responds-to-privacy-concerns-with-unsettlingly-s-1819571369

[Skittles]

16. people are stupid

me, I often do a variety of searches on bullshit topics, just so any profile of me anywhere is utter bullshit

[LudwigPastorius]

13. "Lax approach to data protection" or business model?

Let's face it, with Facebook, the product they are selling is you.

No one should be surprised. Zuck prepared us for this years ago.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/6966628/Facebooks-Mark-Zuckerberg-says-privacy-is-no-longer-a-social-norm.html