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Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower

I am a bit cynical.

The EU GDPR regulation arrives into force on the 25th May 2018 after which large fines are available for data breaches. Very large fines. And you have to fess up about breaches within 72 hours of discovering them.

It seems more than convenient that Facebook has fessed up about this Cambridge Analytica breach ahead of the time when it could be liable for a large GDPR fine.
 
weltweit said:
I am a bit cynical.

The EU GDPR regulation arrives into force on the 25th May 2018 after which large fines are available for data breaches. Very large fines. And you have to fess up about breaches within 72 hours of discovering them.

It seems more than convenient that Facebook has fessed up about this Cambridge Analytica breach ahead of the time when it could be liable for a large GDPR fine.
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Oh absolutely, and I still can't work out how they are ever going to be compliant with GDPR requirements unless they completely upend their whole business model.
 
The download all we know about you link that now exists is a first step in the right direction, taking into account the data request aspect. But how they deal with the erase requirement I don't know as if you erase all you may as well just quit facebook.
 
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Indy have a story about Mercer and a couple of his billionaire pals funding targeted "dark ads" with a clear side-effect (or intended effect?) of promoting racism.

Company doing the ads was Harris <see the link I posted some pages back>, an outfit doing similar work for the AfD in Germany and similar stuff elsewhere.

Robert Mercer, whose family has reportedly donated $36.6m to Republican candidates since 2010, reportedly gave the money to Secure America Now, an organisation that produced several video advertisements apparently designed to promote anti-Muslim sentiment.

One of the advertisements, which was shown to voters in swing states that included Nevada and North Carolina, showed France and Germany as if run under sensationalised version of Sharia law.

It showed French schoolchildren being trained to fight for Isis and the Mona Lisa painting covered in a burka. It also showed an image of the Eiffel Tower with a Muslim star and crescent.

“Under Sharia law, you can enjoy everything the Islamic State of France has to offer, as long as you follow the rules,” said the narrator of one the adverts, that appeared as if it was a travel promotion.

Last October, Bloomberg News reported that staff from Google and Facebook worked closely with Secure America Now, which spent several million dollars on the election adverts.

Now, the watchdog group Open Secrets has alleged that Mr Mercer was the most significant of just three donors to Secure America Now. The group’s tax return from 2016, showed that the reclusive Mr Mercer, 71, provided $2m to the organisation.

“Most Americans have never heard of the far-right neoconservative nonprofit that ran the ads. It has no employees and no volunteers, and it’s run out of the offices of a Washington DC law firm,” Open Secrets wrote of Secure America Now.

“More importantly, most voters never saw the ads. And that was by design. The group….worked hand in hand with Facebook and Google to target their message at voters in swing states who were most likely to be receptive to them.”

Bloomberg reported the adverts commissioned by Secure America Now were produced by Harris Media, an Austin-based digital advertising firm.
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Billionaire Trump backer Robert Mercer 'funded group behind anti-Muslim election ads'
 
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Did anyone get the message (today) from facebook that their data was among the other million or so UK users whose data was released to Cambridge Analytica?
 
With that bloody off-the-shelf pen-writes animation that you see on all the self-improvement videos!

It's a little confusing, and I'm not very clear myself, at what point the SCL/CA/Facebook story becomes sinister. (Other than where it might be clearly illegal.)

People and companies and countries try to persuade people all the time. How long has advertising and propoganda been around? And loads of research gets done so unsurprisingly we're getting better and better at it all the time. Then - boom! - along comes the internet and we get history's greatest information sharing tool, and then - boom! - along comes web 2.0 and social networks and it becomes a two-way street, history's greatest ever self-profiling tool. And no-one's too bothered about it while it sees your searching for "holidays in hot places" and it shows you a hotel in Spain on your Facebook page (I once got a job because I'd been searching and then Facebook showed me a recruiting company's ad), but when a third of Americans believes Hilary Clinton ran a sex slave racket out of a pizza parlour. And, it's very easy to promote an authoritarian figure. You don't even need to promote them directly, you just need to make the world seem mad and scary and out of control and full of conspiracies so you need a strong man on your side.

But I don't know what is to be done. The toothpaste is out of the tube. You can't realistically ban political advertising discussion or posting from social networks.

I wonder what Zuck will say this afternoon? "Sorry. We've learned our lesson."
 
Straight to the point: ok the link don't work on here for some reason

https://www.facebook. com/help/1873665312923476?helpref=search&sr=1&query=cambridge

remove the space between facebook and .com and copy and paste and it will tell you if you were hit.
 
If you were targetted and you're interested there's something going around on Twitter about a case for compensation - Peter Jukes was where I saw it.

(I have absolutely no idea about the practicalities of that, but it was from a bona fide legal firm.)
 
StigoftheDig said:
First "field trials" were used to "break up" a UK car strike in 1990. I had a quick Google and I couldn't find anything that jumped out, but maybe someone else can remember a - presumably highish profile - car strike from 1990.
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There was a seven week strike at Ford Langley but I think it's most unlikely that this is what is being referred to. The document actually says "a strike at a UK car transport plant". There were several vehicle transport companies in 1990. Can't find reports of strikes at any of them that year but these would not have been big news stories.

ETA: having written that I found reports of a month long dispute (not actually a strike) by drivers for Toleman Automotive at Halewood.
Halewood stands alone | 18th October 1990 | The Commercial Motor Archive
Toleman workers will 'lend' wages | 8th November 1990 | The Commercial Motor Archive

and a 1990 article about the transporter sector
Page 1 - TOUGH T IVIES | 8th November 1990 | The Commercial Motor Archive
Page 2 - CAR TRANSPORTING | 8th November 1990 | The Commercial Motor Archive


Assuming, of course, that this isn't just complete bullshit made up to pad out their CV.
 
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TruXta said:
I wonder if a decent way to explain it is, would you be OK with some person following you all day every day and noting down where you shop, who you talk to, what you eat and who you're working with?
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Like what happens to those under MHA detentions/CTOs (and indeed, voluntary patients and all)?
 
TruXta said:
It's not spying when it's made abundantly clear you're under surveillance is it?
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When does this happen then?

In other words, it isn’t made ‘abundantly clear’, is it?

And even if it was, why would you support it (I note you dodged the question first time round)
 
MadeInBedlam said:
When does this happen then?

In other words, it isn’t made ‘abundantly clear’, is it?

And even if it was, why would you support it (I note you dodged the question first time round)
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If you're under detention the provider has a duty to keep tabs on you. To varying degrees of course.
 
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