***Facebook whistleblower*** 'Utterly horrifying': ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting

[MelissaB]

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

... snip

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.

... snip

Asked what kind of control Facebook had over the data given to outside developers, he replied: “Zero. Absolutely none. Once the data left Facebook servers there was not any control, and there was no insight into what was going on.”

Parakilas said he “always assumed there was something of a black market” for Facebook data that had been passed to external developers. However, he said that when he told other executives the company should proactively “audit developers directly and see what’s going on with the data” he was discouraged from the approach.

He said one Facebook executive advised him against looking too deeply at how the data was being used, warning him: “Do you really want to see what you’ll find?” Parakilas said he interpreted the comment to mean that “Facebook was in a stronger legal position if it didn’t know about the abuse that was happening”.

More: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/20/facebook-data-cambridge-analytica-sandy-parakilas?CMP=share_btn_tw

[MelissaB]

1. snip

‘A majority of Facebook users’

Parakilas, 38, who now works as a product manager for Uber, is particularly critical of Facebook’s previous policy of allowing developers to access the personal data of friends of people who used apps on the platform, without the knowledge or express consent of those friends.

That feature, called Friends Permission, was a boon to outside software developers who, from 2007 onwards, were given permission by Facebook to build quizzes and games – like the widely popular FarmVille – that were hosted on the platform.

The apps proliferated on Facebook in the years leading up to the company’s 2012 initial public offering, an era when most users were still accessing the platform via laptops and computers rather than smartphones.

Facebook took a 30% cut of payments made through apps, but in return enabled their creators to have access to Facebook user data.

[PA Democrat]

3. OMG. Farmville......

I had a friend who tried to get me to play this game. I have a Facebook account that I use solely to monitor my daughter's account. So glad I never accepted her invitation.

Did I mention she is a big Trump supporter?

[MelissaB]

5. Argh! I played Cityville

and love it.

[cungar2000]

14. I have a name for friends who are Trump supporters

Ex-friends

[Duppers]

18. Same here.

Not one stinking repub friend, except my head-up-his-ass brother who thankfully hates TRump.
And I'm surrounded by retired military who all vote Rethugian.

[MelissaB]

2. another snip

During the time he was at Facebook, Parakilas said the company was keen to encourage more developers to build apps for its platform and “one of the main ways to get developers interested in building apps was through offering them access to this data”. Shortly after arriving at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters he was told that any decision to ban an app required the personal approval of the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, although the policy was later relaxed to make it easier to deal with rogue developers.

While the previous policy of giving developers access to Facebook users’ friends’ data was sanctioned in the small print in Facebook’s terms and conditions, and users could block such data sharing by changing their settings, Parakilas said he believed the policy was problematic.

“It was well understood in the company that that presented a risk,” he said. “Facebook was giving data of people who had not authorised the app themselves, and was relying on terms of service and settings that people didn’t read or understand.”

It was this feature that was exploited by Global Science Research, and the data provided to Cambridge Analytica in 2014. GSR was run by the Cambridge University psychologist Aleksandr Kogan, who built an app that was a personality test for Facebook users.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. It's important for people to understand that data harvesting is not limited to Facebook or even just

social media. Any website you visit is harvesting and crunching data about you. Employers use technology that overtly (employee surveys) and covertly (email/communications analytics) measure, correlate and connect data points to identify which managers get results, which departments could use more resources and which employees are at risk of leaving the company. As increased access to analytics programs puts large amounts of data in the hands of people who aren't data scientists but know how to run the program, data hygiene and handling is going to grow as an issue. It's not just a company here or there. It's everywhere.

[erronis]

7. Thanks for that heads-up. There are several ways to try to mitigate the danger.

I can't list them all but here are a few that I use.
- Don't sign up for fb, linkedin (owned by Microsoft), other social media
- Google and many other search engines will track your queries. DuckDuckGo says it won't
- Use an ad blocker in your browser. Ads will also try to capture your browser's specs.
- Use a javascript blocker. JavaScript is frequently used to run lots of harvesting software
- Use a VPN to anonymize your IP address. (PIA is a good one - I hope....)
- Or use the Tor browser.
- Don't allow third-party cookies unless you know the third party
- Use "incognito" mode in your browser. This helps make your browsing session a bit more private.
- If you're paranoid, set up a remote session (can be on a VM) and use it for browsing (don't log in to websites, however.
- Have up-to-date virus and malware checking installed. Stay up-to-date on software patches

KrebsOnSecurity.com is an excellent website with lots of resources and alerts to the latest bad stuff.

[cyberswede]

6. I guess I'm surprised people are surprised that FB was selling personal data

I assumed is was their raison d'être. Why else would accounts be free?

[MontanaMama]

8. Uh.....yeah.

Exactly. Nothing is really free, is it?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. If the product is free, you're the product.

I'm a little surprised at the reaction as well.

[Duppers]

19. Zactly

I'm doing a duh that folks are surprised.

[Botany]

9. Facebook execs knew all about Russia/Trump/C.A. all along ....

... they cashed the checks.

[FakeNoose]

11. Yes and no

Facebook cashed the checks, for sure. Funds came by direct deposit and they didn't pay attention to which banks in Eastern Europe were sending the funds.

They had layers of plausible deniability for a long time, and now that's going away.

[Botany]

12. I saw an interview w/one of the Trump campaign's digital bosses ....

..... and she said that Facebook had some its employees working full time
at Trump's campaign HQ.

No doubt much of the payments to Facebook came from Russia.

[BigmanPigman]

13. Was it from this post from last year?

This still has me saying "WOW" every time I watch the video. The lady is absolutely giddy about deceiving people.
MUST WATCH!
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029566031

Jamie Bartlett reveals how Silicon Valley's mission to connect the world is disrupting democracy, helping plunge us into an age of political turbulence. Many of the Tech Gods were dismayed when Donald Trump - who holds a very different worldview - won the American presidency, but did they actually help him to win? With the help of a key insider from the Trump campaign's digital operation, Jamie unravels for the first time the role played by social media and Facebook's vital role in getting Trump into the White House. But how did Facebook become such a powerful player?

Jamie learns how Facebook's vast power to persuade was first built for advertisers, combining data about our internet use and psychological insights into how we think. A leading psychologist then shows Jamie how Facebook's hoard of data about us can be used to predict our personalities and other psychological traits. He interrogates the head of the big data analytics firm that targeted millions of voters on Facebook for Trump - he tells Jamie this revolution is unstoppable. But is this great persuasion machine now out of control? Exploring the emotional mechanisms that supercharge the spread of fake news on social media, Jamie reveals how Silicon Valley's persuasion machine is now being exploited by political forces of all kinds, in ways no one - including the Tech Gods who created it - may be able to stop.

[Botany]

16. Yup! Ms. Theresa Hong

It was coup, we had treason, and Russia paid for it and worked for it too.

In the 1950s we executed two Americans for selling out America to Russia(soviet union).

[BigmanPigman]

17. Only two huh?

I wonder what the outcome of THIS will be like for those convicted?

[NastyRiffraff]

15. I knew I was right about Facebook!

I have (had) an account, but very rarely used it. I got nagged by my friends about using FB more, but I just didn't like it. It never felt comfortable. It's not that I hate social media; I use Twitter a lot. But FB left me cold. Now I'm glad.

[triron]

20. kick for visibility