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Cambridge Analytica


Spy Bee
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A thread on the DUP paying a CA affiliate during the EU referendum and NI assembly election.

 

https://twitter.com/PatrickCorrigan/status/975839673321951233?s=19

 

 

And a piece on SQL involvement in the Nigerian election.

 

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/21/cambridge-analyticas-ruthless-bid-to-sway-the-vote-in-nigeria?__twitter_impression=true

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iG_Fc5KG_bigger.jpgRachael @Rachael_Swindon

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So, the director of Cambridge Analytica's parent company, Roger Gabb, donated £700,000 to the Conservative Party between 2004-2017. And we are really supposed to believe the Tories didn't put any paid work their way as a thank you for their continued support? Yeah, right.


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I wanted to add to this as I feel there's a lot of "I don't use Facebook/I keep it vague" which doesn't really matter in the overall data breach. 

 

"Marketing" as the industry CA like to present themselves in, is all about profiling (e.g. Who are the users? What're their behaviours? When are they most active... etc). To state the obvious, it's knowing about your users to influence their decision-making for financial gain (or, if you want to put a positive spin that, "giving the users what they want, at the perfect time". 

 

Whatever you put on your Facebook isn't quantifiable, unless you show behaviours to elicit that (e.g. posting pictures of bananas, interacting with banana farmers and being in groups of banana lovers etc). It's the behaviour that matters, not the content. So, whilst Facebook collect information of what you do on their website, it's the external part that quantifies the behaviour. If you're interested in the basic information Facebook collects about your interests, you can find that here: https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/

 

As I mentioned, the important part is what you do when you're not on Facebook. Tracking user journeys and behaviours is something every ecommerce site does (e.g. Amazon etc) however Facebook are probably one of the best at doing it. Introducing Facebook Pixel: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/952192354843755 - the cookie that keeps on giving. But why does this matter? Well, for a lot of people, if this data is in the hands of CA, they'll have a refined audience. They'll know behaviours, beliefs and most importantly, their motivations. In a political landscape, the financial gain runs close to power and that's why this particular expose has caused the attention of many countries. 

 

It's no longer about B2C gain, or business itself. It's become a political tool that can potentially cause countries to lose their positioning on the world stage. 

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But why shoot the messenger (in this case FB - who may very well have profited from being the carrier pigeon)? Everyone who uses the internet understands the idea of data trails - if they don't they are idiots.

So - onto the next point - how do we/you/they exert control over idiots? Cookies (sweets) have always worked - the problem with this particular discussion is the idea that CA has somehow just discovered this - and relatively informed people are now aghast as apparently they did not realize that this has been the norm for decades - before that they used landline records.

 

They are pretty smart and very determined - we are a little too comfortable and really, not very motivated. That is the lesson of 20th Century politics.

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It's quite obvious social media is a way for the powers that be to monitor us so all this stuff is hardly surprising and very possibly the tip of the iceberg.

 

 

I think we flatter ourselves when we think that. Powers that be don't care what we think. The only people monitoring us on social media are those interested in our wallets or monetizing the knowledge of our interests.

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I'm not sure people should be disseminating this based on what appears to be zero evidence. It feels uncomfortably like a story designed to make people look like stupid conspiracy theorists and discredit sources on the left. I'd want a lot more evidence first.

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I'm not sure people should be disseminating this based on what appears to be zero evidence. It feels uncomfortably like a story designed to make people look like stupid conspiracy theorists and discredit sources on the left. I'd want a lot more evidence first.

The article just deals in facts, although obviously hints at more.

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/31/aggregateiq-canadian-tech-brexit-data-riddle-cambridge-analytica?CMP=share_btn_tw

 

The links to Brexit grow

 

The firm – AggregateIQ – didn’t appear inconsequential. In the words of Vote Leave’s campaign manager, Dominic Cummings, it played a crucial role in the Brexit campaign. For more than a year, a quote from Cummings – “we couldn’t have done it without them” – was emblazoned across AIQ’s website. Words that disappeared from the website a week ago, removed after we submitted our questions to the firm.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I've just read a book on habits and it spoke about how company's gather so much information they know when a customer is pregnant before she has even told anyone that she is, they even know how far along the pregnancy is due to the information they gather on the very predictable buying habits of pregnant women.

 

Because it's so financially rewarding to entice a pregnant woman into your store because generally they will leave with more than what they planned to buy they will send vouchers for nappies too there home but so it doesn't seem creepy the vouchers will be mixed among things like lawn mowers and a myriad of things to make it seem random. We assume the leaflets through our doors are exactly the same as everyone else gets but they're not, theyre specifically catered to your designated ID.

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8 minutes ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

I've just read a book on habits and it spoke about how company's gather so much information they know when a customer is pregnant before she has even told anyone that she is, they even know how far along the pregnancy is due to the information they gather on the very predictable buying habits of pregnant women.

 

Because it's so financially rewarding to entice a pregnant woman into your store because generally they will leave with more than what they planned to buy they will send vouchers for nappies too there home but so it doesn't seem creepy the vouchers will be mixed among things like lawn mowers and a myriad of things to make it seem random. We assume the leaflets through our doors are exactly the same as everyone else gets but they're not, theyre specifically catered to your designated ID.

That explains the cock dangling through my letterbox the other morning. 

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