Cambridge Analytica: From election manipulation to murdering babies

I’m looking forward to seeing how a lot of companies who rely on individuals personal information will be managing GDPR.

It’s causing my company, clients and service providers a headache - with very significant fines potentially for those who fuck up

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Where I work managers don’t seem to be aware of this at all. I keep mentioning it and getting blank looks. Where I used to work they are already compliant.

But your employers keep loads of personal data don’t they?

Would recommend that you ask what you need to do to ensure you are able to work compliantly in the GDPR environment - if they say “as you were” then I’d suggest it’s probably best to move on…

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Yep. I keep saying that we cannot just create files on people without consent. People seem to think because some of the work is safeguarding we can. But a lot of our work isn’t and we work with consent.

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US Government finally rolling into action. Will mean legislation on Tech firms won’t be far behind…

GDPR is massive and applies to ANY business ANYWHERE on the planet holding data on EU Citizens.

EU companies are behind the curve but then down here it is worse. Passport copies are used for everything here and stored in laptops or filing cabinets. The planet isn’t ready for it yet but people like United Delta Emirates or Qatar Airways could be sunk by it let alone all those online betting companies that sponsor football teams

Meanwhile, opened FB this morning to see some pics of Eric skiing and then mainly Tumbleweed…

The Tories spent shitloads of money on targeting people with personalised Facebook ads.

Hmm. Wonder how they chose their targets?

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…which is why I can’t reconcile the Tory MP, Damian Collins, throwing CA and Alexander Nix (who, BTW, has the best Bond villain name ever) so far under the bus.

I would have thought CA might have had dirt that needed protecting.

Perhaps CA had aligned behind Labour at a next election.

Perhaps I’m seeing a conspiracy in a cockup?

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Not sure what CA would come up with if they data mined this site…

:lou_lol:

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I don’t get any ads on FB, haven’t had for years…I have an extension that lets you zapp all ads and allows you to clean up FB until you only see what you want to see. Facebook don’t like it though. :lou_lol:

On a separate point, how would you carry out a data audit on a company like CA?

If you’re hunting servers for data, you’re fucked because they’ve had loads of time to move stuff off-site.

If you’re starting at the other end and asking them how they acquired the data you have found on a server, then you might have better luck. But again they’ve had time to create all sorts of plausible data sets and stories for acquisition.

I guess you might go in with a series of Facebook profiles that you know have been targeted and work back to the story of their acquisition.

Whatever way I spin it, it seems likely to draw a blank.

The worse that will happen is Nix gets put through the media wringer and Cambridge Analytical change their name.

This stuff has been going on for years. I have been reading about CA and their work since before they changed the countries view for the referendum(they absolutely did).

The real problem here isn’t this latest story, it’s how the whole technology has been led for decades. Greed is good. Greed is God and they control it all.

They took a data set and then removed long haired vertically challenged lefties

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I don’t think it’s CA that is the real target. It’s Facebook, and by extension, social media in general. You can expect the traditional media to be massive cheerleaders for CA’s and FB’s destruction.

If they get to reverse a couple of recent decisions off the back of it, all the better, or so they think.

If the basic premise of their arguments around polls is sound, that people are massive fuckwits that believe everything they read, then that’s more worrying than any clandestine operators, who lets face it, didn’t spring up with social media.

Personally I think the premise is bollocks, and that it would be more accurate to say that people don’t believe the shit that is broadcast.

Damian Collins just probably missed the memo.

Wonder no longer. At PMQs today there was an interesting question to May from Ian Blackford, the leader of the SNP. He started," Does the Prime Minister agree that subverting the democratic political process in any country is totally unacceptable"? May, immediately starting to look a bit shifty, said she backed free and fair elections. Blackford went on, “Can i point out that the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, Strategic Communications Laboratory, has been run by a chairman of Oxford Conservative Association, it’s founding chairman was a former Conservative MP, a director appears to have donated over 700,000 pounds to the Conservative Party, a former Conservative Party Chairman is a shareholder. We know about the links to the Conservative Party, they go on and on”. May, looking flustered, said the government had no links to Cambridge Analytica or it’s parent company. Which amounts to a bare faced lie.

This tells you all you need to know. Could you do the honours with the link please. The people of this country are being led down a very dangerous path by an out of control, undemocratic elite. God knows what their agenda is, it doesn’t really bear thinking about.

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there you go

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See the video I posted above of the supplementak question.

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Also, note the semantics of May’s reply.

She confirms the government has no contracts with them.

She does not confirm the Tory party has no contracts.

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