Cambridge Analytica: From election manipulation to murdering babies

A good analysis and I too am conflicted on CA.

Data mining isn’t illegal and certainly isn’t that difficult (technically). The issue that appears to have crossed a line is with CA’s acquisition of the seed profiles from Facebook that were then used to develop a FOAF ontology (friend of a friend).

The machine learning element of this isn’t that tricky either.

Regular viewers of this site and TSW will remember that I developed some weird NLP (Natural Language Processing) analysis stuff (Wordles, and sentiment analysis) for Saints’ posters about 4 years ago.

In a previous life, I also developed a software tool that would analyse the marketing materials of high-tech software vendors and profile and categorise them as to how they took their products to market.

Managing the large volumes of data isn’t that tricky anymore given developments in Big Data tools.

Our very own Optimus Trousers makes use of most of these techniques to spew (too much - some say) news into our weekly thread.

What Cambridge Analytica did, and should be given huge technical credit for, is the psychographic segmentation. That is really smart stuff.

Understanding how our responses to a few very targeted questions can reveal everything about how we can be influenced is technically very clever.

They developed something that could tap into our hopes and fears and aggressively target those dreams or nightmares to change or influence our political position.

It’s difficult to say this, but I suspect that process isn’t wrong.

Is it?

Isn’t this what political organisations and corporations have tried to do for years through advertising and buying media barons’ backing?

It’s just being done now on a granular level that hasn’t been seen before. CA has taken the incredibly inefficient broadcast political messaging process and given us hyper-efficient, personalised individual messaging designed to influence a single person’s view.

Their crime (allegedly) seems to have been ‘stealing’ the seed data, so whilst I don’t think their business model is illegal, it certainly seems morally questionable.

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Good stuff Bletch.

Like many “Disaster Management” issues think that CA have been woefully advised, and will now be thrown to the dogs.

Meanwhile, am I the only one who imagines Zuckerberg wiping his arse with this bit of attention seeking bollocks?

So modern democracy (ie the elite) will determine major issues of the day by showing how heroic they are on Twitter :lou_facepalm_2:

You are probably right, but I do hoppe this dents his presidential ambitions.

The idea of him in power is equally as, if not more so, terrifying than the Tango-Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief

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FFS

Another opportunity for Politicians to try and appear ruthless and powerful and serious and impactful.

They acheive fuck all except grab a couple headlines for these arseholes

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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.