(CNN)Facebook is under fire for allowing a Trump-affiliated firm, Cambridge Analytica, to access the private information of 50 million users. Facebook did not inform those users that their personal data was being harvested in an attempt to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election.
This raises many disturbing questions about Facebook. For starters, why does one platform have so much control over the personal data of billions of people? https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/opinions/facebook-privacy-blockchain-opinion-parker/index.html
Scary stuff. And it is not just FB, consider how much info Google or Amazon have.
The entire world wide web is constantly collecting data on you and me and everyone else. Businesses collect and buy and sell this data. Where do you think all these convenient ads come from that appear on certain web pages ( Like Facebook ) with the exact products you just Googled or searched for on Amazon. I remember back in 2012 Facebook didn’t tell it’s users when Obama did this same thing. Can’t remember CNN calling Facebook or Obama out on it though. I do know that a few news organizations praised them at how well Obama’s campaign was able to collect all the data and use it to help him win the election against Mitt Romney. I canceled my Facebook account not long after that happened. So this has been going on for awhile, and getting scary for a long time now. Kinda funny how its really a big deal only if they can use it to smear Trump with it though. CNN makes me laugh. As do most other “news” outlets. Nothing privet or secure on the world wide web. Anyone know where I can buy one of those Russian Bots they keep talking about on CNN?
Slight difference as the article you cite says, “Obama for America, will be inviting its supporters to log on to the campaign website via Facebook, thus allowing the campaign to access their personal data and add it to the central data store – the largest, most detailed and potentially most powerful in the history of political campaigns. If 2008 was all about social media, 2012 is destined to become the “data election”.” In Obama’s case the info was given voluntarily by Obama supporters as opposed to the recent data hack where the info was collected without the knowledge or permission of the FB users and then used to profile them so advertising could be used to hurt Hillary and help Trump.
But, I was not trying to start a political argument, I just found and posted an article that indicated the info on 50 million FB users had been hacked to use without their knowledge. As you point out, Google, Amazon, and many others have lots of collected info they use also. This info could be hacked and used without the knowledge of those it was gained from. Wasn’t a credit monitoring agency hacked about a year ago? This could also happen with bank accounts and credit cards.
In the case of FB, I started an account years ago under a false name just to figure out how it worked because I did not trust them. I use that account to access several Model T sites, besides that I seldom use it. What harm could come from that? I don’t know, but FB, Amazon, PayPal, etc. can probably cross check and figure things out. Google and MapQuest are always asking permission to have access to my home address.
Years ago a friend who works in a local prison told me that the inmates had access to computers and some would spend their time on forums figuring out where people lived and what they were doing. They would give that info to their friends on the outside to arrange break ins. For example, if you posted on a forum that you were going to Chickasha and there was info as to where you lived and even your name taken from the forum, the inmate could then determine if you were a good candidate for a break in and when no one would be home.
So, having info on the web accessable to all or capable of being hacked is truly scary.