Page 90 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper March/April 2018 Edition

90 One Researcher Harvested Facebook Data

How 1 researcher Users were told the data being collected normal course of using Facebook, those users
was for academic purposes, and both Facebook's volunteered — the same sort of information that
harvested data from 50 terms of service and British data protection laws was used to target Facebook users with divisive

prohibited Kogan from selling or sharing the political ads as part of a broad Russian influence
million people — and
data with third parties without their consent. But campaign.
Facebook was designed to the data was provided to Cambridge Analytica Given the fallout from both incidents, it's
nonetheless. possible users may be less eager to be as open
help The firm "then used the test results and with Facebook going forward, given the very
Facebook data to build an algorithm that could real risk their data may be misused — something
analyze individual Facebook profiles and that critics have warned of for years.
Cambridge Analytica used the data to
determine personality traits linked to voting But of course, there is only so much that
build voter profiles for U.S. and U.K
behaviour," according to the Observer's report. users can do. Users may decide to keep more
political ad campaigns That algorithm could be used to more effectively information off Facebook than they have in the
target Facebook ads to the people their analysis past, but there are other, less obvious ways the
CBC News determined would be most likely influenced by company can collect information.
its message. Others may decide to delete Facebook
In hindsight, it's strange that for years, anyone altogether, or limit how often they log on — but
installing a Facebook app could not only give It may have been a violation of the agreement again, the ubiquity of the service makes this
that app's developer access to their personal that Kogan made with Facebook — and a impractical, not least for those for whom
information, but the personal information of all violation of what users reasonably expected Facebook has become the primary mode of
their friends. Where your friends lived, worked, from a simple personality quiz app. But that was communication with friends or family.
and went to school — not to mention their all that separated the behaviour of Kogan's app It's a reality not lost on politicians, and
interests and the pages they had liked — were all from otherwise legitimate apps. It collected the some are already suggesting it may ultimately
fair game. same type of data that at least hundreds of other fall to governments to impose some form of
The feature was well-intentioned, of developers also had access to at that time. regulation or greater oversight — rather than
course. One app, Job Fusion, used the trust Facebook to watch over itself.
functionality to show users job openings at the Was Facebook breached? Facebook said so itself: "This was a
places their friends worked. The video-sharing scam — and a fraud," Grewal told the New York
app Vine let users see which of their Facebook The Observer and the New York Times Times. But it was enabled by Facebook's very
friends also used the app — until, Facebook cut characterize the data that was harvested and design. []
off its competitor's access. provided to Cambridge Analytica as a breach.
Even dating apps used such information Facebook, however, disputes this OPEN CASTING CALL
to connect users with friends of their friends characterization.
who had similar interests. In Facebook's view, Kogan "did not If you are experienced in any of the following
It wasn't until 2015 that the feature was break into any systems, bypass any technical types of divination and would like to be
finally removed. By then, it was clear that access controls, or use a flaw in our software to gather considered for a part in a new television series,
to such a large trove of information could be more data than allowed," argued the company's our producers want to hear from you:
abused, and privacy concerns about data leakage chief security office Alex Stamos in a now-
were rife. Going forward, developers could only deleted series of posts on Twitter. Aeromancy
access information about friends who had also "Everyone involved gave their consent," Astragalomancy
consented to using their app, too. echoed Paul Grewal, a Facebook lawyer and Bibliomancy
But, notably, developers didn't have to company executive, in a statement. "People Cartomancy
delete the information they had already knowingly provided their information." Dowsing
collected. This weekend, in a pair of reports by Yet millions of users did not — not explicitly — Necromancy
the Observer and the New York Times, we nor likely expected their data to be shared Numerology
learned what one developer did with the data it simply because they were friends with someone Rhabdomancy
retained. who participated in a quiz. Palmistry / Chiromancy
Using an innocuous looking quiz and an It's also clear that Kogan had access to Pyromancy
accompanying Facebook app, a researcher data that — had he been upfront about his Scrying
named Aleksandr Kogan collected data from a intentions — Facebook would not have intended Seance
staggering 50 million Facebook users on behalf him to access. He effectively lied his way into Talking Boards
of data analytics company Cambridge Analytica. accessing data that he shouldn't have had access Tarot Cards
The firm is reported to have used all that data to to, under the guise of an academic study. Some Tasseography
build detailed profiles on the personalities of might consider that social engineering attack.
American and British voters, for use by And notably, both the Observer and the The Digital Broadcast Network in Hamilton
Republican political candidates during the 2016 New York Times reported that copies of the data (www.digitalbroadcastnetwork.ca), Ontario is
U.S. presidential election and Brexit's Vote still exist, outside of Facebook's control. looking for Psychics, Mediums, Tarot Card
Leave Campaign. It may not be a breach in a strict Readers, Palmists, Runes Readers, and other
technical sense — but it's almost certainly a practitioners of the divination arts for their new
How the harvesting happened breach of trust, at the very least. TV series. This Casting Call is open to
practitioners in Canada, U.S., Europe and
And as outrageous as that may sound, Facebook There's only so much a user can do Australia.
was operating exactly as it was designed to at
Combined, the executive producer and director
that time — a design that left millions of its It's worth noting that not all of the data
of this series have over 45 years’ experience
users unwittingly exposed. harvested was actually used to build the detailed
including projects that have been aired on
According to both newspapers, about personality profiles Cambridge Analytica
OLN, Destination America, and CTV.
270,000 people installed Kogan's Facebook app, sought. In fact, of the 50 million user profiles
which was portrayed as part of an online scraped, only about 30 million contained enough If you would like to be considered for a part of
personality quiz that participants were paid to information to match with existing records this television series, please email your CV,
take. The Observer estimated that each user who obtained from data brokers or provided by which must include your area of expertise,
installed Kogan's app granted him access to political campaigns. experience and headshot to
profile information from at least 160 of their In other words, the data harvested for dts@digitalbroadcastnetwork.ca and visit us on
friends. All told, he was able to harvest data on Cambridge Analytica was only as useful as the line at www.digitalbroadcastnetwork.ca.
50 million Facebook users in a matter of weeks. quality of personal information that, in the