My data has harvested, sold by Cambridge Analytica, says Mark Zuckerberg

David Vladeck, a Georgetown University law professor who headed the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection when Facebook signed the deal, said in a blog post this month that Facebook’s argument that it didn’t violate the deal is “far-fetched”.

Many argue that targeted ads are a good thing for both advertiser and consumer, or in the case of campaign, a potential donor or voter. In May 2017, the European Union turned its sights on Facebook, fining the company $122 million for misleading regulators about the way it planned to handle user data after acquiring the messaging service WhatsApp.

Pressure has mounted on Facebook to explain its privacy controls following revelations that a Republican-linked firm conducted widespread data harvesting.

“This information was generally information that people share publicly on their profile pages, like their name and profile picture and the list of pages that they follow”. No, this is a different profile from what your friends see on your Facebook page. “I should reasonably expect that that’s going to work as it is presented to me”.

“It was very accusatory at Facebook but these are all common practices and these senators are willing participants by putting the trackers on their own websites”, one insider said.

But he stiffly defended Facebook’s use of the data and postings of the 2.2 billion users of its free platform – in order to attract the ad revenue that the $480- billion company depends on.

“I do not know off the top of my head”, Zuckerberg replied. Photo: GettyWhat else was discussed in the hearing?

With profiling questions coming to the fore lately, Fraser took the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to download his Facebook data. It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. “Here is Facebook knowing this research and deliberately trying to get even younger kids to use their platform … the last thing that kids need is to normalize this idea that relationships should take place online, that relationships should take place through a commercial product”.

He told me that Dr Kogan’s work had raised issues for the university: “Even if an academic does something – quote unquote in their “spare time”, with their own company – they still ought to be held to professional standards as a psychologist”. They have already heard from the whistle-blower who brought the firm’s data-gathering activity to light, Christopher Wylie.

Facebook is addressing the debate about why and how Messenger and Messenger Lite apps had access to the call and message logs of Android phone users. Soon the rules will become stricter, requiring marketers to get explicit consent to use those email addresses.

“If you think it is hard to pass a bill that affects a lobbyist’s favorite client”, said Alvaro Bedoya, a former congressional aide who worked on privacy issues for former Senator Al Franken, “try passing a bill that affects all of them”.

But clearly, their technical expertise leaves much to be desired, that we can’t take their digital literacy for granted (that’s why they have advisors who, one would hope, know a bit more). “What we know now is that Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained some information about millions of Facebook members by buying it from an app developer that people had shared it with”, he said.

The expected invitation comes a day after Zuckerberg testified for roughly 10 hours in front of two panels of US lawmakers about Cambridge Analytica.

Watch CEO Facebook Mark Zuckerberg and Missouri Congressman Billy Long’s exchange above, and don’t miss the media mogul’s reactions.

“When it comes to the stuff that prompted this discussion, the Cambridge Analytical aggregate IQ stuff, I do think we need regulation but I don’t think it’s directed at Facebook, I think it’s directed at political parties and their operatives who are, at least in Canada, outside the scope of any privacy regulation”.

It is clear now that Facebook didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm.