“They Lied To Us” – Facebook Suspends “Psychological Warfare” Firm That Backed Trump
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Sat, 03/17/2018
In a move that ratchets up the pressure on UK-based data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, Facebook has suspended Cambridge from its platform after receiving reports that Cambridge stole user data taken from a third-party app.
In a blog post, Vice President and General Counsel Paul Grewal explained that a researcher working for Cambridge lied to Facebook and improperly captured data from an app that was using Facebook login.
The accusation provides a rare glimpse into how, exactly Cambridge Analytica, which is partly owned by Trump backer Robert Mercer, came into possession of the reams of user data that its founder boasted helped it guide the Trump campaign to victory in 2016.
Protecting people’s information is at the heart of everything we do, and we require the same from people who operate apps on Facebook. In 2015, we learned that a psychology professor at the University of Cambridge named Dr. Aleksandr Kogan lied to us and violated our Platform Policies by passing data from an app that was using Facebook Login to SCL/Cambridge Analytica, a firm that does political, government and military work around the globe. He also passed that data to Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, Inc.
Like all app developers, Kogan requested and gained access to information from people after they chose to download his app. His app, “thisisyourdigitallife,” offered a personality prediction, and billed itself on Facebook as “a research app used by psychologists.” Approximately 270,000 people downloaded the app. In so doing, they gave their consent for Kogan to access information such as the city they set on their profile, or content they had liked, as well as more limited information about friends who had their privacy settings set to allow it.
Although Kogan gained access to this information in a legitimate way and through the proper channels that governed all developers on Facebook at that time, he did not subsequently abide by our rules. By passing information on to a third party, including SCL/Cambridge Analytica and Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, he violated our platform policies. When we learned of this violation in 2015, we removed his app from Facebook and demanded certifications from Kogan and all parties he had given data to that the information had been destroyed. Cambridge Analytica, Kogan and Wylie all certified to us that they destroyed the data.
Meanwhile, a New York Times story published Saturday claims the firm siphoned off information from the profiles of more than 50 million Facebook users without their permission.
Despite Cambridge assuring Facebook the data were deleted – Facebook eventually received reports that the data was never disposed of.
The Rest…HERE
