TheNewsGuru

Tag: Data Privacy

  • Cambridge Analytica: Finally investigation unravels data size mystery

    The report of an independent investigation to unravel the mystery behind data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica (CA), harvesting over 87 million Facebook users data have been made public.

    The investigation reveals SCL Elections, parent company of CA entered into two contract agreements with Cambridge University Professor Aleksandr Kogan’s firm, Global Science Research (“GSR”) that developed the ‘This Is Your Digital Life’ personality quiz app with which the over 87 million Facebook users data was harvested.

    According to the investigation report, the first contract refers to the provision by GSR to SCL of a core sample of 2 million individuals in 11 states in the USA; the information to be provided in respect of the individuals consisted of the name, the gender, birthday and/or location.

    Also, according to the report, in the second contract, which superseded the first contract, GSR agreed to supply SCL with a copy of 30 million records of demographic data, in return for a payment of £200,000.00.

    “The second contract gave SCL the right to acquire the modelled derivative ‘personality data’ developed by GSR, with some of the underlying demographic data (including Facebook ‘Likes’), that GSR collected as part of the initial research project. In the Addendum, the total consideration for this work was increased to £233,000.00,” the report read.

    However, the investigation reveals, contrary to the over 87 million Facebook users data reported to have been compromised, GSR only delivered to SCL personality models for around 26 million individuals, instead of models for 30 million users, as envisaged by the second contract.

    TheNewsGuru finds that this large figure was achieved because GSR was able to collect data in respect of the Facebook friends of each survey participant, if the privacy settings of the friends, allowed for this.

    Using the OCEAN scores for the survey participants, Professor Kogan was able to build a model for predicting the likely OCEAN scores for the Facebook friends, whose data had been collected. This was done by attributing similar scores to those individuals with similar Facebook “likes”.

    “This data was predictive data, not established data from the survey (that is to say, derivative data),” Julian Malins Q. C. and Linda Hudson stated in the investigation report, while also stressing that “The suggestion that is currently circulating in the media, that the data of 87 million users was provided by GSR to SCL is not correct”.

    The report, however, states that “It is simply not known by SCL or CA how many users’ data was actually harvested by GSR from Facebook, whether 50 million, or, as now suggested, 87 million. All that can be said by SCL or CA is that GSR delivered data on 26 million individuals in the 11 relevant states of the USA, to SCL”.

    Meanwhile, the same report confirmed Israeli intelligence involvement in the 2015 presidential elections in Nigeria.

     

  • Breaking: Investigation confirms Israeli intelligence involvement in Nigeria’s election

    Breaking: Investigation confirms Israeli intelligence involvement in Nigeria’s election

    An investigation into the Cambridge Analytica (CA) data privacy scandal has revealed key findings and confirmed Israeli intelligence involvement in the 2015 presidential elections in Nigeria.

    TheNewsGuru reports independent investigators, Julian Malins Q. C. and Linda Hudson, contracted to dig into the data privacy scandal, confirmed that Israeli intelligence worked to campaign for former President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 elections.

    “It is correct that during the 2015 campaign, the SCL team was aware that there was also working for Goodluck Jonathan, entirely separately instructed, an Israeli intelligence gathering company,” Julian Malins Q. C. and Linda Hudson stated in their report.

    The Julian Malins Q. C. and Linda Hudson report, however, absorbed Cambridge Analytica of wrongdoing in the elections, stressing that SCL Elections did no work with the Israeli intelligence gathering company.

    SCL Elections and its offspring data analytics firm, CA, face allegations of improper involvement in the 2007 and 2015 elections on behalf of their client through a series of unlawful and unethical manoeuvres.

    SCL and CA was alleged to have aided in ‘hacking’ or unlawfully gaining access to Muhammadu Buhari’s personal data when he was a candidate in the presidential election and that SCL’s and CA’s work for the election campaign on behalf of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) broke Nigerian electoral law.

    It was also alleged that SCL and CA engaged AggregateIQ in the 2015 Nigerian presidential election to produce and publish a video to frighten voters with terrifying images of what would happen if sharia law was imposed by Muhammadu Buhari, if he were to be elected.

    “SCL’s contractual involvement in Nigerian elections was to provide advertising, marketing and PR services on behalf of the Goodluck Jonathan campaigns,” the investigators stated in the report.

    The report further stated that evidence was not found that SCL broke Nigerian electoral law and that the allegation that Buhari’s personal data was “hacked” is denied by staff at SCL and that nothing specific was found in the way of “hacked” data concerning Buhari, which was published to his detriment.

    “As to AggregateIQ, that company, which is Canadian and is entirely separate from SCL and CA, may or may not have supplied the Goodluck Jonathan campaign with videos, whether false and scurrilous or not. But I have seen no evidence to support, the Wylie allegation, that SCL and/or CA had anything to do with this.

    “I have to repeat, however, that, given the evidential difficulties described earlier, my conclusions here also have to be of a preliminary, rather than final nature,” the report read.

     

  • Cambridge Analytica: Kogan defends involvement in Facebook data scandal

    Developer of the ‘This Is Your Digital Life’ personality quiz app that was involved in the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal, Professor Aleksandr Kogan, has opened up to defending his involvement.

    The Cambridge University professor developed the personality quiz app with which over 87 million users account on Facebook were compromised when he shared the data harvested by the app with Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm.

    TheNewsGuru reports it has been a tumultuous time for both Cambridge Analytica and the founder and chief executive officer of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, as authorities have sought to know what transpired and if people’s privacy are safe on the social media, especially on Facebook.

    Zuckerberg said the Kogan’s app was downloaded by 270,000 people, which gave Kogan access to their friends amounting to the over 87 million users that were affected.

    According to confessional statements, the data was then passed to the data analytics firm and was eventually used to influence US 2016 presidential election.

    While Facebook has blamed Kogan for misusing the app and the data it harvested, Kogan defended his role on Sunday.

    He said he “never heard a word” of opposition from the social media giant when he was running the personality quiz app, and that he is being used as a scapegoat.

    The Cambridge professor told CBS’s 60 Minutes he was “sincerely sorry” for the data mining, but insisted there was a widespread belief that users knew their data was being sold and shared.

    “Back then we thought it was fine… I think that core idea that we had that everybody knows and nobody cares was fundamentally flawed. And for that, I’m sincerely sorry,” he said.

    The psychologist also accused Facebook of framing him as a “rogue app” and insisted that while he was not sure that he read Facebook’s developer policy banning the transfer or sale of users’ data, the social network failed to enforce it in any case.

    “I had a terms of service that was up there for a year and a half that said I could transfer and sell the data. Never heard a word,” he said, referencing his app’s user agreement.

    “Facebook clearly has never cared,” he told AFP.

    “The belief in Silicon Valley and certainly our belief at that point was that the general public must be aware that their data is being sold and shared and used to advertise to them.”

    On the issue of harvesting the information of friends of app users without explicit permission, Kogan said that capability was “a core feature” of Facebook for years and he estimated “tens of thousands” of apps had engaged in similar practices.

    “This was not a special permission you had to get. This was just something that was available to anybody who wanted it who was a developer,” he said.

    On Tuesday Kogan is set to appear before a British parliamentary committee probing the scandal, where he will discuss his ties with Cambridge Analytica.

     

  • Facebook “show of remorse” not enough in data scandal: German official

    Johannes Caspar, the German government official responsible for policing the activities of Facebook, on Wednesday criticised the U.S. social media company’s reaction in the ongoing Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

    “In so far it must be feared that this scandal will not result in any concrete consequences beyond Facebook’s apology statement and show of remorse,” Caspar told the newspaper “Handelsblatt”.

    “It is and will remain Facebook’s business model to collect data and make it accessible to people with the right profiles in exchange for money,” he said.

    Caspar attended a high-level meeting between German Justice Minster Katarina Barley (SPD) and senior Facebook representatives in Berlin on Monday.

    The data protection officer subsequently lamented that no convincing proposals had been made on behalf of Facebook to redress the situation.

    Barley has demanded a “comprehensive investigation” into whether German users were affected by the illegal use of information from millions of Facebook profiles during “electoral strategy” work by the company Cambridge Analytica for the U.S.

    Trump presidential campaign and the British Leave campaign during the Brexit referendum.

    The justice minister went as far as to describe the social network as a “threat to democracy and the rule of law”.

    She further emphasized that it was the responsibility and right of the European Union (EU) and its member state governments to determine the rules of the game by which tech companies must operate in the bloc.

    According to media reports, Cambridge Analytica used an application designed by the Russian academic Aleksandr Kogan to illegally access the data of around 50 million Facebook users.

    The information was used for targeted campaign advertisements, “micro-targeting” to sway voters in favor of casting their ballot
    for U.S. President Donald Trump or to vote Leave in the British referendum.

    In a recent appearance before the British parliament, ex-Cambridge programmer Christopher Wylie shocked delegates by stating that he had not doubt that his former employer had manipulated the Brexit referendum and broken the law.

     

  • Whistle-blower reveals Israeli hackers behind Buhari’s data compromise

    Whistle-blower and former employee of Cambridge Analytica, Christopher Wylie, has finally revealed the Israeli hackers that were engaged to hack into Muhammadu Buhari medical records and private emails.

    Wylie made the revelation when he appeared before British Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

    He said Cambridge Analytica’s parent company SCL worked with Israeli spy firm, Black Cube, to compromise Buhari’s private data in events leading to the 2015 general elections.

    “The company utilized the services of an Israeli private intelligence firm, Black Cube. Black Cube on the Nigeria campaign was engaged to hack the now-president Buhari to get access to his medical records and private emails,” he said.

    Meanwhile, Black Cube, based in Tel Aviv, has vehemently rejected Wylie’s statement, and said it plans to investigate his claims to “reveal the truth and the motive” behind them.

    “Whilst we are flattered that we are seemingly being connected with every international incident that occurs, we will state that Chris Wylie’s testimony is a flagrant lie,” the agency said.

    The firm said it will “launch a massive defamation suit against any entity that we will find involved, including Christopher Wylie, SCL or Cambridge Analytica, for any pound they still have or don’t have”.

    Black Cube said it and its affiliates and subsidiaries have never worked for SCL or Cambridge Analytica, and have never operated in Nigeria or on any Nigerian-connected project, nor have any of its employees gone to Nigeria for their work with the firm.

    It also said it “always operate within the boundaries of the law in every jurisdiction it operates.”

     

  • Facebook’s response to data scandal has ‘diminished’ trust — EU

    Facebook must do more to address allegations of large-scale data mining, the EU has said, warning that the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal threatens democracy and has diminished trust in the social media giant.

    Facebook has come under fire after a co-founder of data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica told an undercover reporter that information from about 50 million Facebook users was taken without their consent and used for U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.

    The issue has broad “consequences for the democratic process,’’ EU Justice Commissioner, Vera Jourova, wrote to Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, in a letter seen Tuesday.

    Jourova added that her concerns were “not alleviated’’ by Facebook’s response to the scandal.

    “This is particularly disappointing given our efforts to build a relationship based on trust with you and your colleagues,” Jourova wrote. “This trust is now diminished.”

    Facebook has long been used for political marketing, she noted, adding that the apparent lack of transparency and alleged abuse of personal data could have a “negative impact on the quality of this debate and even on our electoral process.”

    The commissioner called on Facebook to “take steps to regain the trust of its users and meet its obligation to society.”

    Jourova asked whether the data of EU citizens had been affected by the recent scandal, whether a similar thing could happen again, how Facebook would apply EU privacy laws and whether stricter rules are needed, giving the company two weeks to respond.

    Cambridge Analytica is accused of illegally obtaining information from Facebook users after misleadingly gaining access under the guise of an app.

     

  • Facebook shares dip as U.S. regulator announces privacy probe

    Facebook Inc shares fell to 6.5 per cent on Monday after United States-consumer-protection-regulator said it was investigating how the social-network allowed data of 50 million users to get into the hands of a political-consultancy.

    Scrutiny by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which generally confirms the existence of an investigation only in cases of significant public interest.

    In addition to pressure from lawmakers in the United States and Europe, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was to explain how his company handles user data.

    Facebook shares briefly dipped below 150 dollars on Monday for the first time since July 2017, before recouping some losses. They were down 3.1 per cent at 154.37 dollars in afternoon trading.

    At the day’s session low the company had lost 100 billion dollars in market value since March 17.

    Newspapers first reported at such date that Facebook member data was improperly used by consultants Cambridge Analytica to target U.S. and British voters in close-run elections.

    “FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook,” the regulator said in a statement.

    “Today, the FTC is confirming that it has an open non-public investigation into these practices.”

    The investigation is broader than looking into whether Facebook violated a 2011 consent order it reached with the FTC over its privacy practices, official sources.

    “We remain strongly committed to protecting people’s information,” Facebook Deputy Chief Privacy Officer Rob Sherman said in a statement on Monday.

    “We appreciate the opportunity to answer questions the FTC may have.”

    If the FTC finds Facebook violated terms of the consent decree, it has the power to fine it thousands of dollars a day per violation, which could add up to billions of dollars.

    The FTC’s move to make its probe public comes as lawmakers in the United States and Europe put more pressure on Facebook and Zuckerberg to explain the company’s privacy practices.

    “Facebook’s failure to protect confidential user information likely violated specific legally binding commitments.

    ”It also violates basic norms and standards,” said U.S. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

    The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said on Monday it had invited the CEOs of Facebook, Alphabet Inc and Twitter Inc to testify at an April 10 hearing on data privacy.

    A bipartisan coalition of 37 state attorneys general also wrote to Facebook on Monday.

    They demanded to know about the company’s role in the manipulation of users’ data by Cambridge Analytica and its policies and procedures for protecting private data.

    The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee and U.S. Senate Commerce Committee have already formally asked Zuckerberg to appear at a congressional hearing.

    Earlier in the day in Europe, the European Union Justice Commissioner asked Facebook if the company is “absolutely certain” that the Cambridge Analytica incident could not be repeated.

    Zuckerberg apologized last week for the mistakes the company had made.

    He promised to restrict developers’ access to user information as part of a plan to protect privacy. He also said sorry in full-page advertisements in British and U.S. newspapers.