Misuse of millions of facebook users personal data

[Anthea]

Black Lives Matter Facebook page was scam
run by white Australian Ian Mackay

Consider these points before sharing an article on Facebook. It could be fake.

On the surface, the Facebook page had all the markings of an authentic Black Lives Matter group.

Its profile picture — “BLACK LIVES MATTER” in block text against a bright yellow background — echoed the style and colors of the one used on Blacklivesmatter.com.

The “Black Lives Matter”-emblazoned merchandise sold through the Facebook page all benefited related causes.

And it had nearly 700,000 followers, making it the largest Facebook page affiliated with the movement.

Or so people thought.

As it turns out, the page was apparently a fraud, tied to an Australian man who had also registered dozens of other domain names related to black civil rights causes, according to a CNN investigation. And it remained in operation for more than a year, despite multiple efforts to warn Facebook that the page might be fraudulent.

The alleged “Black Lives Matter” Facebook page also brought in at least $100,000 in donations through third-party online fundraisers such as PayPal and Patreon, CNN reported. But the network’s investigation found some of that money was deposited into Australian bank accounts, and that at least one online fundraising account was linked to Ian Mackay, an official with the National Union of Workers, an Australian trade union.

When contacted by CNN, Mackay, who is white, denied he administered the page. He also brushed off questions about several other websites — with names such as blackpowerfist.com and blacklivesmatter.media — that were registered to him, and which the “Black Lives Matter” Facebook page had occasionally promoted.

“I once bought the domain name only and sold it,” Mackay told CNN, referring to one such website that had been registered to him. “My domain name buying and selling is a personal hobby.”

As of Tuesday, however, the page apparently has been taken down. Online fundraisers previously associated with the page have also been disabled, and third-party payment companies such as Classy, Donorbox, PayPal and Patreon all told CNN they had cut ties with the page.

Mackay resigned from his job Tuesday at the National Union of Workers, according to the Guardian. The trade union said in a statement that it was investigating Mackay’s alleged association with the fraudulent Facebook page.

“The NUW is not involved in and has not authorized any activities with reference to claims made in CNN’s story,” the union told the newspaper.

The phrase Black Lives Matter got national attention in summer 2014. Here's how the phrase became a movement. (Claritza Jimenez, Julio Negron/The Washington Post)

CNN’s report came as Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepared to testify before Congress about the social media platform’s role in spreading fake news and its responsibility to protect its users’ data from third-party apps, particularly after the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal.

According to prepared remarks, Zuckerberg planned to acknowledge Facebook’s dark side Tuesday as he addressed lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

“It’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well,” Zuckerberg’s prepared remarks stated. “That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy. We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”

[ Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Capitol Hill: ‘It was my mistake, and I’m sorry.’ ]

Zuckerberg’s apologetic tone and vow to change, however, were not reflected in Facebook’s response to the fake “Black Lives Matter” page, according to CNN and others who had tried to warn the social media platform earlier about the possible scam.

One of the founders of the real Black Lives Matter Facebook page, which has a blue verified check mark and about 300,000 followers, said the organization contacted Facebook months ago to report concerns that the page with the larger following was fraudulent, to no avail. And last December, a blogger named Jeremy Massler called out the fake “Black Lives Matter” page as “probably a sham” and drew connections between it and Mackay.

Massler dubbed the fake page “BlackLivesMatter1″ after its user name.

“BlackLivesMatter1 doesn’t try to organize rallies or affect politics. Instead, their mission is to expose racism, and they accomplish that by sharing stories on social media. In theory, it’s an admirable goal, but parts of the presentation made me suspicious,” Massler wrote. “My hunch is that whoever currently runs BlackLivesMatter1 is trying to make some money off the back of the Black Lives Matter movement. Still, I’m surprised the page has flown under the media’s radar when you consider the current political climate.”

The Facebook page went down briefly after Massler reported on it, according to CNN.

In Brian Stelter’s media newsletter “Reliable Sources” on Tuesday,” CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivan explained that CNN presented its findings about the fake “Black Lives Matter” page to Facebook last week, but the company initially dismissed concerns by saying the page did not violate its “community standards.” Facebook also did not divulge whether more traffic had been driven to the bogus page through Facebook ads.

On Monday, however, Facebook confirmed that the page has been taken down.

“Not for the first time, Facebook took action against a major bad actor on its site not on its own but because journalists made inquiries,” O’Sullivan told Stelter. “The discovery raises a lot of Q’s about how Facebook polices its platform — if it can’t figure out there is something up with the biggest ‘BLM’ account, with almost 700,000 followers, why should we trust it to find other fakes?”

Black Lives Matter did not immediately respond to questions sent by email Tuesday morning.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... a4d96cd3ff

[Anthea]

Facebook Suspends Another Data Analytics Firm As Scandal Widens

According to reporting by CNBC, Cubeyou collected data from Facebook users through personality quizzes "for non-profit academic research" developed with Cambridge University, and then sold the data to advertisers.

As the Facebook scandal over Cambridge Analytica's misuse of the personal data of millions of users continues to unfold, Facebook is suspending another data analytics firm over similar allegations.

According to reporting by CNBC, Cubeyou collected data from Facebook users through personality quizzes "for non-profit academic research" developed with Cambridge University — then sold the data to advertisers.

Cubeyou denies wrongdoing, and Cubeyou CEO Federico Treu told CNBC that it "had the rights disclaimers on a separate site." The personality quiz websites at the center of the allegations were jointly developed with Cambridge University's Psychometrics Center. Its director, John Rust, told NPR that contrary to what CNBC reported, users "consented to their data being used for both academic and business purposes."

Even still, the new allegations raise questions about how widespread the misuse of data was among Facebook's third-party app developers.

Was Your Facebook Information Used Or Shared By Cambridge Analytica?

"These are serious claims and we have suspended CubeYou from Facebook while we investigate them," Ime Archibong, Facebook vice president of product partnerships, told CNBC. "If they refuse or fail our audit, their apps will be banned from Facebook."

The claims here have clear parallels to Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm that obtained data of 87 million users — those who took a personality quiz, and their friends.

On Monday, Facebook will begin informing those users who were impacted by the data grab, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify to lawmakers on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Cambridge's Psychometrics Centre is linked to the personality quizzes of both Cubeyou and Cambridge Analytica. Facebook's Archibong told CNBC that the company is asking U.K. authorities to request information about "the development of apps in general by its Psychometrics Centre given this case and the misuse by [Aleksandr] Kogan," the professor who developed the Cambridge Analytica quiz.

'They Don't Care': Whistleblower Says Cambridge Analytica Aims To Undermine Democracy

According to the BBC, "Cambridge University denied working with Cambridge Analytica or its parent company SCL and said it had never provided any data, algorithms or expertise."

Rust, the center director, stressed that its "apps have at all times followed Facebook's developer policies and the use of data collected by them has always been in line with consent given by their users."

He added that "several of CubeYou's claims on its blog appear to be misleading and we have contacted them to request clarification."

Cubeyou's website says it offers marketers "all the best consumer data sources in one place," including information gathered from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The quizzes in question, called "Apply Magic Sauce" and "You are what you like," predict a quiz-taker's "psycho-democratic profile" based on what they have liked and posted on Facebook or Twitter.
Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg On Data Privacy Fail: 'We Were Way Too Idealistic'

Facebook is initiating ways to make it easier for users to understand how their data is being used.

"Starting Monday, we're going to start rolling out to everyone in the world, right on the top of their news feed, a place where you can see all the apps you've shared your data with and a really easy way to delete them," Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told NPR last week.

As NPR's Aarti Shahani reported, Facebook says it is also taking steps to limit other kinds of data sharing:

"For example, if I'm advertising an event, if I'm organizing an event on Facebook, it used to be that the people who are going to join my event would be visible to third-party developers, but Facebook is changing that so that now the guest list is guarded. The comments for the event are guarded as one step. And really, you know, what you're seeing is Facebook sending out the message incrementally that, hey, we know that our borders were porous, but we're building a wall."

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way ... dal-widens