Facebook CEO Zuckerberg conspicuously absent as data scandal grows

http://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/national-today-newsletter-maduro-petro-bedawi-zuckerberg-1.4583832

by napoleond • 8 years ago

178 78 8 years ago

Could somebody give me a breakdown of the allegations? What exactly have they done with the data.

criley2• 8 years ago

The allegations against Facebook are that for a period of several years they turned a blind eye to rampant Developer abuse of their API, allowing Political organizations (and others) to download massive amounts of Facebook user data.

Facebook also continuously marginalized their Chief Security Officer who routinely complained about the API loopholes, were caught informing employees of a "don't ask don't know therefore no liability" quasi-official policy towards the widespread abuse (don't rock the advertising/business boat), and eventually reduced the CSO's staff from 120 to 3 and role to what appears to be "tweeting pre-approved pro-Facebook messages".

The FTC is now investigating if Facebook has violated it's 2011 FTC privacy mandate, something which carries fines in the millions per event range I believe (i.e. trillions of USD in fines for this size of privacy mandate failure)

foota• 8 years ago

I read the reduction in the CSO's staff as a prelude to his leaving the company, not as a "nerfing" to his role.

RandomInteger43• 8 years ago

What I don't understand is, why would they turn a blind eye to abuse of their developer API if they offer their API for free and they sell user data -- which I assume is anonymized? -- to advertisers? Wouldn't that diminish revenue if advertisers could have just used the API to get around this?

Please correct any mistaken assumptions I might have about their business model.

RugnirViking2• 8 years ago

Wow a trillion dollar fine seems almost unthinkable - there are only around 10 trillion dollars in circulation, and with that shared among apple google facebook and the rest of the entire country its hard to imagine facebook could afford to pay

decacorn• 8 years ago

Cambridge analytica is an investment of Robert Mercer. Mercer also donates to the Trump campaign. Steve Bannon headed the CA operation to collect user data from social media for the sole purpose of "gaming" the electorate system (ALL confirmed by the Canadian CA whistleblower). Kushner hired CA to work for the Trump campaign. CA admitted (on tape) they broke election laws and actively obstruct justice by not keeping evidence (paper trail). They also admitted they ran the "entire digital campaign" for Trump Campaign. Board of CA quickly suspends CEO as of today.

Mark currently getting away as an accomplice to the murder of our democracy.

basedecode2• 8 years ago

I've posted a quote from this article below that details how Obama's 2012 campaign did practically the same thing Cambridge Analytica is being accused of. [1]

So data mining Facebook has being going on for a while, except that the MSM and Silicon Valley supported it because it favored Obama.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/the-obama-campaig...

tomcooks• 8 years ago

There is a 4 part documentary by Channel 4 [right here](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=facebook+allegations+zuckerberg)

frgtpsswrdlame• 8 years ago

Companies give the silent treatment all the time but add on how terrible Zuckerberg is at public relations and even I really have trouble blaming Facebook for keeping him stashed away right now.

ilamont2• 8 years ago

He's finally learning that you can't duck, spin, and charm your way out of everything.

badcede• 8 years ago

Charm?

ilamont2• 8 years ago

On Capitol Hill, Zuckerberg is expected to meet Thursday with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Republican leaders, Senate Commerce panel Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and other committee members, and the top four House Republican leaders. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is also hosting a meeting with Zuckerberg Thursday focused on immigration, according to a Democratic aide. Democratic Reps. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, Xavier Becerra and Zoe Lofgren of California, Joe Crowley and Steve Israel of New York, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois and John Yarmuth of Kentucky have been invited to the gathering. A House Republican aide said that while immigration may come up with Speaker John Boehner and other Republicans, it is not the sole purpose of their session. https://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/mark-zuckerberg-dc-09...

And in other countries too:

Facebook's Zuckerberg meets propaganda czar in China charm drive: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-facebook-idUSKCN0WL...

Facebook's German Charm Offensive: https://global.handelsblatt.com/companies/facebooks-german-c...

kelvin0• 8 years ago

He is to charm what Mother Theresa was to the tech world. (no disrespect intended)

Firebrand• 8 years ago

So I think Zuck's presidential campaign is officially toast at this point.

Now what?

jayess• 8 years ago

Did it ever have a real chance?

an4rchy• 8 years ago

They were planning to use Cambridge Analytica to make it happen /s

In all reality, the common public is probably indifferent to his running, at this point, and I believe this current series of events hasn't changed much.

differentView• 8 years ago

Most people didn't think Trump had a chance either.

paulcole2• 8 years ago

With Trump's win it feels wrong to rule anyone out this early.

delecti2• 8 years ago

I think it was unlikely he'd have gone Republican, and Democrats would have been wary about going with a billionaire in 45's wake. He was probably a non-starter already.

protomyth3• 8 years ago

Democrats would have been wary about going with a billionaire in 45's wake

The draft Oprah people would disagree with that statement.

sincerely• 8 years ago

Democrats would have been wary about going with a billionaire in 45's wake

Given that the dems seem to do anything they can to avoid actually winning elections, I'd have to agree

tmalsburg2• 8 years ago

Why should Zuckerberg unnecessarily antagonize one half of the voters by becoming a party's candidate? No, Zuckerberg's best bet would be to run as an independent. Both parties are in shambles anyway and would be more a liability than a help for someone like him.

heedlessly2• 8 years ago

Sheryl Sandberg would help Zuck get the feminist vote because of the "Lean In" movement

zitterbewegung• 8 years ago

He is forced to testify to the EU and Congress about how he looked the other way about his massive data collection system.

gsnedders• 8 years ago

He's not forced to testify to the EU (or the UK), though to not do so may be undesirable.

ggg99902• 8 years ago

I don’t think he was ever running for President. I think he was realizing that Facebook CEO is a position of more political influence than perhaps even the US President.

shanghaiaway2• 8 years ago

It's not

calvinbhai• 8 years ago

Russians hacked his bid for POTUS 2020 already.

nugi• 8 years ago

So he sold it to them?

protomyth3• 8 years ago

I would suppose with a video like https://twitter.com/Uncle_Jimbo/status/976087974109736960 floating around, it does make for some uncomfortable questions.

You cannot keep saying you are neutral when you clearly get outraged when one side does something you let the other side do. Particularly when you shouldn't of let anybody do it in the first place.

bbctol• 8 years ago

That's a... nonstandard use of the word collusion.

protomyth3• 8 years ago

The text isn't the important part, its the video that keeps popping up a lot, I just grabbed the first tweet with it in it.

dglass• 8 years ago

Yeah, the lid was blown wide open and if Facebook has to answer to why it turned a blind eye to this Cambridge Analytica scandal they should also have to answer to how their platform was used by the Democrats in 2008 and 2012.

It's well known that the Obama campaign used big data to gain an advantage in those elections. It's looking like they were just doing the same thing with Facebook's data too.

wavefunction• 8 years ago

It's looking like they were just doing the same thing with Facebook's data too

Crafting lies into propaganda? No, I don't see them doing the same thing at all.

product50• 8 years ago

Personally, I think he is doing the right thing. The more fb communicates the more the press is going after them. At this pt, fb should just stop communicating as that will give media less fodder to go after since they tend to dig into smaller details anyways to get more views.

A good counter example is Twitter which had equal if not more exposure on Russian ads but they have kept mum. And no one is going after them.

TAForObvReasons2• 8 years ago

There are two ways to weather a crisis: get out in front of it or keep quiet and hope people move on.

The problem in this case is that FB represents a direct threat to the media businesses, and they are incentivized to drag out the issue as long as necessary

timr2• 8 years ago

"The problem in this case is that FB represents a direct threat to the media businesses, and they are incentivized to drag out the issue as long as necessary"

Maybe the problem is that they've actually done something objectionable here, and it's not just a conspiracy against them.

9889095r3jh3• 8 years ago

Personally, I think he is doing the right thing.

Right for who?

fb should just stop communicating as that will give media less fodder

Oh I see. Right for Facebook's public image. Wrong for their customers which have a right to know what the hell Facebook has been doing with their data.

odorousrex• 8 years ago

I think you mean "Users" instead of "Customers".

If you're not paying for it, you're the product.

sametmax• 8 years ago

Why a company like FB would do anything right for their customer ? They never did. It was always about FB. How does that surprises you ? They are not Mozilla.

InitialLastName• 8 years ago

Facebook's customers aren't the ones whose data Facebook has been misusing.

As a rule, a company's customers are revenue sources.

sigi45• 8 years ago

If Zuckerberg would ever has the balls to do right with facebook...

He got lucky in life, there is not much at how he became what he is by having any special character or much of experience.

jrs2354• 8 years ago

He got lucky in life, there is not much at how he became what he is by having any special character or much of experience.

I highly recommend Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers.

newsat13• 8 years ago

What does it conclude?

bitmapbrother• 8 years ago

Zuck isn't absent. He's just following the tried and true method of letting enough time pass by so that the public loses interest and moves on to the next big thing. Three months from now this will all be forgotten and it's back to business as usual.

hedora2• 8 years ago

What? Trump will be out of office, and brexit cancelled in three months?

(I actually agree with your point, but think it is wishful thinking on FB’s part)

Facebook CEO Zuckerberg conspicuously absent as data scandal grows

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