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ʟᴜʟᴜ 🇺🇦 Profile picture
@LuluLemew
Mar 17, 2018 • 89 tweets • 27 min read • Read on X
Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach
Whistleblower describes how firm linked to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon compiled user data to target American voters  theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/…
Cambridge Analytica who worked with Trump’s team and the winning Brexit campaign harvested millions of FB profiles of US voters, in the tech giant’s biggest ever data breach, and used them to build a powerful software program to predict and influence choices at the ballot box.
They used personal information taken without authorization in early 2014 to build a system that could profile individual US voters, in order to target them with personalised political advertisements.
"We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles. And built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis that the entire company was built on.”
Data was collected through an app, thisisyourdigitallife, built by Aleksandr Kogan. Through his company Global Science Research (GSR), along w Cambridge Analytica, 100s of 1000s of ppl were paid to take a personality test and agreed to have their data collected for academic use.
The app also collected the information of the test-takers’ FB friends, leading to the accumulation of tens of millions users data. FBs “platform policy” allowed only collection of friends data to improve user experience in the app, barred it being sold or used for advertising.
Cambridge Analytica and Facebook are one focus of an inquiry into data and politics by the British Information Commissioner’s Office.

Separately, the Electoral Commission is also investigating what role Cambridge Analytica played in the EU referendum.
A lil late, FB
On Friday, 4 days after the Observer sought comment for this story, but more than 2 years after the data breach was first reported, Facebook announced that it was suspending Cambridge Analytica and Kogan from the platform, pending information over misuse of data.
Last month both Facebook and the CEO of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, told a parliamentary inquiry on fake news that the company did not have or use private Facebook data.
Simon Milner, FB's UK policy director, when asked if Cambridge Analytica had FB data, told MPs: “They may have lots of data but it will not be FB user data. It may be data about ppl who are on FB that they have gathered themselves, but it is not data that we have provided.”
Nix told the same MPs: “We do not work with Facebook data and we do not have Facebook data.”
Wylie, a Canadian data analytics expert, who worked with CA & Kogan to devise, implement the scheme, showed a dossier of evidence about the data misuse which appears to raise questions about their testimony, which he has passed on to UK authorities.
Broke my thread...
Wylie's dossier includes emails, invoices, contracts and bank transfers of more than 50 million profiles –
⚠mostly belonging to registered US voters – were harvested from the site in the largest ever breach of Facebook data.⚠
The evidence Wylie supplied to authorities in the UK *and US* includes a letter from Facebook’s own lawyers sent to him in August 2016:
🔥asking him to destroy any data he held that had been collected by GSR, the company set up by Kogan to harvest the profiles.
That legal letter was sent several months after the Guardian first reported the breach and days before it was officially announced that Bannon was taking over as campaign manager for Trump and bringing Cambridge Analytica with him
“Because this data was obtained and used without permission, and because GSR was not authorised to share or sell it to you, it cannot be used legitimately in the future and must be deleted immediately,” the letter said.
FB did nothing. They never followed up.

"They waited two years and did absolutely nothing to check that the data was deleted. All they asked me to do was tick a box on a form and post it back.”
Important
A majority of American states have laws requiring notification in some cases, including California, where Facebook is based.
Kogan, who has previously unreported links to a Russian university and took Russian grants for research, had a license from Facebook to collect profile information, but it was for research purposes only.
Kogan maintains everything he did was legal, and says he had a “close working relationship” with Facebook, which had granted him permission for his apps.
CambridgeAnalytica spent nearly $1m on data collection, which produced 50 mill+ individual profiles that could be matched to electoral rolls, used the test results & FB data to build an algorithm to analyze FB profiles and determine personality traits linked to voting behaviour.
How Cambridge Analytica key players are linked
"We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of profiles. And built models to exploit that and target their inner demons"

Christopher Wylie, whistleblower
The algorithm and database together made a powerful political tool. It allowed a campaign to identify possible swing voters and craft messages more likely to resonate.
"...creating a ‘gold standard’ of understanding personality from FB profile info,” the contract specifies.
It promises to create a db of 2 million “matched” profiles

⚠identifiable and tied to electoral registers, across 11 states, but with room to expand much further.
At the time, more than 50 million profiles represented around a third of active North American Facebook users, and nearly a quarter of potential US voters.
When asked by MPs if any of his firm’s data had come from GSR, Nix said: “We had a relationship with GSR. They did some research for us back in 2014. That research proved to be fruitless and so the answer is no.”
Cambridge Analytica told the Observer that its contract with GSR stipulated that Kogan should seek informed consent for data collection and it had no reason to believe he would not. MmHmmm.
Affiliate, SCL Elections, worked w FB over the period to ensure it was satisfied no terms had been “knowingly breached” & provided a signed statement that all data & derivatives had been deleted.
Cambridge Analytica also said none of the data was used in the 2016 election.
'Please tell me Project Alamo comes in to play.

I’ll never forget what Michael Carpenter said last year:

the Russians who have no idea what demographic to target unless American Confederates provided assistance.'
Strategic Campaign Group.
Raided by FBI
May 2017
Remember?
I tweeted this April 26 2017

▪#CambridgeAnalytica #SCL
harvested data on ton of ppl
▪Trump rolls back internet privacy.
What's it mean? amp.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-…
CambridgeAnalytica
Bolton
Mercer
SCL
FLYNN
It's all connected
Pardon my typo.
The dossier containing emails, contracts, bank transfers *SHOWS THAT* 50 million+ profiles – mostly belonging to registered US voters – were harvested from the site in the largest ever breach of Facebook data.
11/22/16
"It's hard to overstate and hard to summarize Jared's role in the campaign," says billionaire Peter Thiel

"If Trump was the CEO, Jared was effectively the chief operating officer." #CambridgeAnalytica
forbes.com/sites/stevenbe…
"I called somebody who works for one of the technology companies that I work with, and I had them give me a tutorial on how to use Facebook micro-targeting," Kushner says

O Rly?
Nov 2016:
" Kushner's crew was able to tap into the RNC data machine, and it hired targeting partners like #CambridgeAnalytica to map voter universes and identify which parts of the Trump platform mattered most"
#SCL
Kushner built a custom geo-location tool that plotted the location density of about 20 voter types over a live Google Maps interface.

Oh yeah?
#CambridgeAnalytica
#Propaganda #DataWeaponization
Oh so fuuuunnnnyyyy, Brad.

Parscale says. "And what's funny is the outside world was so obsessed about this little piece or that...
*they didn't pick up that it was all being orchestrated so well."*

#CambridgeAnalytica #Facebook
#DataWeaponization
Tailored TV ads, heh?
More on those eh..tailored tv ads

New Agreement Gives #CambridgeAnalytica comScore's Television Information to Achieve Better Television Buying for Political and Commercial Clients

ht @d1gi
prnewswire.com/news-releases/…
Ahem
From Jan 2018
Alexander Nix, CEO OF #CambridgeAnalytica reportedly contacted Assange during the election in hopes of collaborating on the organization and release of hacked emails related to Hillary Clinton. wired.com/story/robert-m…
#cambridgeanalytica allegedly violated Federal Election laws. (Bannon, Mercer, Nix)
Thread:
The Russian ties
Le Boom. I suspect she won't stand alone.
Remember this?
Here's the preview of the show & time it airs.

Those not in the UK can watch @Channel4News story on their undercover investigation of #CAMBRIDGEANALYTICA
Online here:
Airs at 1900GMT channel4.com/news/
#CambridgeAnalytica, Nix appears to have misled Parliament on data and Russia
nbcnews.com/news/world/cam…
Nix told a U.K. parliament inquiry on fake news on Feb. 27 that his company had a relationship with Global Science Research in 2014. He claimed at the time, however, that #cambridgeanalytica did not use the data because it “proved to be fruitless"
Ooopsie ...
Nix also told Parliament his company had “never worked in Russia as far as I’m aware.” He denied having ever knowingly worked w a Russian company or Russian org.

“We don’t have any relationship with Russia or Russian individuals,” he said at the time.
(Sound familiar? )
Ooopsie again.
Facebook and #cambridgeanalytica
accused of 'misleading' MPs - BBC News bbc.com/news/uk-434501…
Damian Collins, chairman of the Digital Culture Committee, said #CambridgeAnalytica chief executive Alexander Nix at a Commons hearing last month needs to 'splain himself.
Mr Collins said reports by the Guardian and the Observer made it "clear that Mr Nix has deliberately misled the committee and Parliament by giving false statements".

Tsk tsk tsk...
Mr Collins also criticized Facebook, saying his committee had "repeatedly" asked the firm about how companies accessed user data from fb & if info had been taken w/o users' consent.
He claims that the firm "deliberately avoided answering straight questions" from the committee by sending witnesses who claimed not to know the answers.

Well that's kinda shady, dont'cha think?
He also claimed Facebook had failed to supply evidence of the relationship between the social media platform and #cambridgeanalytica.

Oops.
"The reputation of this company is being damaged by stealth, because of their constant failure to respond with clarity and authority to the questions of genuine public interest that are being directed to them."

What say you, Zucky?
'Facebook can’t have it both ways, either Cambridge Analytica stole the data or they did not.'
'I thought FB said CA acquired the data legitimately but then used it illegitimately e.g. passing it on to third parties?'
🦅
ICYMI
Get with the program CBS
"Dear @MarkWarner and @SenatorBurr
If you really thought @facebook was giving you fulsome answers during the Oct/Nov/Jan hearings, I can assure you they were NOT.
Call them back in or better yet slam down the subpoena card."
"This is where @facebook is screwed.
They made a declarative statement:
no hack
no PII was stolen
So yesterday’s announcement about banning @CamAnalytica makes their “story” less than credible.
Man up Zuck, your failure to implement sound data sharing protocols
BIGLY BAD"🦅

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More from @LuluLemew

ʟᴜʟᴜ 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Oct 8, 2018
Was There a Connection Between a Russian Alfa Bank and the Trump Campaign? newyorker.com/magazine/2018/…
A politically-diverse team of computer scientists sifted through records of unusual Web traffic between Alfa Bank & Trump Org in search of answers.

"MAX" and his colleagues asked not to be identified by name due to security/privacy.
JUNE 2016
news broke about DNC hack & a group of prominent computer scientists went on alert. Reports pointed at Russia, which suggested to most members that Ru intelligence was involved.
Read 143 tweets
ʟᴜʟᴜ 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Oct 8, 2018
ICYMI...
That unauthorized helicopter flight that went down a few days ago...killing the Pootlovin senior Russian prosecutor linked to Veselnitskaya (of Trump Tower anti-Magnitsky Hillary dirt fame)

K...allegedly, the pilot had two bullets in him.

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6…
Two bullets 'were found in pilot's body' after helicopter crash which killed senior Putin prosecutor linked to lawyer who held Trump Tower meeting
The pilot involved in the helicopter crash was found with two bullets in his body.

Deputy prosecutor-general Saak Karapetyan - a former MP and long-time ally of Putin - died when his AS-350 helicopter came down in Kostroma region northeast of Moscow on Wednesday.
Read 4 tweets
ʟᴜʟᴜ 🇺🇦 Profile picture
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Links to check voter registration for all 50 states plus DC, with deadlines.

Please share.
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ʟᴜʟᴜ 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Oct 6, 2018
Former Dean of Yale Law School:
Brett Kavanaugh Cannot Have It Both Ways politi.co/2pGXFx3 via @politico
For as long as Kavanaugh sits on the court, he will remain a symbol of partisan anger...behind the smiling face of judicial benevolence lies the force of an urgent will to power. No one... could possibly believe that Kavanaugh might actually be a detached and impartial judge.
Each and every Republican who votes for Kavanaugh, therefore, effectively announces that they care more about controlling the Supreme Court than they do about the legitimacy of the court itself.

There will be hell to pay.
Read 4 tweets
ʟᴜʟᴜ 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Oct 5, 2018
Oopsies
Nunes buried evidence on Russian meddling to protect Trump
fresnobee.com/opinion/op-ed/…
fresnobee.com/opinion/op-ed/…
Committee Democrats asked to immediately send transcripts to Mueller, who hasn’t been allowed to see them under Nunes’ rules. There’s good reason to believe many witnesses committed perjury or offered info relevant to the SC’s work.

Nunes opposed it, and it was voted down.
Committee Democrats then moved to have the transcripts released to the public immediately — after a 10-day intelligence community review — to avoid any selective release or other political manipulation.

Again, Nunes opposed this.
Read 13 tweets
ʟᴜʟᴜ 🇺🇦 Profile picture
Oct 5, 2018
Because I can.
Feel free to meme them.
Read 7 tweets

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