Thread by @profcarroll

Up next: Dr Kogan’s @CommonsCMS hearing. #CambridgeAnalytica
parliament.uk/business/commi…

Livestream of Dr Kogan hearing has begun. #CambridgeAnalytica parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/db…

Dr Kogan’s written evidence published by @CommonsCMS #CambridgeAnalytica parliament.uk/documents/comm…

Kogan: A £230,000 payment to GSR from SCL received in Jan 2015 after a second tranche of data supplied. In 2014, SCL paid Qualtrics invoices directly for paid survey seeds.

Collins: Joseph Chancellor discussed as partner on GSR and Facebook employee. Isn’t it odd that FB hired a partner of Kogan who they called a fraud? Kogan calls this just PR crisis.

Kogan: SCL has admitted data from GSR used in Cruz campaign. It was supposed to have been deleted at this point. Collins: Asks Kogan about Bolton SuperPAC work as published emails and state-based targeting in contract indicates. All 50 states were collected from.

Collins asks Kogan about a few of Nix’s statements to Committee: fabrication, lie. Farelley asks Kogan why he wouldn’t want to know or care about political candidates. Kogan dodges taking a political judgement, he didn’t bother.

Chancellor built the initial models as a Post Doc, Kogan’s previous researcher was hired by FB. Kogan describes how the datasets are more valuable than the models which are relatively easy to build.

Kogan equivocates on misleading terms which failed to clarify academic, political, and commercial uses. Kogan, who himself admitted he didn’t read FB developer terms, blames everyone for not reading terms. “Business as usual” but disputes FB even has a policy. Wut?

Kogan has an NDA with FB related to how £230,000 revenue was mostly spent on lawyers to resolve disputes over breach of terms, presumably.

Kogan even dodges on when NDA was signed and claims Parliamentary privilege does not apply across US/UK jurisdiction.

Kogan describes how Facebook Custom Audiences could’ve been used to achieve the microtargeting effect without building a separate (illicit) model. All you need is to collect email addresses to target 100% directly rather than 30M profiles modeled expensively.

Collins presses Kogan on what would be use of modeled data for use cases beyond Facebook ad targeting. Kogan describes how traits vary by state. (No specific mention of TAA techniques characterized by Wylie)

Collins asks about St Petersburg University appointment. Kogan says he gave talks. His name got put on grants he couldn’t read because in Russian. Overlapping in time period with SCL work. Possible that data could’ve been hacked? “Ridiculous,” he says.

Kogan asked about data processing geography. Servers in Portland, OR. Modeling probably occurred in UK, delivered to SCL. Kogan disputes that “election or political” data processed in UK.

Collins asks Kogan about Russian government funding St Petersburg grants on “cyberbullying” and Kogan responds with whataboutism because governments interfere in each others elections. (wow.)

Session adjourned. No big revelations. Not sure if Facebook and/or Kogan come out looking any better or worse.

I mean if you want to shift the narrative that folks think you’re a Russian asset then don’t use a Kremlin talking point. Amoral views on display that if others do things such as ignore terms of service or work for demagogues or meddle in elections, then who can say.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Meanwhile, in Canada’s Parliament, SCL affiliate AggregateIQ execs give their evidence on the #CambridgeAnalytica scandal.

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Canadian Parliamentary committee member questions for AggregateIQ express a remarkable incredulity to the company’s various denials. They are reminded they have Parliamentary Privilege and cannot be sued for their responses and yet, insist on things that don’t square up. Weird.

Chair of Canadian Parliament committee ends a tense hearing with: “Something doesn’t smell right here.” Asks AggregateIQ to “do the right thing.” (wow.)
parlvu.parl.gc.ca/XRender/en/Pow…

I’m blown away with how UK, US, and Canada are intertwined, investigating each other’s election malfeasance. The inherent danger to international money, data, and IP laundering as a genuine threat to our democracy becomes clear. #CambridgeAnalytica

Parliaments in Ottawa and Westminster are actively discussing Cruz, Bolton, Trump campaign data irregularities. Canadians and Britons actively coordinating in real-time on each others questions regarding Information Commissioner’s investigation. Stunning.

Our obsessions with the peculiar corporate structures, data practices, licensing agreements and international legal compliance of #SCL, #CambridgeAnalytica, #AIQ are now central topics of debate in multiple, simultaneous parliaments around the world. Unreal.

This testy encounter at Parliament in Singapore when Facebook gets grilled like street meat is well worth a watch.

If you’re paying close attention you’ll notice how the companies SCL/CA/GSR/AIQ/FB all seek shelter from their liabilities by preferred jurisdictions but these parliamentarians aren’t having any of it. They’re openly assisting with each other’s investigations! Amazing.

“Kogan insisted that all his academic work was reviewed and approved by the university. But he did not mention to the MPs the ethics committee’s rejection of his proposed research using the Facebook data in May 2015.”
theguardian.com/technology/201…