
When Obama Harvested Facebook Data in 2012, Everyone Cheered - andrenth
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/facebook-data-scandal-trump-election-obama-2012/
======
snowwrestler
Because they asked people to opt in, told everyone what data they were
collecting and why, and didn't lie about how the data got used.

> This Facebook treasure trove gave Obama an unprecedented ability to reach
> out to nonsupporters. More important, the campaign could deliver carefully
> targeted campaign messages disguised as messages from friends to millions of
> Facebook users.

They weren't "disguised." Messaging friends about Obama was the entire,
publicly stated, purpose of the app. The only reason anyone opted into the app
in the first place was to message their friends. That's the only way the Obama
campaign advertised it.

> in the case of Obama, they had no way of knowing that the Obama campaign
> material cluttering their feed wasn't really just political urgings from
> their friends.

It really was just political urgings from their friends. The Obama app did
post content on its own and the Obama campaign did not put any ad money behind
it. It was a tool for people to harass their friends about Obama.

It's not in any way analogous to what Cambridge Analytica did; the only
commonality is that they were both Facebook apps. IBD might as well run an
editorial titled "When Farmville Harvested Facebook Data, Everyone Cheered."

~~~
DrScump

      told everyone what data they were collecting
    

Among the data collected was details on the "volunteers"' Friends, and all
data those Friends left open to their Friends... but _they_ did not consent to
that, nor were they even _informed_ of it after the fact.

------
diek00
Fails to mention the influence of a foreign power... are you cheering about
that?

~~~
andrenth
So harvesting Facebook data without authorization is fine as long as it’s done
by Americans? That’s not what people were saying, at least until someone
remembered the Obama campaign.

Either way,
[https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/10/08/exposi...](https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/10/08/exposing-
barack-obamas-illegal-foreign-campaign-money-loophole-n710300)

