
Facebook was warned in 2011 of data loopholes exploited by Cambridge Analytica - pmoriarty
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/03/22/business/tech/facebook-warned-2011-user-data-loopholes-exploited-cambridge-analytica-privacy-campaigner/
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ecommerceguy
I guess I dont see the outrage. As someone who has been privy to tools (hidden
api enablers) that some would consider darker "hat" I've been able since I was
invited to beta test FB Product Ads in 2012, to cross pollinate an audience of
people that like mint gum and are fans of Willie Nelson. Throw in local
roasted buyers and late risers and I may have a super niche that nails a 800%
ROI. Really powerful.

edit - and very happy, high ltv (as the kpi is known as) customers.

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jes5199
I have a friend who was working in web advertising back when it leaked out
that Verizon was injecting unique IDs into their users' web browsers. This
friend said, "What's the big deal? Everybody already knows about this, and at
my company we haven't been able to get it to work for anything anyway!"

... I think it's possible to be too close to be objective. We get used to the
"power" and not realize that the people who use these services in a non-expert
way would consider those same tools "abuse".

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krageon
It's important to consider that when you work in any kind of advertising
capacity, you are already part of the problem. Anything you have to say that
moderates how big of an issue it is should already be suspect to anyone with
even a modicum of critical thinking ability. At that point you could try to
ask yourself whether or not what you're doing is truly ethical. Maybe then
we'd collectively get somewhere.

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mirimir
The title is ambiguous. It was Max Schrems who warned Facebook in 2011. And
Facebook said basically "no problem", because users OK all that when they sign
up.

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harryf
> because users OK all that when they sign up

Reminds me of the "Facebook Security Simulator" game that was made around that
time - [https://www.grahamcluley.com/facebook-security-
simulator/](https://www.grahamcluley.com/facebook-security-simulator/) and the
term "privacy zuckering" was invented round about then to describe this UX
dark pattern - [https://darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/privacy-
zucke...](https://darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/privacy-zuckering)

So while Facebook may be on safe ground here _legally_ there was still an
obvious train crash coming back then; when users they tricked into sharing
everything find out what they actually agreed to

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Tommah
Facebook _was_ warned

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mehrdadn
Confused why you were downvoted, this was massively confusing in the title.

