Cambridge Analytica : British firm reveals election dirty tricks

[R3verse Swing]

Well well, turns out it was a British company is fixing elections worldwide!

Still blame the Russians for Trump and Brexit? Think again!

The chief executive of a British company at the centre of allegations of electoral interference boasted about using “beautiful Ukrainian girls” to entrap the political opponents of clients.

Alexander Nix was filmed saying that Cambridge Analytica would offer bribes to smear opponents as corrupt and that it campaigned secretly in elections by operating through front companies or using subcontractors.

In one conversation seen in undercover footage, when asked about digging up material on political opponents Mr Nix suggested that the company could “send some girls around to the candidate’s house”, adding that Ukrainian women “are very beautiful, I find that works very well”.

In another exchange with a reporter, who posed as a fixer for a rich Sri Lankan hoping to get candidates elected, he said: “We’ll offer a large amount of money to the candidate, to finance his campaign in exchange for land for instance. We’ll have the whole thing recorded, we’ll blank out the face of our guy and we post it on the internet.”

The footage of Mr Nix was aired on television hours after Theresa May said she was “very concerned” by a whistleblower’s claims that Cambridge Analytica had obtained the Facebook data of 50 million Americans without their consent and that Mr Nix had lied to parliament last month when he denied that his company used Facebook data. The allegations came from Christopher Wylie, who said that Cambridge Analytica used the data in breach of Facebook’s rules to build profiles of voters to target them. The data was obtained for the company by Aleksandr Kogan, a Cambridge academic with ties to Russia. Cambridge Analytica denies that the data was used.

It has also been claimed that Cambridge Analytica worked for the Leave campaign during the EU referendum, although the company denies this.

Last night Elizabeth Denham, the information commissioner, said that she would seek a court warrant today to examine the company’s databases and servers after it failed to provide access by a deadline of 6pm yesterday.

She said that investigators needed to understand how data was processed or deleted by the company, and asked forensic auditors already in the company’s London offices on behalf of Facebook to “stand down” to make way for the official investigation.

The undercover reporter for Channel 4 News also met Mark Turnbull, managing director of CA Political Global, and the company’s chief data officer, Alex Tayler. Mr Turnbull explained how the company’s business model centred on using data from social media to understand and then exploit voters’ most “deep-seated underlying fears”. The executives claimed that the firm and its parent company, Strategic Communications Laboratories, had worked in more than 200 elections across the world including Nigeria, Kenya and the Czech Republic.

They said that they worked with intelligence-gathering organisations that employed personnel with security services experience, including former operatives of MI5 and MI6, to find “all the skeletons” in an opponent’s closet.

They also indicated that they often worked incognito under front companies. Last night Mr Nix denied that his comments reflected reality and told The Times he had “humoured” the undercover reporter out of “English politeness”. He claimed he and his colleagues were sounding out the reporter and did not carry out these activities.

About $30 billion was wiped off Facebook’s value yesterday. Shares closed at $172.56, a fall of 6.8 per cent from Friday. Mrs May’s spokesman urged Facebook and Cambridge Analytica to co-operate with the information commissioner’s investigation.

A US law firm, Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, said today that it was investigating whether senior Facebook staff violated laws on insider trading after Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s founder, sold almost five million shares for about $900 million this year before the share price tumbled. Facebook has said that the proceeds went to the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Mr Zuckerberg’s philanthropic organisation.

A Cambridge Analytica spokesman said: “We entirely refute any allegation that Cambridge Analytica or any of its affiliates use entrapment, bribes, or ‘honey-traps’ for any purpose whatsoever. Cambridge Analytica does not use untrue material for any purpose.” He added that the use of intelligence gathering, subcontractors and encrypted communications were legitimate. In the US, senators said they wanted to question Mr Zuckerberg on data security.

It came as the New York Times reported that the social media company’s chief security officer, Alex Stamos, will leave in August after disagreements on how the company should address its role in spreading disinformation. Mr Stamos dismissed what he called “rumours”.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/british-firm-sends-girls-to-entrap-politicians-wpthxqhwv

 

[JaDed]

So hard to believe that Facebook can actually influence elections, also 30 billion wiped off wow.

 

[R3verse Swing]

So hard to believe that Facebook can actually influence elections, also 30 billion wiped off wow.

Media has always influenced elections one way or another, in the UK, The SUN backs a party, and more than often said party wins because The Sun being a tabloid, has reach to the masses who are considered lower class/uneducated.

Thing is FB has replaced more conventional means of news, such as Paper, TV, and Radio - but it is easier to manipulate on social media. It is literally the case of Tap, tap, and boom!

 

[JaDed]

Media has always influenced elections one way or another, in the UK, The SUN backs a party, and more than often said party wins because The Sun being a tabloid, has reach to the masses who are considered lower class/uneducated.

Thing is FB has replaced more conventional means of news, such as Paper, TV, and Radio - but it is easier to manipulate on social media. It is literally the case of Tap, tap, and boom!

I agree ,Sri Lankan riots is one recent scenario where it be violent as well.

 

[sshakir411]

So hard to believe that Facebook can actually influence elections, also 30 billion wiped off wow.

$50 Billion now.

 

[KingKhanWC]

This whole democracy and let people choose their destiny has always been a farce. Most voters are too stupid to do any criticial and independent thinking of their own. Just look at Brexit, idiots worried about brown people coming over or seeing posters on buses claiming the country will save X amount.

The UK has been meddling around the world for a long time now, it's nice the truth has come out.

 

[R3verse Swing]

This whole democracy and let people choose their destiny has always been a farce. Most voters are too stupid to do any criticial and independent thinking of their own. Just look at Brexit, idiots worried about brown people coming over or seeing posters on buses claiming the country will save X amount.

The UK has been meddling around the world for a long time now, it's nice the truth has come out.

I kind of agree.

The democratic systems in the West are designed to be manipulated. Examples:

Trump and Bush Jr lose out on the national votes, but win based on the Electoral College system. Meanwhile UKIP wins 13% of the 2015 Election, comes 3rd in the table, and wins zero seats. I totally oppose the UK system of voting. I respect my local MP, but he represents a party which I do not agree with. Come election time, I am forced to vote for a party, rather than my local MP.

Real democracy is one man one vote, not a weighted vote, which is what the EU referendum was - a straight up, one man one vote - most votes wins. Though saying this, even based on constituent results, Leave campaign still won.

Imagine if true democracy was the system - the world would be a very different place.

 

[DeadBall]

This whole democracy and let people choose their destiny has always been a farce. Most voters are too stupid to do any criticial and independent thinking of their own. Just look at Brexit, idiots worried about brown people coming over or seeing posters on buses claiming the country will save X amount.

The UK has been meddling around the world for a long time now, it's nice the truth has come out.

What makes you think you are smarter?

 

[KingKhanWC]

What makes you think you are smarter?

Because people themselves have admitted in large numbers they fell for such slogans which we now know are not true.

 

[Robert]

Still blame the Russians for Trump and Brexit? Think again!



https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/british-firm-sends-girls-to-entrap-politicians-wpthxqhwv

Russians also had a role.

 

[shane]

What I don't understand is, isn't people's facebook information freely available to anyone? I know many people make their profiles private these days, but lots of people don't.

I would be far more concerned about the admissions of entrapment and bribery from that Nix fella. Surely there is a criminal prosecution in there somewhere.

 

[R3verse Swing]

Russians also had a role.

Same role as the British, American and European trolls on FB.

We now have evidence that so called Russian adverts and trolls were nothing compared to CA in the OP.

Cambridge Analytica offered £1m bribe to turn election

A British company accused of using dirty tricks to manipulate elections entrapped a Caribbean politician with the offer of a £1 million bribe to secure victory for its clients.

Alexander Nix, chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, has strenuously denied that the company uses “entrapment, bribes or so-called honeytraps” after he was filmed discussing the use of “beautiful Ukrainian girls” against political opponents. He said he was simply humouring the undercover reporter.

However, The Times has learnt that the SCL Group, parent company of Cambridge Analytica, carried out a “sting” on Lindsay Grant, leader of the opposition in St Kitts and Nevis, who was running against the country’s Labour Party — one of Cambridge Analytica’s clients — in January 2010.

Mr Nix, 42, also referred to two black potential clients as “n***ers” in an internal email, it can be revealed. He was suspended by the company last night over “recent comments secretly recorded by Channel 4 and other allegations [which] do not represent the values or operations of the firm”.

Pressure has been growing on Cambridge Analytica since a whistleblower accused it of obtaining the Facebook data of 50 million US voters from a British company that harvested it by offering “personality tests”. Yesterday:

• It emerged that SCL has received hundreds of thousands of pounds from the British government to carry out behavioural analysis in conflict zones over the past decade.

• Documents produced for prospective clients show that SCL advertised its use of “hackers” and claimed it could launch a “targeted digital attack” on an opposition political candidate.

• In undercover footage from Channel 4 news, Mr Nix said that the firm had a self-destructing email system and used charities and activist groups to spread “untrackable” political messages.

• Hillary Clinton questioned whether the firm had helped Russia in its alleged attempt to influence the US election.

• A further $12 billion (£8.5 billion) was wiped off Facebook’s value, adding to a loss of $37 billion on Monday.

SCL’s involvement in efforts to entrap Mr Grant contradicts a statement put out by the company on Monday. In January 2010, SCL paid a contractor £12,000 to pose as an international property investor who offered $1.5 million to fund Mr Grant’s election campaign in exchange for a cut-price deal on 200 acres of land, according to sources who worked for the company. Mr Grant asked for the sum to be increased to $1.7 million before suggesting that he would accept the deal. The encounter at a Marriott hotel in St Kitts was filmed using hidden cameras and released online with no mention of the British company’s involvement in orchestrating it.

The firm subsequently boasted of its success in drawing attention to the footage in a book it produced for potential clients. It wrote that it had “cast a huge shadow” over Mr Grant’s party “at the most sensitive time during the election”. Mr Grant lost the election and the contractor who carried out the sting was paid in cash at SCL’s London offices, according to sources.

The company is also facing questions over its relationship with Christian Kalin, a Swiss lawyer who runs Henley & Partners. He has set up a number of controversial “citizenship for investment” schemes that offer passports to the wealthy. The Times has seen evidence that Mr Kalin was involved in SCL’s campaign for the New Democratic Party in 2010 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines where he discussed potential investment opportunities with the party’s leader, Arnhim Eustace, and gave instructions for one of his speeches.


Facebook came under growing pressure yesterday over its alleged failure to safeguard users’ data that enabled Cambridge Analytica to obtain information on 50 million Americans. The data was collected by a Cambridge University academic with Facebook’s permission but passed on to the data firm in breach of the company’s rules. A Facebook whistleblower claimed senior bosses ignored his warnings that lax controls on user data would lead to massive data leaks two years before the US voter profiles were harvested.

Sandy Parakilas, a former Facebook staffer who was responsible for policing data breaches by third-party developers in 2011-12, said that, because of a lack of checks, it was likely numerous companies had obtained the personal data of hundreds of millions of users and sold it in breach of the companies’ terms. MPs will question Mr Parakilas by videolink today and have called on Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, to appear in person before a Commons select committee.

The US Federal Trade Committee is investigating whether Facebook has broken a 2011 ruling that requires the company to gain users’ explicit consent before sharing their data with third parties. The firm could be fined billions of dollars if found in breach.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/...m-offered-1m-bribe-to-turn-election-psmv359vh

More evidence is quite frankly vindicating the Russians of any blame, when the culprits were closer to home than we thought.

 

[R3verse Swing]

What I don't understand is, isn't people's facebook information freely available to anyone? I know many people make their profiles private these days, but lots of people don't.

I would be far more concerned about the admissions of entrapment and bribery from that Nix fella. Surely there is a criminal prosecution in there somewhere.

It's not freely available, but what CA were doing was asking users to fill out details on an app (which is perfectly legal), but the App would then scour their contacts list and collect data of other users, and then CA would target the users with specific adds/posts based on their data profile - in essence, CA were influencing elections using data profiling.

 

[jagatk]

Have to say if any budding politicians want to learn how to be a grade A douchebag and still me loved and liked by most people they need to study Zuckerberg.

 

[MenInG]

Cambridge Analytica: 'US regulators approve $5bn Facebook fine'

US regulators have approved a record $5bn (£4bn) fine on Facebook to settle an investigation into data privacy violations, reports in US media say.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been investigating allegations that political consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained the data of up to 87 million Facebook users.

The settlement was approved by the FTC in 3-2 vote, sources told US media.

Facebook and the FTC told the BBC they had no comment on the reports.

How was the settlement reached?
The FTC began investigating Facebook in March 2018, following reports that Cambridge Analytica had accessed the data of tens of millions of its users.

The investigation focused on whether Facebook had violated a 2011 agreement under which it was required to clearly notify users and gain "express consent" to share their data.

Anonymous sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that the $5bn fine was approved by the FTC in a 3-2 vote, which broke along party lines with Republican commissioners in favour and Democrats opposed.

Sources cited in other media also reported the same information.

The fine still needs to be finalised by the Justice Department's civil division, and it is unclear how long this may take, the sources said.

Facebook and the FTC have not confirmed the reports, telling the BBC they had no comment.

However, the amount falls in line with estimates by Facebook, which earlier this year said it was expecting a fine of up to $5bn.

If confirmed, it would be the largest fine ever levied by the FTC on a tech company.

Facebook has been expecting this
Analysis by Dave Lee, BBC North America technology reporter in San Francisco

Facebook had been expecting this. It told investors back in April that it had put aside most of the money, which means the firm won't feel much added financial strain from this penalty.

What we don't yet know is what additional measures may be placed on the company, such as increased privacy oversight, or if there will be any personal repercussions for the company's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg.

The settlement, which amounts to around one quarter of the company's yearly profit, will reignite criticism from those who say this amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist.

What was the Cambridge Analytica scandal?
Cambridge Analytica was a British political consulting firm that had access to the data of millions of users, some of which was allegedly used to psychologically profile US voters and target them with material to help Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

The data was acquired via a quiz, which invited users to find out their personality type.

As was common with apps and games at that time, it was designed to harvest not only the user data of the person taking part in the quiz, but also the data of their friends.

Facebook has said it believes the data of up to 87 million users was improperly shared with the now defunct consultancy.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48972327

 

[sweep_shot]

Facebook has agreed to pay a £500,000 fine imposed by the UK's data protection watchdog for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

It had originally appealed the penalty, causing the Information Commissioner's Office to pursue its own counter-appeal.

As part of the agreement, Facebook has made no admission of liability.

The US firm said it "wished it had done more to investigate Cambridge Analytica" earlier.

James Dipple-Johnstone, deputy commissioner of the ICO said: "The ICO's main concern was that UK citizen data was exposed to a serious risk of harm. Protection of personal information and personal privacy is of fundamental importance, not only for the rights of individuals, but also as we now know, for the preservation of a strong democracy."

Harry Kinmonth, a Facebook lawyer, noted that the social network had made changes to restrict the information app developers could access following the scandal.

"The ICO has stated that it has not discovered evidence that the data of Facebook users in the EU was transferred to Cambridge Analytica," he added.

"However, we look forward to continuing to cooperate with the ICO's wider and ongoing investigation into the use of data analytics for political purposes."

Researcher Dr Aleksandr Kogan and his company GSR used a personality quiz to harvest the Facebook data of up to 87 million people.

Some of this data was shared with London-based Cambridge Analytica.

The ICO argued that Facebook did not do enough to protect users' information.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50234141.

 

[s28]

New Cambridge Analytica Leaks to Expose Election Manipulation in 68 Countries

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/1..._expose_election_manipulation_in_68_countries

The Guardian reports a new massive leak by data firm Cambridge Analytica is set to expose tens of thousands of documents detailing the work of a global operation involving at least 68 countries used to manipulate voters on “an industrial scale.” The documents will be released over the next months. Cambridge Analytica was founded by billionaire Robert Mercer. Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon of Breitbart News was one of the company’s key strategists. The company collapsed in May 2018 after The Observer newspaper revealed the company had harvested some 87 million Facebook profiles without the users’ knowledge or consent. Cambridge Analytica then used the data to sway voters to support President Trump during the 2016 campaign. The most recent leak began on New Year’s Day through an anonymous Twitter account with links to documents on elections in Brazil, Malaysia and Kenya.