50 million Facebook profiles were harvested, huge FB breach to influence US presidential election?

Question

(I thought of Kninjanin and his interest in social media...)

Here is a quote and the link: Helped Trump this time? Tink mentioned Obama did something on this order, is this just election business-as-usual now?

"The data analytics firm that worked with Donald Trump’s election team and the winning Brexit campaign harvested millions of Facebook profiles of US voters, in one of the tech giant’s biggest ever data breaches, and used them to build a powerful software program to predict and influence choices at the ballot box."

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election

Answer 1

Politicians use social media to obtain more votes. They write the worst things about other politicians.

I share with you that some Macedonians write against Hillary. They share fake news about her via Facebook and Twitter. They aren't money doing this. 

Hillary and Democrats don't say how they use social networks to obtain votes.

I got a biography of a Serbian politician, a candidate on local elections, via email. I don't know how they found my email.

Comments

Kninjanin! It sounds like this data mining by politicians may have already happened to you, since the politician got your e-mail somehow?

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It is true.

Answer 2

"If you voted this election season, President Obama almost certainly has a file on you. His vast campaign database includes information on voters’ magazine subscriptions, car registrations, housing values and hunting licenses, along with scores estimating how likely they were to cast ballots for his reelection."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/democrats-push-to-redeploy-obamas-voter-database/2012/11/20/d14793a4-2e83-11e2-89d4-040c9330702a_story.html?utm_term=.6cdbcdd065b8

As I recall, editorial opinion in the MSM at the time considered this kind of data mining and targeting "sophisticated."  Yet another case of whose hypocritical ox was being gored.

Comments

O'Tink, I subscribe to a weekly news magazine called THE WEEK; do you know it? Anyway, one of their articles claims that now, the political parties are SO polarized that if "our" side does it, then it's okay, the ends justify the means. But if "their" party does it, then it's scandalous. 

The object is to win by any means; the magazine indicates this kind of polarity is highly destructive to government.

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Yes, Virginia, it is highly destructive, but it seems the scoundrel politicians don't care.

Or perhaps even worse, they don't know. 

I think I have heard of The Week, but I haven't read it.

And apparently, the sort of data mining that the MSM is now so scandalized by has not only been going on for many years, it has been well-known to insiders, including obviously, the MSM.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/25/17161726/facebook-cambridge-analytica-data-online-marketers

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O'Tink, I am not sure but I think THE WEEK might be on the liberal side of things...your leanings tend a bit conservative, I think...anyway, especially since knowing you I am more careful about how I take in ANY so called "news"...but sometimes a good magazine does help me ponder and thus clarify my own point of view...

That comment about the destructive political polarities was just one example, I came out of that article with more confirmation that our USA political system is not working as well as it should!

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That's fer sure, Virginia, that's fer dang sure, as Rooster is fond of quoting. 

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Answer 3

To be honest? You know as well as I that this kind of stuff has been going on since after WW2. I wasn't surprised when I first heard this at all. We're all in the system all the time but they just used a nuthouse like Facebook for the breach. Look at all the data breaches taking place these past few years. Yahoo was heavily hit and some others. It will continue as this is the new war! DATA! Steal data and use it for your own means. It's happening all over the world and will continue to happen.

How much real influence it made on the elections you mentioned? Hard to tell but I still think they would have tried to get Hillary in office as she would be much more pliable to them. It's already been pretty much proven that this was done during the Obama period also.

No cure as any security can eventually be broken.

Comments

Yes, agreed! I recall you did not vote for either of them, and I did not either. But I still remember that morning I heard Trump took the election, I felt a huge sense of relief...it is a very good point that they prolly would have preferred Hillary!