trump campaign firm: illegally harvested Facebook info for trump campaign

Those friends are probably posting photographs of you on Facebook.

 

Yes... we all know that Obama’s campaign mined data the same way in 2012 with Facebooks help. I’m sure it’s FoxNews’ #1 talking point right now on the subject because when in doubt “but Obama...”. Such a cop out and only a constant state of whiny defensiveness.

It was how Cambridge USED the data that is seen as controversial in this story. This Obama campaign person is speaking openly about this because they understand how it’s an issue that even they were able to mind that kind of data because it could easily be abused... like by a demagogue looking to fuel culture or race wars. Like Steve Bannon was.

 

Wonder if Zuckerberg is still campaigning in Iowa this Summer?

 

FB is a valuable tool to find strange relationships between demographic groups and affinities that would seem unrelated. Finding them is how successful FB campaigns work, since you can buy keywords like "I love diesel trucks" much cheaper than "Republican Party" likers. Profit is found in the arbitrage between what FB charges for a click (which ranges greatly depending on the targeting) and what a paying customer is willing to pay per "action" to a third-party agency (a FB like, a sale, a sign-up, a donation, etc), so I can only imagine what a group like Cambridge Analytica found with the kinds of budgets they had in search of likely Trump voters. All the tools are there to enable one to do that if they know what they are doing.

Facebook is being super weaselly about this. From what I've seen, they've been more concerned with censoring ads showing cleavage than they have against data mining user data. User data is their business model, and AFAIK Cambridge didn't do anything against FB's T&Cs. Anyone that spends a significant amount of $ on FB gets assigned an account manager, and anything that's remotely an issue gets addressed by them pretty goddamned quickly.

Most of the conversations I had with FB account managers in my years as a Creative Director were about their grave concern about the use of customer supplied creatives that showed PG video game cleavage. It was especially frustrating because those things were going viral and making millions of dollars, and were being rejected by FB, even retroactively for ads that were a year and a half old.

They weren't concerned about my online bingo ads in the UK targeting over 60s with "likes" of nativist keywords featuring ads with the cross of St George and copy I wouldn't want to show my mother, not for highly profitable ads for kitchen appliances targeted at Hillary Clinton supporters and NPR listeners (who figured prominently in the "green to be seen" demographic I built), not for media buys for political ads in a number of countries, including the US, in shekels, pounds, euros, and dollars, from an Israeli credit card.

No one at the time seemed particularly concerned about any of this -- it all seemed perfectly normal in the context of the sausage-making culture of marketing. There are many, many Cambridge Analyticas out there that do the same thing and FB would not survive without them.

 

-Whole drain the swamp was someone else's line
-Has a super affinity for Putin
-Only pushed for ANWR because he was told Bush couldn't get it done. Didn't even know what it was.
-Agreed to do a bipartisan immigration deal until two conservative senators yanked his leash
-Was all about some new gun legislation, including calling out Republicans for being afraid of the NRA. Had dinner with the NRA and backed down.

It's hilarious really.

 

I tried to find a credible source about something I heard about Trump wanting a "Medicare for all" plan when he came into office until someone had to explain that he couldn't do that, but I'm working and don't want to waste the taxpayers of Texas money when I'm on the clock. I won't bet my life it's true but if someone else has the time to google it, I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

 

It's in Wolff's book.

 

not medicare but he did say:
BIGGER AND BETTER more AFFORDABLE healthcare for ALL as compared in contrast to obamacare.
sounds like commie talk to me.

 

Jugdish is right that it is in Wolff's book, but with no one else to verify the claim, I don't want to be too quick to believe it just because I want to. If true, if it is any consolation, it wouldn't have had a prayer of even getting a majority of Democratic votes, much less Republican ones.

 

Please tell me -- please? -- that it isn't true. People do not really play online bingo.

 

Advertising gambling on FB is legal if it only targets the UK. I don't know if other regions were added since I did it, but back then it was the only one. Online bingo sites were a lot easier to get as clients than the big sportsbooks, but it was fancypants for a small Israeli agency -- legal ads for gambling on social media are unicorns.

But yeah, old British people play online bingo, and it worked better when targeting nativist and nationalistic keywords. Someone is probably making money right now convincing old people in the UK that throwing their pension away on a cheap online bingo game is "sticking it to Brussels."

 

FB already knows he's a replicant by now.

 

Then let Facebook die.

 

I would not shed a single tear if that were so, but I worry it may have already reached "too big to hurt my hedge fund" status for that to happen.