11/3/20
DCS/CSCI 2350: Social & Economic Networks
Privacy & Influence in Online Social Networks: Case Study of Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and US Elections
Mohammad T. Irfan
Data & Events computation
Issues & Implications
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Events (and behind the scene)
What happened (2014 – 2016)
Political Campaigns
Aleksandr Kogan Professor at Cambridge U
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Timeline
2010 Launches Open Graph API for app developers
2011 Agreement with FTC: Consent for sharing user data
2013 CA founded in the UK to operate in the US
2013 Makes a Facebook personality quiz app for academic research
2014 Forms a company (GSR) to harvest Facebook data
2014 Sells data to
2014–16 Works for
How it came to light
u Christopher Wylie: whistleblower
u March 17 & 18, 2018: sensational reporting by Carole Cadwalladr on NYTimes and the Guardian
u https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge- analytica-trump-campaign.html
u https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war- whistleblower-christopher-wylie-faceook-nix-bannon-trump
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Behind the scene u As told by Carole Cadwalladr u https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cambridge- analytica-channel-4-expose-facebook-users- monday-night/
Behind the scene: Prof. Kogan & Cambridge University u Prof. Kogan: blamed by Facebook for violating ToS u University colleagues upset
u ❝Prof John Rust, the director at Cambridge University’s Psychometrics Centre, … accused Kogan of trying to make $1m in “personal profit in terms of asset and data” from the scheme, while only reimbursing his fellow psychologists, Dr Michal Kosinski and Dr David Stillwell, who had led much of the cutting-edge research, with $100,000.❞ u https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/mar/24/cambridge- analytica-academics-work-upset-university-colleagues u Prof. Kogan’s defense
u http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/20/technology/aleksand r-kogan-interview/index.html
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Behind the scene: Cambridge Analytica (CA) u Alleged business practices (denied by CA)
u https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpbeOCKZFfQ
Behind the scene: Facebook u August 2016: Facebook lawyers asked all parties to delete the data u Everyone certified deletion u But did they actually delete it? u March 2018: News channel obtains data of 136,000 Colorado residents u https://www.channel4.com/news/revealed- cambridge-analytica-data-on-thousands-of- facebook-users-still-not-deleted u Facebook kept denying data/trust breach till March 2018
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Data and Computation
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=iX8GxLP1FHo
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What does the data look like? u Prof. David Carroll’s data (Bowdoin alum, Parsons New School) u Voter data
u “accurate and mostly complete for me”
Partial snapshot
What does the data look like? u Predictive scores for Prof. Carroll u “Feels roughly accurate.”
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But… is this his real data?
What algorithms are used? u Leaked codes from Aggregate IQ u https://www.upguard.com/breaches/aggregate- iq-part-one u Data collection u Algorithm to go from quiz-takers to their friends, friends-of-friends, etc. u 75 million nodes starting with just 250,000
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From data to prediction
u Computational problem: Given Facebook data, predict the OCEAN scores
u Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism u Machine learning
Machine learning: big picture
Training data: Facebook activities and "true" OCEAN scores
Machine learning algorithm
Test dat a: Model of Prediction: Facebook data of classification/ OCEAN scores a new person regression
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Issues and Implications
Issues u Privacy in digital life u Psychographic modeling u Computational issues: local à global u Microtargeting and influence in online world u Political campaigns u Ethics in research u Legal issues u Public relations
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MUCH BIGGER issue u https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaaC57t cci0
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