Free Republic

For more than a year we’ve been investigating Cambridge Analytica and its links to the Brexit Leave campaign in the UK and Team Trump in the US presidential election. Now, 28-year-old Christopher Wylie goes on the record to discuss his role in hijacking the profiles of millions of Facebook users in order to target the US electorate The first time I met Christopher Wylie, he didn’t yet have pink hair. That comes later. As does his mission to rewind time. To put the genie back in the bottle. By the time I met him in person, I’d already been talking...

Here's a bet: Congress will end up "cracking down" on Facebook with "tough" regulations that Facebook will probably protest quite vigorously. And then Facebook profits will go up. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, withstood two days of questioning in Congress this week. You could tell Zuckerberg took it very seriously, not least because he shed his traditional T-shirt and hoodie in favor of a grown-up suit. Again and again, he was asked whether he was opposed to regulation. "You embrace regulation?" asked Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). "I think the real question, as the internet becomes more important...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) grilled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Tuesday about whether or not the social media platform was biased against conservatives. Zuckerberg acknowledged that Cruz raised a “fair concern” but insisted that Facebook was committed to being a “platform for all ideas.” "There are a great many Americans who I think are deeply concerned that Facebook and other tech companies are engaged in a pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship," Cruz said. He read off examples of Facebook suppressing conservative speech, starting with former Facebook employees admitting to suppressing conservative news in May of 2016. Cruz brought up...

Sally and Kristen haven’t hung out in forever, so Sally suggests taking a selfie. After Sally uploads the photo to Facebook, the app suggests she tag Kristen based on its facial-recognition system, which Kristen has given permission to use. ````````````````````````` DATA PROVIDED FACEBOOK ..Uploaded photo ..Text submitted with photo ..Facial recognition ADDITIONAL DATA COLLECTED FACEBOOK ..Photo analysis ..Location of the photo (if included in metadata) ..Date ..Type of device (iPhone X) ..Device ID ..Device operating system ..Battery level ..Signal strength ..Bluetooth signal ..Connection speed ..Available storage ..App and file names and types ..Nearby Wi-Fi beacons and cell towers ..Nearby devices...

Mark Zuckerberg will never tell the truth, but it’s as plain as the nose on his face that Facebook didn’t dump popular Diamond and Silk because their “content and brand has been determined unsafe to the community”. Facebook turned D&S’s lights off because they are unabashedly pro-Trump—a high crime that’s been getting people, including kids beaten up and conservative news sites disappeared from the Public Square ever since Nov. 8, 2016. If there’s anyone whose “content and brand is unsafe to the community” it’s Mark Zuckerberg & Company who stole online information from billions of unknowing users and sold it...

The Department of Homeland Security wants to track the comings and goings of journalists, bloggers and other “media influencers” through a database. The DHS’s “Media Monitoring” plan, which was first reported by FedBizOpps.gov, would give the contracting company “24/7 access to a password protected, media influencer database, including journalists, editors, correspondents, social media influencers, bloggers etc.” in order to “identify any and all media coverage related to the Department of Homeland Security or a particular event.” The database would be designed to monitor the public activities of media members and influencers by “location, beat and influencers,” the document says. The...

A long time ago he surpassed CNN. Now he is above 50,000,000. Not bad for someone who is supposedly hated.

Facebook’s second in command Sheryl Sandberg said Friday that users wanting to opt out of having their data used by advertisers will have to pay for that assurance. The comments came in the wake of revelations that the personal information of 87 million users had been inappropriately used by the data firm Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 election campaign, the New York Post reported. While different forms of opt-out are already available on Facebook, an opt-out at the highest level “would be a paid product,” Sandberg said during an interview on NBC's "Today" show, the Post reported. Furthermore, Sandberg suggested...

Facebook was in talks with top hospitals and other medical groups as recently as last month about a proposal to share data about the social networks of their most vulnerable patients. The idea was to build profiles of people that included their medical conditions, information that health systems have, as well as social and economic factors gleaned from Facebook. Facebook said the project is on hiatus so it can focus on "other important work, including doing a better job of protecting people's data."

<><>Three sources said old Facebook messages from Zuckerberg have disappeared <><>Recipients were not notified - raising concerns about what the CEO is hiding <><>Removal of messages was not disclosed publicly and users were not informed <><>Company's ability to tamper with Messenger could be alarming for some users Facebook claims the change was made after the 2014 Sony Pictures hack, when a mass data breach at the movie studio resulted in embarrassing email histories being leaked. However, the lack of disclosure has angered some users, along with the absence of a similar tool to recall messages for normal users. Although Zuckerberg...

Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, has admitted more data breaches could come to light as the company investigates its practices following the privacy scandal. Sandberg conceded Facebook was guilty of a '10 out of 10' breach of their users' trust when it came to data privacy and that bosses should have acted 'two and a half years ago' when it first realised Cambridge Analytica was hoarding personal data. Speaking to NBC's Today programme, Sandberg also laid the ground for her boss Mark Zuckerberg's appearance before Congress, saying he had 'already apologized' and wanted to tell representatives what his firm...

In an interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein, Zuckerberg noted that Facebook’s system is capable of detecting “what’s going on” in the Messenger app. He added that when “sensational messages” are found, “We stop those messages from going through.” Of course, this raised significant questions about the extent to which Facebook monitors its popular chatting app, and later, the company told Bloomberg that although Messenger conversations are considered private, “Facebook scans them and uses the same tools to prevent abuse there that it does on the social network more generally.” ... “For example, on Messenger, when you send a photo, our...

SAN BRUNO, Calif. (KGO) -- ABC7 News sources confirm the YouTube shooter was a user of the platform. Nasim Aghdam has an alleged website with a manifesto that targets YouTube for censorship and demonetization of her video content. RELATED: 1 dead, 4 injured in shooting at YouTube HQ in San Bruno Aghdam is said to have no relationship with anyone in the YouTube facility. Sources say Aghdam did not have an ID badge but was carrying a purse. Nobody in the facility knew who she was. They added that Aghdam got off 30 or 40 shots before turning the gun...

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Can cellphones really cause cancer? It’s been a question that’s dogged researchers for years. However, a group of experts say the results of some tests are pretty surprising. Millions of people constantly call, text, click, take pictures and play on cellphones. Even the top cellular radiation researchers from around the world have a hard time untethering. But, they gathered recently in North Carolina to talk about cellphone concerns and whether they really do increase the chances of developing cancer. The panel voted that the results from years of testing on mice and rats were more significant than...

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 30 (C-Fam) Many websites are shutting down or curtailing their sex trade just weeks after the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed similar anti-human trafficking bills that would allow victims to sue the websites on which they were bought and sold.“Illegal commercial sex advertising platforms and forums have been blowing up, and johns have been calling our office and messaging us left and right, indicating that Congress has taken a powerful first step,” Congressman Ann Wagner’s staff told an anti-trafficking coalition on Thursday. “FOSTA-SESTA is disrupting demand for sex trafficking and shaking up the illegal commercial...

A leaked memo by a top Facebook executive justifying the firm's controversial data practices has caused outrage at the company's headquarters. More than 3,000 Facebook employees have reacted to an internal post about the memo by vice president of consumer hardware, Andrew Bosworth. In the memo, Bosworth gives a candid look into how far the technology giant is willing to go in order to become the world's most popular social media platform. He admits that the firm engages in 'questionable contact importing practices' but claims it is worth it even if it 'costs someone a life.'

When it comes to obeying laws protecting personal information, Americans have less faith in Facebook than other tech companies. That’s according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. As Statista’s Niall McCarthy notes, Facebook has been engulfed in a storm of criticism after it emerged that political consultancy Cambridge Analytica harvested and exploited the personal information of 50 million of its users. The firm is trying to restore its badly tarnished image with CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently issuing a public apology. Judging by the findings of the poll, the social network certainly has serious work to do in order to restore confidence in...

When former national security adviser Susan Rice was named to the Netflix board of directors Wednesday, she became at least the third high-ranking official under former President Barack Obama to receive a top post at a tech giant after leaving the White House. In announcing Rice's appointment, Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings said the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. had "tackled difficult, complex global issues with intelligence, integrity and insight." Rice's appointment was met with outrage from some conservatives. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said Netflix had "[doubled] down in support of Obama corruption" by hiring Rice, a...

Two new reports have found out just how much your data is worth on the Dark Web. Content marketing agency Fractl analyzed, over several days last month, all of the fraud-related listings on three Dark Web marketplaces — Dream, Point and Wall Street Market – the results of which were obtained via MarketWatch. MarketWatch indicates that an individual’s Gmail account can be purchased for as little as $1, while Facebook credentials go for around $5.20. Paypal accounts average $247.00.

The social news discussion platform ranked among the most visited websites in the world announced a content policy Wednesday that left many popular gun boards banned. The San Francisco-based site, which is structured around user-created boards termed “subreddits,” updated their community guidelines to bar the use of Reddit “to solicit or facilitate any transaction or gift” that involves a host of items ranging from firearms to drugs, sex work, and stolen goods. “Reddit is not intended to be used as a marketplace and takes no responsibility for any transactions individual users might decide to undertake in spite of this,” said...