Edward Snowden: Facebook is a surveillance company rebranded as 'social media'

washingtonexaminer ^ | Daniel Chaitin | March 17, 2018 | Daniel Chaitin | March 17, 2018

[MarvinStinson]

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden ripped Facebook in a tweet Saturday after the social media giant suspended Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm which worked worked for President Trump’s campaign.

Facebook accused the firm on Friday of not deleting data it had improperly harvested from Facebook users, which number in the tens of millions, but Snowden pinned the blame squarely on Facebook and lumped in other social media companies for being just as reckless.

"Businesses that make money by collecting and selling detailed records of private lives were once plainly described as 'surveillance companies,'" Snowden said. "Their rebranding as 'social media' is the most successful deception since the Department of War became the Department of Defense."

"Facebook makes their money by exploiting and selling intimate details about the private lives of millions, far beyond the scant details you voluntarily post," Snowden said earlier in the day. "They are not victims. They are accomplices."

Cambridge Analytica on Saturday denied any wrongdoing, issuing a statement that said the firm "fully complies" with Facebook's terms of service,

The ensuing uproar has prompted at least one lawmaker, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., to call on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, reportedly asked Cambridge Analytica last fall to surrender emails from any of its employees who worked for the Trump campaign. The firm complied to the request.

Facebook has already taken heat for spreading "fake news" during the election and promised changes.

Last year Facebook handed Mueller its findings regarding Russian Facebook ads, revealed when the company announced $100,000 was purchased for ads from June 2015 to May 2017 by a Russian "troll farm" called the Internet Research Agency, which has promoted pro-Russian propaganda. The money was connected to approximately 3,000 ads and 470 "inauthentic accounts and pages."

Mueller later indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for meddling in the 2016 presidential election, those who were part of the Internet Research Agency.

Snowden was granted asylum in Russia back in 2013 after he leaked secret information from the National Security Agency's surveillance programs and has been there ever since.

[Jane Long]

Yes, useful to for Government information gathering if your stupid enough to voluntarily use it as a personal diary.

---

FB follows folks who aren’t even signed up as members

If you click on a FB (or Twitter) link, as a non member or member, your next clicks are then tracked.

[Luke21]

They have the NSA. They are observing us now.

[onona]

Bingo that Space, George Orwell would be wondering how he underestimated himself.

we are being watched, monitored, tracked, followed,

EVERYWHERE

[Reily]

and always has been!

Following general statement for all and not anybody in particular!

Before the internet what were commercial market analysts analyzing ? Were they just making things up? The Internet and peoples narcissistic behavior just makes it easier.

When you bought kitchen appliances (or anything electrical .. usually electrical!) and filled out the warranty card, a data collection (Call it Intel!) was being done on you. Since land ownership & real estate purchases are part of the public record, that information can be collected too.(How long have credit bureaus been around!) Every form you fill out every question you answer is part of your commercial profile and has been for years. It’s just easier to do now. There has always been a market for marketing data. The data is used to separate you from your hard earned dollar. I guess that’s a good thing, most of the time! The thing is now, the Internet & social media makes that data deeper, richer, more accurate and more revealing. And for marketing data collectors that data is gold! You think Facebook is worth billions because Zuckerman is such a snappy clever guy? No its because he has come up with (for now!) the ultimate internet “pet rock” something where it gets the customer to bare all! You are the product, your personal information is packaged shrink wrapped and sold like M&Ms

Get used to it & stop complaining! Or stop using it!

Though for geeks like me I find that the math associated with the Machine & Deep Learning algorithms for data analytics fascinating. The national narcissism keeps me in clover!

[Fungi]

It started with My Space, then Facebook came along and stole their thunder, as will something else soon—that is what Zuckerberg is afraid of. It is all just a fad, waiting for the next one so the silly fools can glom on to show they’re hip.

[SauronOfMordor]

It does no good for you to drop Facebook, if your gossiping relatives continue to talk about you, and post pics of you.

[Morpheus2009]

It fishes for information.

[Reily]

They’ve been doing that since I was 3, I’ve gotten used to it.

[Morpheus2009]

Facebook will keep you on, even after you die.

[SpaceBar]

It does no good for you to drop Facebook, if your gossiping relatives continue to talk about you, and post pics of you...

Sorta like leaving The Church of Scientology.

[piasa]

I always figured that yearbook companies were just government fronts for obtaining crude information and conning parents using peer pressure to pay ridiculous prices for horrible photos that are just going to collect on the bottom of closet no one ever opens.

[SaveFerris]

yep

[SaveFerris]

Oh meant to say I never used MySpace and same with FakeBook.

I avoid most corporate marketing databases, too. Always collecting data.

So many use it so responsibly. /s

[Fungi]

I have been asked to sign up for LinkedIn so many times I can’t remember. I just ignore all the requests, frustrating all the people and dashing their hope of using me for their own purpose. Don’t waste my time with Facebook and this phony “like,” “dislike,” and “friend” nonsense. All just another way to use you and get you to use it. Same with “followers” on Twitter. These people know it but humans have their foibles and every one of these “social” media exploit it.

[JustaTech]

This attack on Cambridge Analytica is one of many prongs in the multi-pronged all out attack on Trump by the establishment.

I agree with your premise (that Trump is undergoing coordinated mass-media attack) but for now I don't agree with your conclusion. I think Snowden used C.A. as an example to make his attack on Facebook appear to come from a completely different angle than the kind of censorship-based attack that the "right" is making on Facebook.

I say "for now" because while it appears Snowden's primary target is Zuckerberg, if other clowns in the media take the cue and raise a big stink over C.A. and Trump's use of their data, that will prove you 100% correct.

[airborne]

If you do a search - even using Google - you will read that it’s the truth.

[rurgan]

There are a few growing free speech alternatives to the leftist facebook,google, youtube,amazon , twitter monopoly of the internet. Steemit is out best hope if we spread like wildfire to everyone:

https://steemit.com/

[real saxophonist]

I had Facebook for a short time, first to connect with an old girlfriend (NEVER do that!), and then to communicate while I was in the hospital, and recovering later at home.

I noticed that if I said anything about my military service, the next ad would be for some online college for veterans.

If I said something about a friend's beautiful Gibson ES-335, the next ad would be for Guitar Center. And so on.

So I did this.

[DoughtyOne]

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[Vermont Lt]

I used it to keep in touch with Family all over the country. The group messaging is useful for communications about my mom.

Other than that I go a week or two between checking in.