March 20, 2018

"Facebook allowed the Obama campaign to access the personal data of users during the 2012 campaign because they supported the Democratic candidate..."

"... according to a high ranking staffer. Carol Davidsen, who worked as the media director at Obama for America and has spoken about this in the past, explained on Twitter that she and her team were able to ingest massive amounts of information from the social network after getting permission from Facebook users to access their list of friends. 'Facebook was surprised we were able to suck out the whole social graph, but they didn't stop us once they realized that was what we were doing,' wrote Davidsen. Facebook allowed the Obama campaign to access the personal data of users during the 2012 campaign because they supported the Democratic candidate.... Davidsen posted this in the wake of the uproar over Cambridge Analytica, and their mining of information for the Trump campaign."

From "'They were on our side': Obama campaign director reveals Facebook ALLOWED them to mine American users' profiles in 2012 because they were supportive of the Democrats" (Daily Mail).

38 comments:

David Begley said...

Facebook colluded with Obama to win the election. Can we have an ex post facto impeachment of Obama?

brylun said...

Facebook and Google ought to be regulated like a public utility. Twitter too. Amazon should be treated like the monopoly it is.

Kevin said...

Next you'll be telling me the Dems allowed dead people and illegals to vote.

David Begley said...

Brylun

Market cap of Facebook being marked down to utility levels now.

Kevin said...

It must really suck to cheat so much and still lose.

Just think how much more you could have cheated if you'd only known it was necessary.

#Regrets

Big Mike said...

This is surprising people? It was known in IT circles at the time, six years ago.

Darrell said...

The Media--including the social variety--can now stop taking Republican ads. It's only fair.

Darrell said...

Happy fucking birthday, Facebook. You lose.

MadisonMan said...

It's different when Democrats do it, because it's for our own good.

(Okay, blogger, 3rd time's the charm?)

rhhardin said...

It's the outrage over everything move today. It wasn't then because the outrage side was in power and the repubs treat elections as a contest not a moral battle.

rhhardin said...

Outrage over everything is aimed at women.

Humperdink said...

Does anyone recall the uproar when the Obama campaign permitted untraceable credit card donations? Neither do I. Cheating? It's what's for dinner.

Rob said...

Move along, folks, nothing to see here.

Oso Negro said...

I thought we pretty much knew this at the time. Not sure why it is a "bombshell" now.

Temujin said...

Seems like I have to drag this out daily. This is just another episode of Capt. Renault walking into the casino exclaiming, "I'm shocked, shocked that there's gambling in here.".
Everyday another breathless 24 hours of news 'reporting' on a topic most people with any basic ability to follow events knows- well...that happens all the time. Everywhere. On all sides.

What company or political party doesn't use social media data to further their agendas? Horrified? Quit Facebook and Twitter. Use something other than Google search. Can't stop using it? Don't be horrified.

Not to be repetitive, but a few years ago the talk was of Obama's campaign run by geniuses because they used this sort of data and that the Repubs with Romney were horribly in the dark ages. Their problem was that they had the 'wrong' data. Today, you can order up your data anyway you want it. Didn't agree to your data being used? Tough rocks, eh?

James K said...

‘I thought we pretty much knew this at the time. Not sure why it is a "bombshell" now.’

It’s not, just the hypocrisy of the outrage that Trump’s campaign did it.

Barry Dauphin said...

Facebook ALLOWED them to mine American users' profiles in 2012 because they were supportive of the Democrats

If you're a celebrity, they just let you...

Larry J said...

Facebook allowed the Obama Campaign to have free access to personal data of millions of people. Facebook makes a lot of money selling that data to advertisers, so it has a real monetary value. By giving the Obama Campaign free access to that data, they made an "in kind" contribution to the campaign. Failure to report such a contribution is against the law. Sounds like the company should be investigated to determine if criminal charges should be filed.

Ray - SoCal said...

EU fines are the real danger to FB.

EU is anti American tech companies.

Supposedly the data that Obama got can’t be retrieved, it’s part of the Democratic data warehouse.

PJ said...

@brylun, You mean regulated like the IRS, so they’ll be similarly viewpoint neutral? I understand the sentiment, but I expect that any power to regulate will be used asymmetrically to make the bias problem more intractable while protecting the monopoly power of the providers. The problem will be addressed if/when enough people opt out of the monopoly providers, either by quitting or switching to a non-abusive provider (bearing in mind that a non-abusive provider will need a business model that does not depend on abuse of users and is therefore likely to involve a subscriber fee).

Unknown said...

liberals have the arc of history bending for them

Carol said...

It must really suck to cheat so much and still lose.

No, they cheated and won.

Bob Boyd said...

Are we supposed to believe the Democrats didn't have the same or greater access for 2016?
But that, because of the "eccentric, young genius", a stereotypical character you see in countless TV shows and movies aimed at a Millenial audience, Trump was able to ally himself with the Russians to hack the 2016 election?

cf said...

Humperdink said...

"Does anyone recall the uproar when the Obama campaign permitted untraceable credit card donations?"

Yes, I came on to add that audacious crime that was never investigated, aND Humper beat me to it. Incredible what the anointed get away with.

They had to go to some trouble to turn off the innate identity-capturing built into credit card donations. How many illegal contributions by foreign interests did they collect? You can be sure Someone knew who was colluding with them with that money.

Naked, stroking pussy Collusion!

Sebastian said...

Some people get it for free, others have to pay.

Anyway, how do campaign finance laws cover the FB campaign contribution in 2012?

Phil 314 said...

No outrage regarding Obama campaign because they were on the right side of history.

Bob Boyd said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TrespassersW said...

"By giving the Obama Campaign free access to that data, they made an "in kind" contribution to the campaign. Failure to report such a contribution is against the law. Sounds like the company should be investigated to determine if criminal charges should be filed."

This. In spades. To the Nth power. Absolutely this.

buwaya said...

As above, etc. etc.
The American political-bureaucratic system has been systematically corrupt for a very long time, and the MSM and major corporations have been essential components of the system.

The 2012 election had all sorts of dirty tricks applied to a supine Republican campaign that chose not to fight back. I suspect that the campaigns own GOTV system was deliberately sabotaged.

chickelit said...

Why is Zuckerberg getting protection behind the moniker “Facebook”? Isn’t he the one who got obscenely wealthy doing this?

In retrospect, the Chinese look prescient for rebuffing his efforts to mine the data of Chinese citizens. Americans are screwed again!

n.n said...

And the IRS. Also, as we are learning, the FBI, etc.

Comanche Voter said...

And now Di Fi (aka Senator Feinstein--mentally challenged Californian) is demanding Senate hearings on Facebook. What was hunky dooky in 2012 is not so much anymore.

Bay Area Guy said...

The Facebook thing. Doesn't surprise me. That's how the Left rolls. I figure the media and illegal voting gives the Dems about 3-4 point boost in the presidential elections, that must be overcome.

I was so happy when Romney destroyed Obama in the first debate, and thought he had turned the corner. But Romney choked in the next debate -- he should have smacked Candy Crowley down, and went on the offense, but he "played by the rules" and lost.

So, Yes, I'm skeptical about FB, but hold Romney more responsible for losing in 2012.

gerry said...

CBS News: The Trump campaign stopped using Cambridge Analytica services before the general election.

Darkisland said...

Carol, how did they win?

Are you saying crooked Hillary "won" because of the popular vote?

Sleep well, darling.

John Henry

cubanbob said...

"Facebook allowed the Obama campaign to access the personal data of users during the 2012 campaign because they supported the Democratic candidate..."

Althouse, this deserves a no shit tag. That tag will cover all malodorous Democrat/Left/Progressive actions and conduct. A tag that is all encompassing and economical of the users time when searching.

Jim at said...

Are you saying crooked Hillary "won" because of the popular vote?

I'm guessing she was referring to Obama and 2012.

Unknown said...

I want to sue. I mean it. I am really missed off about this. Facebook violated their terms of agreement on how they would use my personal information. I want $100 billion dollars. I want that little shitbag Zuckerberg in a sling.

This means war.