As a scientist from Russia, stole and sold the data of millions of Facebook users

If you decided that you didn’t have a Monday, think about Facebook founder and CEO Marke Zuckerberg: in just a few hours he became poorer in 5 billion dollars, and the matter is Moldovan Alexander Kogan, a scientist who worked in Russia and is a professor of psychology Cambridge University. Facebook shares fell amid news of the theft of user data.

Фото: Depositphotos

Lawmakers in the US and the UK require explanations from the social network Facebook how the data about 50 million users of the network were at the disposal of the British analytical company Cambridge Analyticathat could supposedly be used during the US presidential campaign in 2016. The Attorney General of Massachusetts announced that he plans to launch an investigation into this case.

In turn, Facebook blocked the company Cambridge Analytica for the fact that she collected data about users in violation of the social network rules, reports “Interfax".

Cambridge Analytica analyzes data in social networks to develop strategic communications during election campaigns, including, possibly, for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Kogan received user data Facebook is legal

According to the Facebook, in 2015, professor of psychology at Cambridge University Alexander Kogan through the application he created “This is your digital life"On the social network platform, which was supposed to be a psychological portrait of the user, transferred data on 270 to thousands of users Facebook third parties, among which was Cambridge Analytica.

Like other applications, "This is your digital life“After installation, it asked the user for permission to access personal information (place of residence, list of “friends” on the social network, as well as content that users liked).

Kogan’s work was based on data extracted from Facebookwrites the edition “Israel News".

"We exploited Facebook to collect data from the profiles of millions of people. And they built models to use this information and appeal to their internal demons. The whole company was built on this basis, ”said Christopher Wiley, who worked with Kogan on this project.

«This is your digital life" positioned itself as a "research application developed by psychologists." According to the message Facebook, the application downloaded about 270,000 users, and, having gained access to their lists of "friends", the developers reached millions of American and British users.

Social networks encourage narcissism, and people are happy to share with the world a huge amount of personal information, ranging from place of residence, marital status and work to all sorts of preferences. Kogan and Wiley created algorithms that allow their customers to exploit this knowledge.

But Kogan got access to user data. Facebook legally, having received their permission before installing the application, but transferring them to Cambridge Analytica, he broke the rules of the social network.

Kogan's collaboration and Cambridge Analytica

According to The Guardian, 4 Jun 2014, SCL, parent company Cambridge Analyticaentered into a commercial agreement with the company Global Science Research (GSR), owned by Kogan. The agreement provided for the collection and processing of user data Facebook in order to identify personal qualities and political preferences of voters.

Cambridge Analytica spent 7 million dollars to collect this data, about 1 million dollars were spent on these goals in partnership with Kogan.

Initially, negotiations were with Michal Kosinski, Cambridge Analytica wanted to use the database of his psychological project myPersonality. But when these negotiations failed, Kogan offered his services, stating that he already had a “data set”.

Kogan then created GSR to do the job. Soon the application "This is your digital life"which gave Kogan access not only to user profiles Facebook, but also to the profiles of their friends. On average, about 320 000 people used the application, and each of them involuntarily gave Kogan access somewhere to the 160 profiles of other people, none of whom knew that his data was being used.

Email communication between employees Cambridge Analytica and Kogan shows that Kogan collected data of millions of profiles within a few weeks, although the participants in the process understood that it was illegal, because Kogan had permission to use the data he received solely for academic purposes.

Kogan claims that everything he did was legal, and he had “close working relationships” with Facebookwho gave him permission to work his application.

So Cambridge Analytica received the data she needed, which she used to provide advice during the election. It’s impossible to say whether this data was used to fulfill the order of Trump’s headquarters, but they certainly formed the basis for building typical behavior algorithms for a typical voter and many other studies of the company.

In 2015 year Facebook deleted Kogan's application and demanded from him and the British company guarantees that all the information they received would be destroyed, they agreed to fulfill the requirements of the social network.

However, in March 2018, in Facebook It was reported that not all user data was deleted by the analytic company, so the social network decided to block access Cambridge Analytica and Kogan to her website until circumstances are cleared up.

Who is Alexander Kogan

Kogan after completing cooperation with Cambridge Analytica changed his surname to Spectr, but later regained his name Kogan. He is still a lecturer at Cambridge University. He is also an associate professor at St. Petersburg University. In addition, he received grants from the Russian government for the study "Stress, health and psychological well-being in social networks." According to him, such an opportunity appeared during his trip to Russia to visit friends and family.

According to The Guardian, in St. Petersburg, Kogan lectured in Russian. The theme of one of them sounded like "New methods of communication as an effective political tool."

The University of Cambridge said that its scientists are allowed to engage in external scientific work, so the activities of Kogan in Russia do not break any rules. But his colleagues admitted that they had never heard of his work in St. Petersburg, moreover, it was not indicated in the scientist’s resume.

Kogan stressed that his work in Russia has nothing to do with Cambridge Analyticabecause his project in Russia, he said, began a year after the end of his collaboration with Cambridge Analytica.

He said that the post of St. Petersburg was offered to him by chance during a private visit.

Kogan was born in Moldova and raised in Moscow to seven years. When he was a child, his family emigrated to the United States, where she later received citizenship.

However, according to him, there are many family friends in Russia who are regularly visited. On one of his trips, he was offered a job at the University of St. Petersburg, to which he agreed, since “this gave more reasons to visit Russia.”

Cambridge Analytica: Relations with Russia and US Elections

Cambridge Analytica she also had connections with the large Russian energy company “Lukoil”, which is now on the USA and EU station list. A British analytical company discussed with Russian businessmen “micro-targeting of people in social networks during elections”.

Alexander Nix, Executive Director Cambridge Analytica, emailed his colleagues that Lukoil would like a clearer explanation of “how our services can be applied to the oil business.”

“They understand behavioral micro-targeting in the context of elections, but they do not see the connection between voters and their consumers,” he wrote.

The presentation prepared for Lukoil initially focused on the electoral strategies used by the parent company. Cambridge Analytica, SCLin Nigeria. They were presented under the heading “Elections: Inoculation” (the military term used in “psychological operations” and disinformation campaigns). In particular, the slides depicted techniques for calling voices of voters related to fraud and other threats they may face.

Then an agreement was reached on the work Cambridge Analytica with the Turkish branch of “Lukoil”.

In addition, the company's employees could not understand why the oil company was so interested in the political strategies of a British research firm.

Knicks claims that the company he managed never worked in Russia or with Russian clients, but the documents Cambridge Analytica, received by journalists, indicate the opposite - the company had several clients from this country.

Company Cambridge Analyticawhich is structurally not related to the University of Cambridge, played an important role in the victory of Donald Trump in the presidential election, writes with the BBC.

Presumably, the company passed some information on the opinions of voters to Trump's headquarters. The company's board of directors includes the name of former adviser to US President Stephen Bannon.

The website of the analytical company says that Cambridge Analytica provided the Trump campaign with “information and consulting services and helped win the election.”

Trump's campaign headquarters used the services Cambridge Analytica in June, 2016 of the year and, according to the Federal Election Commission of the USA, paid the company more than 6,2 million dollars.

Former head of digital operations at Trump headquarters Brad Parskale declined to comment on the situation with Cambridge Analytica.

Cambridge Analytica also, presumably, could play a certain role during the referendum on the issue of British withdrawal from the EU.

Read also on ForumDaily:

The United States wanted to use the secret accounts of Putin’s daughter for revenge for interference in the elections

A word from the President: an interview with Vladimir Putin on the American television channel NBC

Why did the United States take on an Azerbaijani from a Russian trolley factory

Former manager of the Russian "factory trolls" moved to live in the US

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.