Russian footprint in Facebook data leak scandal - ForumDaily
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Russian footprint in Facebook data leak scandal

The grand scandal around the most popular social network on the planet Facebook is gaining momentum. The illegal use of 50 data by millions of users has already cost the company tens of billions of dollars in capitalization. But the main intrigue is the “Russian trace” in this story. Does this mean that working with big data will be stopped or vice versa - are we all under the hood now and should we forget about privacy on the network? The journalist understood the new reality Rtvi Sergey Morozov.

Фото: Depositphotos

One of the central characters - Alexander Kogan, who came from the former USSR, until recently collaborated with St. Petersburg State University and even received millions of grants from him. It was Kogan who gave the company, which worked for the Trump election headquarters, data on millions of Americans. All this is very specific information about our preferences with you - not only and not even so much political - helped the developer showman to become president. The very fact that big data became an instrument of the political game shook America.

It all started with the fact that the former analyst firm Cambridge Analytica told the newspaper Guardian, as Donald Trump was actually brought to power: tens of millions of Americans were subjected to a propaganda attack, information about them was downloaded from Facebook, uploaded to a computer - and the machine predicted their reaction more precisely than a man could. Alexander Kogan, a professor of psychology at the University of Cambridge, a native of the former USSR, helped him unload the data.

Photo: Berkeley University

A Russian-speaking professor was born in Moldova, then his parents took him abroad. Colleagues from Cambridge did not know that he was also a teacher at St. Petersburg State University, and he also received a grant for research on very interesting topics. This is confirmed by orders from the university - it follows from them that Kogan’s work in Russia went on for three years, the number of the grant he received was indicated, and the amount was more than a million rubles only for 2016 a year. Cooperation continued until recently, the project was closed only in December 2017.

Photo: RTVI

Photo: RTVI

The University’s leadership declined to comment on how and why Professor Kogan worked for them, but a record of the lecture of one of the project’s participants, senior lecturer of the Department Janina Ledova, remained on the Internet.

“So, we have our project manager. His name is Alex Spectr, he works in Cambridge and now works with SPSU. He is engaged in the study of social networks, building models based on the analysis of page likes and personality profile. We have colleagues who are engaged in data analysis - programmers, specialists in the dark side of the personality, linguists, and I mainly organize this project. ”

Yanina Ledovaya, Senior Lecturer, Department of General Psychology, St. Petersburg State University

As part of a project in Russia, a survey of ten thousand people was conducted, and in 2016, the group was going to switch to the study of American users of social networks. Now that the project is over, its participants say that Kogan almost never came to Russia - he himself hid at the beginning of this week at his home in San Francisco, then gave an interview to CNN. In it, he argued that he had never been an agent of the Kremlin and had no idea that his scientific work would be used in politics.

Another unexpected twist in this story: the British press claims that the talented psychologist Kogan (he really has many awards since his student days) is actually the grandson of the famous Soviet scientist Alexander Borisovich Kogan, who founded the Institute of Neurocybernetics in Rostov-on-Don. bearing his name.

Photography: Southern Federal University

Soviet scientist Kogan invented a method of chronic implantation of electrodes for the study of brain function. His grandson invented much more subtle methods: he predicted human behavior on the basis of big data — people were divided into classes depending on their reactions.

In a simplified form, this was explained by the former director. Cambridge Analytica Alexander Nix: if it is necessary to sagit for the neurotic weapons, we will show them a picture of a robber who rushes into the house, and people who are cheerful and positive for the same purposes will show a picture of duck hunting. When it was not yet clear who would win, Trump or Clinton, Knicks said these words:

“Of the two candidates who are now leading the race, one uses these methods. And it will be very interesting to see how all of this will affect the next 7 weeks. ”

Alexander Nix, former head of Cambridge Analytica

How the elections ended - is known. And now, after the scandal around Facebook, Knicks no longer heads Cambridge Analytica. The founder of the social network, Mark Zuckerberg, having lost 50 billion market capitalization in a week, said that the authorities may have to introduce new laws on the protection of personal data. But it’s probably too late: there’s nothing to protect. Anatoly Temkin, a professor at Boston University, says: “Our information is bought and sold, and we don’t know about it at all. A huge number of companies that are called “data brokers” make money from it. How databases will be used is that they are absolutely not interested. ”

Mikhail Leviev works on the light side big data - his company does not manipulate people, he works with data files: for banks, retail, metallurgy and chemical industry. The volume of orders is constantly growing, because data is such a powerful thing that to refuse them is to lose. In the 2015-2016 years, his company has generated more data than in the entire history of mankind.

Opponents big data What worries us most is that machines are much better oriented than people in huge data flows - as a result, machines know more about us than we do. It doesn't matter what you are talking on the phone - the overall picture of your calls and meetings will allow you to understand the essence of the conversation, and then the car will also predict what you will do next.

The paradox is that your personal data is unimportant - it is important that the car classifies you to a class of people and knows everything about you without knowing your name.

“The last name, first name, address fall under the law on personal data, but this is not interesting to anyone. But the data about who you call, where you are going is more interesting. ”

Sergey Marin, founder of the School of Data

Probably, the car would be able to more precisely say what exactly Alexander Kogan did at the University of St. Petersburg, what his role was in choosing Trump, and at the same time predict what he was going to do next.

It is a pity that people who so widely used arrays of information about others are so reluctant to share information about themselves. One thing can be said with certainty: if in past years big data mainly extreme right-wing and unorthodox parties used in politics, then in the coming years these mainstream political parties will most likely take this information weapon into their hands - and there will be more whispers in your ear.

Details about the history of Kogan and his scam ForumDaily wrote in the material “As a scientist from Russia stole the data of Facebook users for the company, advising Trump".

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Miscellanea Facebook Our people Cambridge Analytica Kogan
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