The scientist who stole the data of millions of Facebook users advertised his method in Russia

Researcher Alexander Kogan began working with Cambridge Analytica in 2014. In the same year, he teamed up with students and analysts from St. Petersburg State University, one of the best schools in Russia, to implement a data collection project similar to the one he sold to Cambridge Analytica.

Alexander Kogan. Photos: CNN Business video frame

Kogan provided data on tens of millions of Americans in SCL Group, parent company Cambridge Analyticathat worked on Trump's presidential campaign.

Facebook accused him of violating the rules of the platform by passing user data Facebookreceived through the application to third parties, including Cambridge Analytica. The tech giant also stated that Kogan lied to them about the true nature of their work, stating that the application was intended for academic research and not for commercial use, which Kogan, for his part, denies.

As his partnership with Kogan University, he came to Russia three times. In lectures for students, according to CNN videos, he painted a different picture than he described in a letter to CNN.

In the letter, Kogan said that he gave several lectures at the State University of St. Petersburg "how social networking data CAN'T be used effectively for studying personality at the individual level."

“Back in 2014, I gave quite a few lectures on how to collect data and their usefulness. In these conversations, I discussed both my own research and others. Speaking about the accuracy of the results, I quoted research done by others in this area. But over the next year, I personally realized that the expectations were greatly overestimated. We found that the data is not very accurate at the individual level. And so my lectures in subsequent years began to reflect this. In fact, in my lecture on 2016 for a year in Russia, it was said that I discovered that we could not recognize the person’s identity. ”

Nevertheless, in Russia, Kogan spoke about the strength of data from Facebook. In one of his lectures in Russian in May 2014, he said that the data obtained from social networks reveal key ideas.

"The level of what can be said about you based on what you like on Facebook, more significant than what your wife might say about you, what your parents or friends might say about you,” Kogan said. “Even if we take 10 of your best friends, and they all describe you as a person, and we combine it all together, this method of analysis is still better.”

"Your Facebook knows more about you than any other person in your life,” he added.

He said that such data can be obtained “quickly and cheaply, it costs almost nothing”, and such methods can bring great benefits.

The study, conducted in Russia with Kogan, included informed consent requirements that are standard for academic studies. In the lecture, Kogan described how his application received information about likes, friends, age, demographics, and more private details.

“This is messaging ... this is private information that no one sees,” Kogan said. - You can also download all of this. We typically load 3000 messages per person and they talk about everything there."

It is not clear whether Kogan boasted to the students or indeed he turned to them and kept private messages of some users. Facebook.

“Four years ago, our platform policy allowed people to share their inbox with developers,” a spokesperson said Tuesday Facebook. “Access to developer messages was only allowed if the person downloaded the app and explicitly approved that permission.”

This feature was discontinued in 2015, the spokesman said.

In a letter to his colleagues, Kogan condemned the recent reports about his work in Russia and denied that he was a “Russian spy”. He said that his position at the State University of St. Petersburg was “mostly honorable,” and he attended the university only three times.

A person familiar with Kogan’s work explained that students from St. Petersburg saw Kogan as a “distinguished representative of the West” who could help them secure funding for their research. The projects are approved with the support of Western scientists, he noted.

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".

Read also on ForumDaily:

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

Story Cambridge Analytica Director of the company's working methods secretly videotaped

A scientist from Russia who collected information about millions of Americans wants to testify

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