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In a slide deck discovered by @ThomasClaburn, the company says it feeds data from Facebook's "various Graph APIs" to its own proprietory analysis platform. I sure hope it had permission to do that! https://t.co/O4AYW52EXs
— Laurence Dodds (@LFDodds) May 11, 2019
Pretty telling that the two institutions that now do this with clockwork regularity are Facebook and the Trump White House https://t.co/lUvmVS2pzi
— Brian Merchant (@bcmerchant) May 10, 2019
and again i might be VERY much in the wrong here (and the patents are in broken english), but it looks like this service pulled data about you from every app on your phone to better target you w ads? https://t.co/k96NwKQcRE pic.twitter.com/bwpdADyFM2
— shoshana wodinsky (@swodinsky) May 10, 2019
One thing that jumps out at me from this lawsuit is that FB seems to have taken at least nine months after it began investigating Rankwave to suspend all its apps, and two or three months after Rankwave failed to respond to its info request. That seems like a long time!
— Laurence Dodds (@LFDodds) May 11, 2019
Okay, so: Facebook is claiming that Rankwave improperly harvested users' data for use in marketing campaigns. It did so through "at least thirty apps" which interfaced with FB's systems, including an app which promised to rank your "social influence score". pic.twitter.com/OBiEsa7zvU
— Laurence Dodds (@LFDodds) May 11, 2019
Another Cambridge Analytica? Facebook sues analytics firm Rankwave over data misuse https://t.co/44JewBJFJr
— Graham Cluley (@gcluley) May 11, 2019
Disturbingly similar to Cambridge Analytica's personality quiz, Rankwave sucked in Facebook user data with a "get your Social Influencer Score" app pic.twitter.com/XXiV47NDMN
— Josh Constine (@JoshConstine) May 11, 2019
And of course one reason why CA was so controversial is the use that data was put to: political campaigns, and potentially helping Trump get elected. Mere marketing seems unlikely to provoke such an outcry.
— Laurence Dodds (@LFDodds) May 11, 2019
In an all-too-classic Friday evening news dump, Facebook admits in a brief press release that it potentially has another Cambridge Analytica-type situation on its hands? https://t.co/OyommwlMqk
— Alex Heath (@alexeheath) May 10, 2019
That's not to say for sure that no data was transferred. One of the things FB says Rankwave refused to do was "identify all individuals, orgs and governmental entities" to which it sold or gave FB user data, and provide a "full record" of access that it granted to third parties
— Laurence Dodds (@LFDodds) May 11, 2019
Why do y'all still trust Facebook?
— Ed Bott (@edbott) May 11, 2019
Seriously. people. https://t.co/zPZ0Sfn1sN
Rankwave, a South Korean analytics company, sued by Facebook for failing “to cooperate with our efforts to verify their compliance with our policies.” Said policies: ”data practices in relation to its advertising and marketing services” https://t.co/qiqLiawD1r
— Josh Sternberg (@joshsternberg) May 10, 2019
Facebook has dumped bad news:
— Alex Heath (@alexeheath) May 10, 2019
1) late on a Friday afternoon many times
2) often on the Friday before a holiday weekend
3) when the Mueller report was released
4) Christmas weekend
So is this Cambridge Analytica 2? Based on what we know right now, it seems more like CA 1.5.
— Laurence Dodds (@LFDodds) May 11, 2019
Facebook claims that a third party improperly accessed FB user data and made money from it, but it doesn't allege (yet) that it transferred that data anywhere else.
"Instead of only using data to enhance the app experience, Rankwave used Facebook data for its own business purposes, which include providing consulting services to advertisers and marketing companies." FB claims this data was valued at $9.8m in Rankwave's 2017 acquisition.
— Laurence Dodds (@LFDodds) May 11, 2019
Happy Friday Facebook news dump, everyone! pic.twitter.com/EMrDMmRxyA
— John Paczkowski (@JohnPaczkowski) May 10, 2019
love that one of their patents legit refers to phones as Ad Machines pic.twitter.com/s2aPDR52qH
— shoshana wodinsky (@swodinsky) May 10, 2019
there's no paper trail of the lawsuit yet (i've looked everywhere) but it looks... ad related?
— shoshana wodinsky (@swodinsky) May 10, 2019
Wow what amazing timing, @Facebook, on a quiet Friday afternoon. Just announced:
— The Register (@TheRegister) May 10, 2019
"Today Facebook filed a lawsuit in California state court against Rankwave, a South Korean data analytics company that ran apps on the Facebook platform"
Sounds v familiar https://t.co/K4jh4nORny pic.twitter.com/GsCMZPSYMj
So here is what Facebook is claiming:
— Laurence Dodds (@LFDodds) May 11, 2019
? that Rankwave improperly used users' data in marketing campaigns
? that Rankwave refused to let FB audit its data practices
Here is what it's not claiming:
? that Rankwave transferred or sold any user data to any other party
it's friday evening on the east coast, which means ~it's time for another facebook news dump!~ https://t.co/bf89YJvLfH
— shoshana wodinsky (@swodinsky) May 10, 2019
did a bit of snooping and it looks like they're p much cambridge analytica lite. able to extrapolate data about clusters of users from one user that signed up for their service.
— shoshana wodinsky (@swodinsky) May 10, 2019
i might be wrong! feel free to browse the company's patents (there's a lot): https://t.co/u8i2S7STpI
Newwwwwws dump. ? https://t.co/gPXuAEDWYe
— Marty Swant (@martyswant) May 10, 2019
Rankwave openly promoted its ability to extract contact info & ad targeting from Facebook data. When Fb got suspicious, it took 9 months to act. Both failures show why Fb buried this news friday night https://t.co/LKawIn93R8 pic.twitter.com/L7wfUOPMa3
— Josh Constine (@JoshConstine) May 11, 2019
"Rankwave's misconduct has harmed Facebook's reputation, public trust and goodwill," FB says. It wants at least that $9.8m data value in damages plus lawyers' fees, a court order to force a data audit and deletion of all FB user data.
— Laurence Dodds (@LFDodds) May 11, 2019
Facebook seems to be preemptively saying it might have another data-related violation issue by a South Korean ata analytics firm. (Who knows if it’ll be as explosive as Cambridge Analytica or not...Still TBD there.)
— Marty Swant (@martyswant) May 10, 2019
how to square Facebook's news dump with its repeated pledges it cares about transparency
— Tony Romm (@TonyRomm) May 11, 2019
For those looking to see how Rankwave used Facebook data, this slide deck offers some details:https://t.co/bJzyYbmRoy
— Thomas Claburn (@ThomasClaburn) May 10, 2019
NEWS: Facebook is suing Rankwave for platform abuse. We've got the filing alleging Rankwave misappropriated Fb data to sell ad, marketing, & consulting services https://t.co/LKawIn93R8
— Josh Constine (@JoshConstine) May 11, 2019
k i'm done reading these things but whatever this company did sounds Super Not Good and Wrong pic.twitter.com/RTcvtUAjhb
— shoshana wodinsky (@swodinsky) May 10, 2019
And here's the lawsuit that Facebook filed today against a South Korean app developer: https://t.co/76SlZCPY2s https://t.co/97QghHMpPP
— David Ingram (@David_Ingram) May 11, 2019
In short, Facebook says that Rankwave operated at least 30 apps on the Facebook platform beginning in 2010, and at some point improperly used Facebook data to offer its own consulting services to advertisers and marketing companies.
— David Ingram (@David_Ingram) May 11, 2019
This slide is... also ominous. Rankwave boasts of not only finding out demographic information about a given Facebook user, but also quite detailed information about their friends (see upper right, under "Social Graph"). pic.twitter.com/fjZ7DIqExU
— Laurence Dodds (@LFDodds) May 11, 2019
Does this mean a big story is about to drop tomorrow? https://t.co/vdE8mOX5qr
— Steve Kovach (@stevekovach) May 10, 2019
The lawsuit does not say how many Facebook users might have been affected in this way, if any, or where they might have been.
— David Ingram (@David_Ingram) May 11, 2019
"By filing the lawsuit, we are sending a message to developers that Facebook is serious about enforcing our policies"
— Ali Breland (@alibreland) May 10, 2019
By telling everyone at 6pm on a Friday night, FB is also sending a message that is nothing to hide. Nothing to hide at all. https://t.co/57JJx8oVJq
Still, this lawsuit shines a light on just how vulnerable FB's data platform was for many years – and how far Facebook is now willing to go to crack down on alleged abuse.
— Laurence Dodds (@LFDodds) May 11, 2019
Of course, it also raises questions as to how many other cases of possible abuse might be out there.
This violated Facebook's platform policies, which say that Facebook data should be used only for the app in question and not for a separate business, the lawsuit alleges.
— David Ingram (@David_Ingram) May 11, 2019
Funny how Facebook spits this news out late on a Friday.
— Graham Cluley (@gcluley) May 11, 2019
That's "funny" as in "This is going to look bad... how can we bury the news..." https://t.co/k3Twl3ytK7
"Rankwave has already figured out what type of person your customers are and what they are interested in," the company proclaims. It says it has analysed almost 9m users (or 900m, but I think that's a Google Translate glitch). pic.twitter.com/ACWiriVktB
— Laurence Dodds (@LFDodds) May 11, 2019
The lawsuit also does not allege that Rankwave improperly transferred the data (as allegedly happened in the Cambridge Analytica scandal). What Facebook alleges today is that Rankwave failed to comply with Facebook's investigation and audit.
— David Ingram (@David_Ingram) May 11, 2019
Facebook claims that Rankwave shouldn't have used both B2B & consumer app data for consulting instead of just making their apps better. https://t.co/LKawIn93R8 Tip @techmeme pic.twitter.com/OCWpjLxVwI
— Josh Constine (@JoshConstine) May 11, 2019
In June 2018, Facebook began investigating Rankwave. In January 2019, it sent Rankwave a request for information. Rankwave did not respond by the deadline of Jan 31. So on Feb 13 FB sent Rankwave a cease and desist letter demanding to destroy all user data. (All this FB claims)
— Laurence Dodds (@LFDodds) May 11, 2019
<slow handjob gesture> https://t.co/29PoaCO9tu
— Dell Cameron (@dellcam) May 11, 2019
The arrest of a top opposition leader in #Venezuela unleashed fears of a wider crackdown Thursday, as the opposition issued renewed calls for protests. #SOSVenezuela https://t.co/9XOyKl92bJ pic.twitter.com/BGuf1l0Avz
— Victims of Communism (@VoCommunism) May 10, 2019
.@PostOpinions #SteveBannon: "We’re in an economic war with #China. It’s futile to compromise." https://t.co/jodqllDVTo
— Citizens of the American Republic (@CitizensAR) May 7, 2019
Facebook might have another Cambridge Analytica on its hands. FB has filed a lawsuit alleging South Korean analytics firm Rankwave abused its developer platform’s data &has refused to cooperate with a mandatory compliance audit & request to delete the data https://t.co/1L6HOTM2ZX
— Privacy Matters (@PrivacyMatters) May 11, 2019
Here's the gist of the Facebook lawsuit: Rankwave allegedly sucked in Fb data with an app for checking your "Social Influencer Score", then used it to help clients target you with ads https://t.co/LKawIn93R8 pic.twitter.com/V3esWD45uW
— Josh Constine (@JoshConstine) May 11, 2019
Here we go again - Facebook is suing S. Korean company Rankwave for improperly taking user info to analyze biographic and behavioral traits in order to supply user contact info and ad targeting assistance to other businesses. https://t.co/ntwdYxIwfy
— Rumman Chowdhury (@ruchowdh) May 11, 2019
Facebook sues analytics firm Rankwave over data misuse – TechCrunch https://t.co/kIJJ27N6gS
— Evan Kirstel (@evankirstel) May 11, 2019
Facebook claims that Rankwave shouldn't have used both B2B & consumer app data for consulting instead of just making their apps better. https://t.co/LKawIn93R8 Tip @techmeme pic.twitter.com/OCWpjLxVwI
— Josh Constine (@JoshConstine) May 11, 2019
And here's the lawsuit that Facebook filed today against a South Korean app developer: https://t.co/76SlZCPY2s https://t.co/97QghHMpPP
— David Ingram (@David_Ingram) May 11, 2019
Facebook’s lawsuit against app maker Rankwave alleging data misuse - which states an investigation began in June 2018 - raises serious questions about whether the Cambridge Analytica problem has adequately been disclosed and addressed. https://t.co/5TXWKCQCh5
— Matt Cagle (@Matt_Cagle) May 11, 2019
Facebook files lawsuit against South Korea data analytics group https://t.co/tWnRODNKJp
— Financial Times (@FT) May 11, 2019
Wow what amazing timing, @Facebook, on a quiet Friday afternoon. Just announced:
— The Register (@TheRegister) May 10, 2019
"Today Facebook filed a lawsuit in California state court against Rankwave, a South Korean data analytics company that ran apps on the Facebook platform"
Sounds v familiar https://t.co/K4jh4nORny pic.twitter.com/GsCMZPSYMj
Looking forward to talking about privacy and platforms with greats @carolecadwalla and @suehalpernVT at @PENamerican tomorrow at noon: just in time Enforcing Our Platform Policies – Facebook Newsroom https://t.co/iPg91sM4dn
— Danielle Citron (@daniellecitron) May 11, 2019
Bible classes in public schools are getting a big push from Christian conservatives -- and it's spreading first. Right to bear arms? Can't be touched. Separation of church and states? Well, that's different .. https://t.co/ANcEkvy48e
— Scott Stapf (@stapf) May 11, 2019
Facebook might have another Cambridge Analytica on its hands. South Korean firm Rankwave abused FB platform’s data, refused to cooperate with compliance audit & request to delete data. https://t.co/uvuaR6NfBg via @techcrunch.
— Mike Butcher (@mikebutcher) May 12, 2019
Rankwave openly promoted its ability to extract contact info & ad targeting from Facebook data. When Fb got suspicious, it took 9 months to act. Both failures show why Fb buried this news friday night https://t.co/LKawIn93R8 pic.twitter.com/L7wfUOPMa3
— Josh Constine (@JoshConstine) May 11, 2019