What Netflix’s ‘Great Hack’ Gets Wrong About Cambridge Analytica

Re:What Netflix’s ‘Great Hack’ Gets Wrong About Cambridge An... by bart_spoon on Monday August 26, 2019 @01:51PM (#20802063)

I read your supposed differences and see none. Both Democrats and Republicans harvest information voters thought was private to microtarget their message to people. The only difference seems to be you dislike the message that was then presented. But that isn't a problem with the methodology, thats a problem with the message. If your point is that Trump ran on a campaign of racism and division, fine, I'm with you on that. But the idea that the Trump campaign utilization of Cambridge Analytica was scandalous and the Obama campaign's analytic efforts that do the exact same thing is somehow above water is ridiculous.

Either harvesting people's data and using it to message to them is a problem or it isn't. The message being sent is a distinct issue.

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Re:What Netflix’s ‘Great Hack’ Gets Wrong About Cambridge An... by michaelmrose on Monday August 26, 2019 @06:37PM (#20804439)

You are correct the message being sent is the issue.

- Do you tell population a and population b contradictory things?

- Do you spread what you know is misinformation?

- Do you attempt to manipulate someone into working against their own interests. For example tricking a population whose interests and preference can best be expressed as A over B over C into voting for A so that C can win.

- Is your messaging a net harm to society? Deliberately playing up racial tensions to both sides determent for votes seems to fit the bill.

- Are you actual intents hidden because your interests are actually at odds with your target and they would act materially different if they understood your actual motivation?

The democratic usage of data appears to be primarily based on figuring out who could effectively message and the republican usage seems to be figuring out who they could manipulate and harm.

It's not that hard to see the difference.

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Re:What Netflix’s ‘Great Hack’ Gets Wrong About Cambridge An... by mieseratte on Monday August 26, 2019 @02:53PM (#20802587)

> If your point is that Trump ran on a campaign of racism and division, fine, I'm with you on that.

What I find rather funny, were you to ask a Trump voter you'd likely hear them say the Democrats are the ones running divisive, racist campaigns, and that they've previously pioneered digital advertising in the political space only shows their pot-kettle policies in regards to the successful Trump campaign.

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Re:What Netflix’s ‘Great Hack’ Gets Wrong About Cambridge An... by tunesmith on Monday August 26, 2019 @05:18PM (#20803875)

Your counterpoint is finely drawn. The problem is that many people say "Obama did it too!" when they're in favor of the content of Trump's messaging. The act of using finely targeted data to drive racism, hate, and falsehood is the issue - you are opposed to that, but others aren't.

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