PEOPLES DAILY, Thursday, APRIL 12, 2018
Page 22
world news
international_peoplesdailyng@yahoo.com
Facebook’s Zuckerberg says his data was harvested
F
acebook’s chief executive has revealed that his data was among that harvested in a privacy scandal. Mark Zuckerberg made the disclosure during his second day of being questioned in Washington. In a related development, the political consultancy at the heart of the affair has announced its acting chief executive is stepping down. He also revealed that his firm was exploring whether to take action against the University of Cambridge. The institution is where the researcher Aleksandr Kogan, who had collected and sold personal data to Cambridge Analytica, was based. “What we found now is that there’s a whole programme associated with Cambridge University where... there were a number of other researchers building similar apps,” Mr Zuckerberg said. “So, we do need to understand whether there was something bad going on at Cambridge University overall that will require a stronger reaction from us.” The university has reacted by saying it would be “surprised” if Mr Zuckerberg was only now aware of the work. “Our researchers have been publishing such research since 2013 in major peer-reviewed scientific journals, and these studies have been reported widely in international media,” it added. “These have included one study in 2015 led by Dr Aleksandr Spectre (Kogan) and co-authored by two Facebook employees.” Mr Zuckerberg had earlier apologised for having failed to check in 2015 that Cambridge Analytica had deleted information gathered about millions of Facebook users. Instead Facebook let the political consultancy self-certify that it had destroyed the records, which it said had been acquired in violation of the social network’s rules. “We have a responsibility to make sure what happened with [app developer] Kogan and Cambridge Analytica doesn’t happen again,” Mr Zuckerberg said.
In his opening remarks Mr Zuckerberg said that Facebook was an “idealistic” company The 33-year-old added that Facebook’s audit of other apps would take many months to complete. But he said that the firm had seen no evidence as yet that Russia or China had attempted to scrape people’s information. Cambridge Analytica has denied breaking the law and said it did indeed delete the data. The company has also announced that its acting chief executive Dr Alexander Tayler is stepping down from the post to resume his previous position as its chief data officer. Alexander Nix, who had been in charge until March, remains suspended. Mr Zuckerberg’s appearance before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce follows a five hour session in front of two Senate committees yesterday. During a testy early exchange, he declined to give a commitment to change all users’ default privacy settings to collect the minimum amount of personal information. “This is a complex issue,” Mr Zuckerberg said.
“That’s disappointing to me,” responded Democratic congressman Frank Pallone. Elsewhere in the hearing, Mr Zuckerberg acknowledged that he believed it was “inevitable” that the internet would need new regulations. “My position is not that there should be no regulation, but I also think you have to be careful about what regulation you put in place,” he said. The Facebook chief also faced fresh accusations from Republican congressman Steve Scalise that the News Feed’s algorithm was discriminating against conservative news and content in favour of liberal posts. “There is absolutely no directive in any of the changes that we make to have a bias,” responded Mr Zuckerberg. “To the contrary our goal is to be a platform for all ideas.” Another Republican pulled a surprise by displaying photos of illegal adverts for opioid drugs that he said had been live on Facebook yesterday. “Facebook is actually enabling an illegal
activity and in so doing you hurting people,” said congressman David McKinley. “There are a number of areas of content that we need to do a better job of policing,” Mr Zuckerberg replied, adding that he believed artificial intelligence tools would make this possible in the future. In another combative exchange, the business leader was questioned about the data his firm collected on people who had never signed up to his service. Mr Zuckerberg said this was done for security purposes. But he professed not to be familiar with the term “shadow profiles” despite it having been used widely by the media during a past Facebook data privacy controversy. And he was unable to say how many types of data were being gathered about non-members. “You said everyone controls their data,” said Democratic congressman Ben Ray Lujan. “But you are collecting data on people that are not even Facebook users, that have never signed a consent or privacy agreement. “When you go to Facebook’s ‘I don’t have a Facebook account page and would like to request all my personal data stored by Facebook’, it takes you to a form that says go to your Facebook page and then on your account settings you can download your data. “We’ve got to fix that” Other developments over the past day include: • The European Commissioner for consumers and justice has told the Guardian she may propose new regulations to tackle a “loss of trust” in Facebook, and would raise the matter with the tech firm’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg later this week • Cambridge Analytica has sent letters to publishers including the BBC warning that it will treat any misleading or inaccurate reports about itself with the “utmost seriousness” • The UK Culture Secretary Matt Hancock has met with Facebook officials in London
Syria war: Trump says missiles ‘will be coming’
U
S President Donald Trump has tweeted that Russia should “get ready” for missiles to be fired at its ally Syria, in response to an alleged chemical attack near Damascus on Saturday. “Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’” Mr Trump said in his tweet. Senior Russian figures have threatened to meet any US strikes with a response. President Bashar al-Assad’s government denies mounting a chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Douma. In one his tweets on Wednesday, Mr Trump called the Syrian leader a “gas killing animal”. In another, he painted a dark picture of US-Russia relations but said it did not have to be that way. The US, UK and France have agreed to work together and are believed to be preparing for a military strike in response to the alleged chemical attack at the weekend. What happened in Douma? Opposition activists and rescuers say government aircraft dropped bombs filled with toxic chemicals on Douma. The Syrian-American Medical Society (Sams), which operates in rebel-held areas, and local aid workers said more than 500 people had been treated for symptoms “indicative of exposure to a chemical
agent”. On Wednesday, the UN’s World Health Organization demanded access to verify reports from its partners, which include Sams, that 70 people had died - including 43 who showed “symptoms consistent with exposure to highly toxic chemicals”. A team from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is due to deploy to Syria “shortly” to determine whether banned weapons were used. Douma, the last major rebel stronghold near the capital Damascus, was under renewed assault from Syrian and Russian forces last week. Rebels have now been evacuating the town under an agreement involving the Russian military. What is Russia’s position? It has described the reports of the chemical attack as a “provocation” designed to justify Western intervention against its ally. It said on Wednesday that samples taken from the site had not revealed any chemical substances. Russia also said it would deploy military police to Douma on Thursday and that the situation there had stabilised. Several senior Russian figures have warned of a Russian response to a US
attack, with Alexander Zasypkin, Moscow’s ambassador to Lebanon, repeating on Wednesday a warning by the head of the military that missiles would be shot down and their launch sites targeted if they threatened the lives of Russian personnel. Also on Wednesday, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asked whether the aim of Western strikes might be “to quickly remove the traces of the provocation... [so] international inspectors will have nothing to look for in terms of evidence”. Addressing new ambassadors in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin said the world was becoming more chaotic. He said he hoped common sense would prevail and that the situation would stabilise. Mr Putin said Russia would “keep all its international obligations in full”. What happens next? On Tuesday, Mr Trump cancelled his first official trip to Latin America so he could focus on Syria. That decision suggests the US response may involve a larger military operation than a limited strike, says the BBC’s Barbara Plett Usher in Washington. On Wednesday, Defence Secretary James Mattis said the US was still assessing the chemical attack and that the US military stood ready “to provide military options
if they are appropriate as the president determines”. French President Emmanuel Macron said any strikes would “not target allies of the [Syrian] regime or attack anyone, but rather attack the regime’s chemical capabilities”. But The Times newspaper reports that the UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May has urged Mr Trump to provide more evidence of the suspected chemical attack. A US Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, is in the Mediterranean Sea. There are reports that Russia has withdrawn battleships from its naval base in the Syrian port city of Tartus: What is the UN doing? On Tuesday the UN Security Council failed to approve moves to set up an inquiry into the alleged attack on Douma. As permanent members of the council, Russia and the US vetoed each other’s proposals to set up independent investigations. The US-drafted resolution would have allowed investigators to apportion blame for the suspected attack, while Russia’s version would have left that to the Security Council. The OPCW’s fact-finding mission will not seek to establish who was responsible for the attack. Source: BBC