Facebook may have stumbled through its Cambridge Analytica user privacy scandal mostly unhurt so far — the yet - to - be - determine issue offour separate federal investigationsnotwithstanding — but its pin to in public verbalise a great game on cracking down on data misuse keep .
Now Facebook has suspended another datum analysis house that received user information , this sentence with a name that go suspiciously like an evil corporation from a 1980s - epoch Kurt Russell motion picture : Crimson Hexagon . harmonize to theWall Street Journal , the ship’s company has secured at least 22 disjoined Union contracts since 2014 worth more than $ 800,000 , including for the State Department , the Federal Emergency Management Agency , and the Secret Service , as well as a separate contract with a Russian nonprofit called the Civil Society Development Foundation .
Crimson Hexagon combine heavy amounts of public post from site like Facebook and Twitter for purposes like quantify public opinion around a range of issues , and according to the WSJ , claims to have piece a trillion - station archive . For example , the theme reported it essay ( but fail ) to pimp a Defense Department contract monitoring the terror group ISIS online . Its Russian declaration was to measure the popularity of Vladimir Putin ; another contract bridge in Turkey informed the Recep Tayyip Erdogan - lead politics ’s “ decision in 2014 to briefly shut down Twitter amid public dissent , ” the WSJ write , citing sources intimate with the company .
While the WSJ wrote Facebook is suspending the Boston - based troupe while it find whether the regime contract bridge rape its terms , it is not currently believed the house gained access to secret data like Cambridge Analytica :
Crimson Hexagon operates with little oversight from Facebook once it pulls public data from the social - metier chopine , harmonise to more than a XII hoi polloi conversant with the business . The government contract were n’t approved by Facebook in approach , for model , the people said .
Facebook , in reception to questions from The Wall Street Journal this week about its oversight of Crimson Hexagon ’s government contract bridge and storing of user data , say Friday it was n’t mindful of some of the contract . On Friday , it enounce it was debar Crimson Hexagon ’s apps from Facebook and its Instagram unit , and launching a broad inquiry into how Crimson Hexagon collects , shares and store user data point .
Also concerning is a 2016 incident in which Crimson Hexagon short began receiving secret Instagram post while downloading public Facebook ones “ because of what Crimson Hexagon employees arrogate was a software program glitch on Facebook ’s part”—something that certainly sounds like a major screwup .
Twitter also worked with Crimson Hexagon , the paper wrote . Unlike with Facebook , where information is freely put up to developers , the company paid Twitter for direct access to its “ fire hose , ” apremium adaptation of its APIthat guarantees access to all tweet correspond specific standard . That means Crimson Hexagon induce more useful datum from Twitter than Facebook , the WSJ add together , but Twitter reportedly shoot down a potential declaration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement over concerns on how the data point might be used .
Facebook censor the use of its datum for government surveillance in March 2017,per the BBC , though Crimson Hexagon ’s other mass have include study with Adidas , Samsung , and the BBC itself .
“ We do n’t allow developers to build surveillance putz using info from Facebook or Instagram , ” a Facebook spokespersontold CNN Money . “ We take these allegation in earnest , and we have suspended these apps while we investigate . ”
In ablog post , Crimson Hexagon ’s Chris Bingham emphasized that the companionship only pull public post , that political science contracts are a nonage of its work , that it only employ the data point for purposes permit by platform , and “ under no circumstance is surveillance a permitted economic consumption lawsuit . ”
Asnoted by TechCrunch , unlike Cambridge Analytica , which work to obfuscate its connection to a suspicious net of other company and allegedly hired extraneous contractors to work on US election in what was possibly an illegal scheme , “ Crimson Hexagon is more above the board , with ordinary speculation investment funds and partnerships . ”
[ Wall Street Journal ]
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