A Propaganda Machine for the Internet Age

[GliderGuider]

Here are a couple of articles about Big Data (Cambridge Analytica et al) as seen through the lens of a Canadian NATO-affiliated NGO. Information warfare is here to stay, and we are all targets.

The upcoming third article in the series looks like it will have some real juice.

Part I: The Science

At first, Kosinski and Stillwell did not expect many responses, but over time they collected what was then the largest dataset that combined psychometric scores with millions of Facebook profiles. It was revolutionary. In order to build a computer model, the researchers correlated the OCEAN test scores with what a person “liked” on Facebook, what they shared or posted, their number of friends and profile pictures, their gender, age, race and place of residence.

In 2012, Kosinski’s model was able to predict a person’s skin colour, sexual orientation and political leanings based on an average of 68 “likes” on Facebook. The model was also capable of determining a subject’s religion, level of intelligence, and alcohol and tobacco consumption. In his findings, he claimed that with as little as ten “likes,” the model could predict a subject’s answers to the OCEAN test better than their average co-worker. As more “likes” are fed into the model, the predictive capability increases tremendously: at 70 “likes” it surpasses a close friend; at 150, a parent; at 300, a spouse.

In early 2014, Kosinski was approached by a young Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at Cambridge named Dr. Aleksandr Kogan. He asked for access to Kosinski’s database on behalf of a company that was interested in his research. Kogan was initially reticent to reveal the name of the company, and why they were interested. Eventually he revealed that a company called Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) was interested in licensing Kosinski’s model in exchange for a significant sum.

However, Kosinski remained skeptical. He knew what his research was capable of if it fell into the wrong hands, so he set out to learn more about SCL and what they intended to do with his work. He discovered that SCL provides marketing services based upon psychological modeling, and according to their website is “the premier election management agency.” Their self-professed specialty: “understand[ing] how people think and identify[ing] what it would take to change their mindsets and associated voting patterns.”

Part II: The Company

According to documents obtained during an investigation by The Guardian, in early 2014, mere months after Kosinski declined SCL’s offer, they decided to partner with Kogan instead. Kogan learned of Kosinski’s method, and began to build his own database by paying Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers about US$1 each to take the OCEAN test and share their Facebook data. They were told that this data was being used “only for research purposes” and would remain “anonymous and safe,” but they were not told that Kogan was also collecting the same data from their pool of friends.

Kogan was reported by multiple participants for violating Amazon’s terms of service, and the program was later shut down. However, by that time Kogan’s dataset had already ballooned significantly in size. He set out to construct his own computer model, and like Kosinski began correlating Facebook data with responses to the OCEAN test. That summer, Kogan’s company, Global Science Research (GSR), boasted on LinkedIn that it possessed a dataset composed of more than 40 million individuals across the United States. Moreover, GSR claimed to have generated detailed characteristic and personality trait profiles for each of these individuals.

When Kosinski discovered that Kogan had secretly registered a company that was doing business with SCL, he immediately suspected that Kogan either copied or rebuilt his model, and then sold it to the election management agency. He abruptly broke off contact with Kogan and reported him to the director of the University of Cambridge Psychometrics Centre. A scandal erupted within the university, and Kogan moved to Singapore and assumed the name Dr. Spectre. Documents obtained by Das Magazin reveal that SCL did indeed learn intimate details of Kosinski’s methods from Kogan.

Once the data was in their hands, SCL formed a company called Cambridge Analytica, which built their own version of Kosinski’s computer model. They then sought out wealthy conservative investors such as Robert Mercer, who pledged over US$10 million.

Part 3 on the US election looks like it will be coming soon.

A few extra notes:

- Kogan recently changed his name to "Dr. Aleksandr Spectre". Evocative, isn't it? He also fled to Singapore.

- Given their Russian connections and their Cambridge location, the comparison to Philby, Burgess, Maclean and Blunt is obvious.

- Flynn, Bannon and Robert and Rebekah Mercer are involved, as reported in this WaPo story:
After working for Trump’s campaign, British data firm eyes new U.S. government contracts

[Leghorn21]

1. It's just me...had to carve out time to read quietly - so now I have a small grasp of

Ms. Mensch's references to "Cambridge Analytica"!!! Many thanks for posting this - will probably have to read a few times due to brain meltage -

So although I am trying to cut down on 'net time, I just visited the Jester's twitter page or feed or line - whatever - and he linked this...have you seen Bannon's financials?

So it was strange to go from THIS post to straight to THIS link...a little scrolling about and - THUNK, there it is...probably no surprise to you or Louise!!! But the timing of it for moi was bizarro, I tells ya!

http://s3.amazonaws.com/storage.citizensforethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/31234502/Bannon-Steve.pdf