Facebook suspends another data analytics firm after CNBC discovers it was using tactics like Cambridge Analytica
Facebook suspends another data analytics firm after CNBC
discovers it was using tactics like Cambridge Analytica
Data analytics firm CubeYou used personality quizzes
clearly labeled for "non-profit academic research" to help marketers
find customers.
One of its quizzes, "You Are What You Like"
which also goes by "Apply Magic Sauce," states it is only for
"non-profit academic research that has no connection whatsoever to any
commercial or profit-making purpose or entity."
When CNBC showed Facebook the quizzes and terms, which
are similar to the methods used by Cambridge Analytica, Facebook said it was
going to suspend CubeYou from the platform to investigate.
Michelle Castillo Published
1:43 PM ET Sun, 8 April 2018 Updated 1 Hour
Ago
CNBC.com
Facebook is suspending a data analytics firm called
CubeYou from the platform after CNBC notified the company that CubeYou was
collecting information about users through quizzes.
CubeYou misleadingly labeled its quizzes "for
non-profit academic research," then shared user information with
marketers. The scenario is eerily similar to how Cambridge Analytica received
unauthorized access to data from as many as 87 million Facebook user accounts
to target political marketing.
CubeYou, whose CEO denies any deception, sold data that
had been collected by researchers working with the Psychometrics Lab at
Cambridge University, similar to how Cambridge Analytica used information it
obtained from other professors at the school for political marketing.
The CubeYou discovery suggests that collecting data from
quizzes and using it for marketing purposes was far from an isolated incident.
Moreover, the fact that CubeYou was able to mislabel the purpose of the quizzes
— and that Facebook did nothing to stop it until CNBC pointed out the problem —
suggests the platform has little control over this activity.
Facebook, however, disputed the implication that it can't
exercise proper oversight over these types of apps, telling CNBC that it can't
control information that companies mislabel. Upon being notified of CubeYou's
alleged violations, Facebook said it would suspend all CubeYou's apps until a
further audit could be completed.
"These are serious claims and we have suspended
CubeYou from Facebook while we investigate them," Ime Archibong, Facebook
vice president of product partnerships, said in a statement.
"If they refuse or fail our audit, their apps will
be banned from Facebook. In addition, we will work with the UK ICO [Information
Commissioner's Office] to ask the University of Cambridge about the development
of apps in general by its Psychometrics Centre given this case and the misuse by
Kogan," he said. Aleksander Kogan was the researcher who built the quiz
used by Cambridge Analytica.
"We want to thank CNBC for bringing this case to our
attention," Archibong added.
The revelation comes as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
prepares to answer questions before Congress this week stemming from the
Cambridge Analytica scandal. The Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees and
the House Energy and Commerce Committee are expected to quiz him on what the
site is doing to enhance user privacy, and prevent foreign actors from using
Facebook to meddle in future elections.
Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal erupted, Zuckerberg
has claimed personal responsibility for the data privacy leaks, and the company
has launched several initiatives to increase user control over their data.
Meet CubeYou
CubeYou boasts on its website that it uses census data
and various web and social apps on Facebook and Twitter to collect personal
information. CubeYou then contracts with advertising agencies that want to
target certain types of Facebook users for ad campaigns.
CubeYou's site says it has access to personally
identifiable information (PII) such as first names, last names, emails, phone
numbers, IP addresses, mobile IDs and browser fingerprints.
On a cached version of its website from March 19, it also
said it keeps age, gender, location, work and education, and family and
relationship information. It also has likes, follows, shares, posts, likes to
posts, comments to posts, check-ins and mentions of brands/celebrities in a
post. Interactions with companies are tracked back to 2012 and are updated
weekly, the site said.
"This PII information of our panelists is used to
verify eligibility (we do not knowingly accept panelists under the age of 18 in
our panel), then match and/or fuse other online and offline data sources to
enhance their profiles," CubeYou wrote.
The company's website currently claims it has more than
10 million opted-in panelists, but the cached March 19 version said it had
"an unbiased panel of more than 45 million people globally." (Click
the images in this story to make them bigger.)
CubeYou collected a lot of this data through online apps
that are meant to be entertaining or fun.
An ad agency exec who met with the company confirmed
CubeYou said it mostly collects information through quizzes.
According to its website, one of CubeYou's "most
viral apps" is a Facebook quiz created in conjunction with the University
of Cambridge called "You Are What You Like." It is meant "to
predict a user's personality based on the pages s/he liked on Facebook."
Two versions of this app still were active on Facebook as
of Sunday morning. The most recent version of this app has been renamed "Apply
Magic Sauce," (YouAreWhatYouLike.com redirects to ApplyMagicSauce.com),
and existed on the platform as recently as Sunday morning. Another version
still called "You Are What You Like" is also available.
When a user clicks on the "App Terms" link for
the Apply Magic Sauce app, it links to a page saying that the information
collected through the quiz is intended for "non-exclusive access for
research purposes only" and only for "non-profit academic research
that has no connection whatsoever to any commercial or profit-making purpose or
entity."
After CNBC contacted Facebook for this story, Facebook
said there were two previous versions of the app named "You Are What You
Like," one created in 2013, which was deleted by the developer, and one
submitted later in 2013.
Both of those prior versions had similar disclaimers on
Facebook about being used for academic research purposes.
In addition, those prior versions were able to get access
to information from friends of the people who took the quiz — as also happened
in the Cambridge Analytica case. Until 2015, Facebook allowed developers to
access information on Facebook friends as long as the original app user opted
in, a loophole that expanded the database of personal information considerably.
If the original user still remained opted in, CubeYou could
theoretically still access their data to this day.
CubeYou and Cambridge U's response
When reached for comment, CubeYou CEO Federico Treu said
the app had the right disclaimers on a separate site. He said the company was
involved with developing the app and website, but only worked with Cambridge
University from December 2013 to May 2015.
Treu said CubeYou only collected data from that time and
has not had access since June 2015 to data from new people who have taken the
quiz.
He also pointed out that the YouAreWhatYouLike.com
website has different — and looser — terms of usage than the Facebook terms
that CNBC discovered.
The website says, "the information you submit to You
Are What You Like may be stored and used for academic and business purposes,
and also disclosed to third parties, including for example (but not limited to)
research institutions. Any disclosure will be strictly in an anonymous format,
such that the information can never be used to identify you or any other
individual user." (Italics added by CNBC.)
He also denied CubeYou has access to friends' data if a
user opted in, and said it only connects friends who have opted into the app
individually.
Cambridge University said CubeYou's involvement was
limited to developing a website.
"We were not aware of Cubeyou's claims on their
blog," the University of Cambridge Psychometrics Center said in a
statement.
"Having had a look now, several of these appear to
be misleading and we will contact them to request that they clarify them. For example,
we have not collaborated with them to build a psychological prediction model —
we keep our prediction model secret and it was already built before we started
working with them," the institution said.
"Our relationship was not commercial in nature and
no fees or client projects were exchanged. They just designed the interface for
a website that used our models to give users insight on their [the users']
data. Unfortunately collaborators with the University of Cambridge sometimes
exaggerate their connection to Cambridge in order to gain prestige from its
academics' work," it added.
'A great place for us to get smart about the consumer'
CubeYou certainly claimed it was able to use this data to
target Facebook users, and advertisers seem to have bought the pitch.
CubeYou's website says its customers include global
communications firm Edelman, and sports and entertainment agency Octagon. It
also works with advertising agencies including 72 and Sunny (which counts
Google, Adidas and Coors Light as clients), the Martin Agency (Discover, Geico,
Experian), and Legacy Marketing (L'Oreal, Hilton, TGI Fridays), among others.
The site does not say which CubeYou data was used on
which projects, but all agencies' testimonials talk about how CubeYou's data
has allowed more understanding of potential customers.
"CubeYou is a great place for us to get smart about
the consumer," one customer testimonial from Legacy Marketing says.
"We primarily use Mintel for our research, but there's very little
consumer segmentation and I think that the greatest benefit of a tool like
CubeYou is you can get highly nuanced data about demographics, psychographics and
interests so easily."
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