Email server on Centminmod

I don’t want a GUI and I have no use for custom domain email solutions. I think both go against the CentminMod ethos/culture. I’m opinionated though.

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No offense was taken or intended. I'm a lover, not a fighter! ; ^)

 

That’s great news. We do try to help each other as much as possible and people should be allowed their own perspective as well. Cheers!

 

As I understand it, FaceBook had a contract with a sociology academic at a UK university. That gave the academic access to user's records that were agreed to be kept private under a prior consent decree with the US government that followed an incident several years ago. Facebook apparently considered academic studies to be OK, a decision they made on their own that was technically in violation of the decree. However, Facebook never checked to see what the academic was doing with the data.
Cambridge Analytica came across the academic study and bought use of the software and database he had developed that allowed gathering and analysis of the data, such as typing of users into groups that could be targeted with very specific topics and buzzwords. If you know enough about a person, such as 'what sets them off' and know the people they communicate their opinions with, then you can target not just them but also all the people they are connected to who have similar opinions or are susceptible to persuasion.

Facebook is in the business of selling advertising. That brings in billion$ in revenue. Advertisers, including political ads are not supposed to be able to gain access to the users private information or who they are connected to. Facebook, Google, etc. can offer to take advertising that they direct to users... just look at ads that appear on pages you visit and you will see ads for products you looked at on Amazon and similar sites. Its OK for Facebook to target ads but not OK for others to do so. That is because 'fake news' and fake recommendations from people you are connected to can be generated by, say, a Russian hack group or, for that matter, a US or other country's political party.
Facebook can claim "We thought allowing academic research was OK. We didn't hack users with phony ads and posts... it was those bad guys at Cambridge who subverted the researcher who was supposed to have kept the data private that is at fault." Of course, that is like saying, "We left a pile of money on the desk ... the researcher was not supposed to pick it up and we didn't check to see it was still there."

 

As I understand it, FaceBook had a contract with a sociology academic at a UK university. That gave the academic access to user's records that were agreed to be kept private under a prior consent decree with the US government that followed an incident several years ago. Facebook apparently considered academic studies to be OK, a decision they made on their own that was technically in violation of the decree. However, Facebook never checked to see what the academic was doing with the data.
Cambridge Analytica came across the academic study and bought the use of the software and database he had developed that allowed gathering and analysis of the data, such as typing of users into groups that could be targeted with very specific topics and buzzwords. If you know enough about a person, such as 'what sets them off' and know the people they communicate their opinions with, then you can target not just them but also all the people they are connected to who have similar opinions or are susceptible to persuasion.

Facebook is in the business of selling advertising. That brings in billion$ in revenue. Advertisers, including political ads, are not supposed to be able to gain access to the users private information or who they are connected to. Facebook, Google, etc. can offer to take advertising that they direct to users... just look at ads that appear on pages you visit and you will see ads for products you looked at on Amazon and similar sites. Its OK for Facebook to target ads but not OK for others to do so. That is because 'fake news' and fake recommendations from people you are connected to can be generated by say, a Russian hack group or, for that matter, a US or other country's political party.
Facebook can claim "We thought allowing academic research was OK. We didn't hack users with phony ads and posts... it was those bad guys at Cambridge who subverted the researcher who was supposed to have kept the data private that is at fault." Of course, that is like saying, "We left a pile of money on the desk ... the researcher was not supposed to pick it up and we didn't check to see it was still there."

 

That’s a very well stated post.