Facebook Suspends Another Data Analytics Firm For Doing Cambridge Analytica Stuff

The stain that the Cambridge Analytica scandal left on Facebook’s reputation is unlikely to ever wash off and yet another data analytics firm is already trying to churning up some mud. The social network recently had to suspend the company called CubeYou after it was notified of the firm’s actions, which were remarkably similar to what Cambridge Analytica was doing.

Facebook made the decision to suspend the firm after it was notified by CNBC that CubeYou was conducting the same internet quizzes that Cambridge Analytica was offering to Facebook users to collect their data. What’s more, this is what allowed the collection of the data of the users’ friends, which they certainly did not agree to.

As the publication notes, finding yet another one of these firms that are siphoning off user data without consent or proper notification is an indication that the Cambridge Analytica case was not a one-off. This might actually hint at a possible epidemic with every single post, comment, trend, page, or piece of media featured on Facebook being a potential vector for unwarranted data mining.

In the case of CubeYou’s own tactics, it was basically a phishing scheme masquerading as a project for “non-profit academic research." Despite the denial of the firm’s CEO that it was doing anything like what Cambridge Analytica was doing, it also sold information to the Psychometrics Lab at Cambridge University.

Among the steps that Facebook is taking to ensure that incidents like these can be prevented is educating users on how their data is being used, NPR reports. However, all this does is make it clear that the users are the products that the social network is selling to big corporations. Facebook is basically treating customers like livestock, with social interactions used as hay and cornmeal to fatten them up.

Despite this fact, however, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg said that only a small amount of users is jumping onboard the #DeleteFacebook movement. This is being taken as an indication of how pervasive and addictive the product that the social network is selling can be.