Tech firms don't care about users' data: Cambridge Analytica researcher
San Francisco, April 23: Tech companies in the Silicon Valley like Facebook assume users know that their data is being sold and obtaining the data for Cambridge Analytica was not against the rules, a researcher with the British political consulting firm has said.
In a first interview after the Facebook data scandal broke out, Aleksandr Kogan, the app developer who gathered the data of nearly 87 million Facebook users, told CBS News on Sunday that he was not sure whether he ever read Facebook's developer policy.
"The belief in Silicon Valley and certainly our belief at that point was that the general public must be aware that their data is being sold and shared and used to advertise to them. And nobody cares," he told the host of "60 Minutes" programme.
"The idea that we stole the data, I think, is technically incorrect. I mean, they created these great tools for developers to collect the data.
"And they made it very easy. I mean, this was not a hack. This was, 'Here's the door. It's open. We're giving away the groceries. Please collect them,'" Kogan said.
The quiz app, "thisisyourdigitallife," was developed by Kogan, then a psychology researcher with University of Cambridge, and his company Global Science Research (GSR) which pulled out Facebook users' data in 2014-2015.
Kogan said he believes his assumptions were misguided and that what he did in 2014 "was not right and was not wise".
In a statement after the "60 Minutes" show, Cambridge Analytica said Kogan and his company made a contractual commitment that the data was compliant with data protection legislation.
"Cambridge Analytica's research showed that the personality types licensed by GSR/Kogan underperformed compared to more traditional ways of grouping people by demographics," the firm said in its statement.
Cambridge Analytica said the raw data they received was deleted after Facebook reached out to them, CNET reported.
Appearing before the US Congress earlier in April, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the lawmakers that his own personal data was part of 87 million users' that was "improperly shared" with Cambridge Analytica.
"We don't sell the data. We use the data that people put into the system in order to make them more relevant. I believe people own their content," he told the House panel.
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Software engineer dies after car plunges into water-filled pit in Greater Noida
Noida (PTI): A 27-year-old software engineer died after his car went out of control and fell into a 20-feet-deep water-filled pit that was dug for the basement of an under-construction building in Sector 150 of Greater Noida, police said on Sunday.
The incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday, following which a search operation was launched. The body was recovered later in the morning with the help of teams from the fire department, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the local police.
Police at the Knowledge Park police station said they received information at around 12.15 am that a car had plunged into a pit near Sector 150.
The deceased was identified as Yuvraj Mehta, a resident of Tata Eureka Park society in Sector 150. He was working as a software engineer with a reputed company in Gurugram and was returning home from work at the time of the incident, police said.
"The search operation was carried out with the help of the NDRF, SDRF, fire department and local police. The body was recovered at around 4 am on Saturday," Additional Commissioner of Police (Greater Noida) Hemant Upadhyay told PTI.
He said preliminary investigation suggested that fog and overspeeding may have led to the accident, following which the car crossed a drain and fell into the pit.
The body has been sent for post-mortem examination and further investigation is underway, police said.
Local residents staged a protest against the Noida Authority, alleging negligence. They claimed that similar accidents had occurred in the past and that authorities had been repeatedly informed about the need for proper barricading and reflectors near the drain.
"Residents had requested the Noida Authority to install barricades and reflectors, but no action was taken," a protester alleged.
