The wondrous adventures of Sinn Fein (part 3) Mod Notes and Threadbanned List in OP

who leaked about Abu to the Indo?

[Deleted User]

This is the synopsis so far:

SF took a a copy of the electoral register from each constituency and made a digital copy of it, or got a 3rd party to do so. The electoral register is used by loads of marketing companies, State agencies, utility providers etc so all cool so far. I'd be disappointed if other political parties hadn't done so as well. Kudos to SF.

SF then used data extracted from Facebook groups, surveys, and targetted advertising to augment the electoral register with information on potential SF voters based on likes, comments, and all the usual shíte you actually agree to when you sign up for Facebook and other 'social media' services.

It's not great, but we all live in a world of targetted advertising, and I'd be surprised if that wasn't taking place with other parties to a lesser extent.

SF host the Abú database in Frankfurt. A nothing burger tbh. It's all very cloudy out there, and their 'instances' moved from London to Frankfurt in line with what most companies started doing as Brexit became a reality. They could have hosted in Ireland, but were using the Linode cloud service which doesn't have a presence in Ireland. Not worried about this at all.

Now we get down to the 'brass tacks' of the story. The Abú system is available to party activists. Do all party activists have access to all records despite who they are? Did the Data Protection Officer in SF ensure data was only made available to those who need to have access to it? Should someone in Donegal have access to the records of someone in Cork, and for what reasons?

Have those records been made available to activists outside the Irish State, and for what reason?

Finally, does the Abú database hold additional information on people above-and-beyond what was gathered using the electoral register and social media activity?

A simple example. A SF activist visited the door of John Q Taxpayer. John was watching Coronation Street, and was pissed off with having his door knocked upon, despite once having liked a post about housing that Eoin O Broin posted on Facebook. John told them he wasn't interested, and closed the door. What data was uploaded to the Abú system about that interaction?

Was there free text entered in the Abú system about that?

If so, then there's an enormous issue around privacy, and Philip Ryan is about to strike gold as a journalist.

expectationlost wrote: »

so Cambridge Analytical didn't overstate what it actual did/or what it could do? not at all? What I got from the Brittany Kaisers leaks is the got paid for work they didn't do.

It seemed more like a full spectrum propaganda operation than simply a company that applied psychographic marketing techniques to politics and targeting opinion influencers in groups. The problem with whistleblowers after the fact is that it is difficult to tell if they are reinventing their own part in matters. The Wylie book is a counterbalance to some of her claims and goes into some detail on what CA was doing in a relatively non-technical manner. All companies engage in marketing hype though.

Regards...jmcc

TJ McIntyre says in todays Examiner that most parties breach GDPR.

jmcc wrote: »

Cummins, as usual, is way out of his depth on the subject. In a GE debate, the moderator had to tell him to "shut up" as he was acting like a spoilt brat and not allowing other candidates to speak. He makes O'Broin's stuff look very sensible plausible and is a diaster for FG on this matter.

CA was quite sophisticated in what it did. The problem is that the politicians and the public don't understand what it did. It targeted people who were potential influencers rather than targeting everyone in their datasets.

Regards...jmcc

so Cambridge Analytical didn't overstate what it actual did/or what it could do? not at all? What I got from the Brittany Kaisers leaks is the got paid for work they didn't do.

expectationlost wrote: »

Sinn Féin TD says party presentation on social media use was ‘stupidly worded’ https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/sinn-f%C3%A9in-td-says-party-presentation-on-social-media-use-was-stupidly-worded-1.4545845

Cummins, as usual, is way out of his depth on the subject. In a GE debate, the moderator had to tell him to "shut up" as he was acting like a spoilt brat and not allowing other candidates to speak. He makes O'Broin's stuff look very sensible and plausible and is a disaster for FG on this matter.

companies often overstate their abilities (Cambridge Analytics being a prime example of that), but I don't understand why they would create this national database and not doing these thing describe aboved, its not far fetched, like some of CA claims about the effect of psychological profiling were.

CA was quite sophisticated in what it did. The problem is that the politicians and the public don't understand what it did. It targeted people who were potential influencers rather than targeting everyone in their datasets.

Regards...jmcc

Sinn Féin TD says party presentation on social media use was ‘stupidly worded’ https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/sinn-f%C3%A9in-td-says-party-presentation-on-social-media-use-was-stupidly-worded-1.4545845

A senior Sinn Féin TD has said a leaked party presentation its use of social media is “stupidly worded”, arguing its digital campaigning platform Abu cannot be used in the manner described on the slide.

The party’s housing spokesman, Eoin O Broin, told The Irish Times that a slide in the training material suggesting people can be tagged as a “social media engager” was not correct.

Sinn Féin has come under political pressure to explain how its database works, and whether data from social media platforms is imported to it and further analysed or combined with other identifying information.

The slide, which was first published by the Irish Independent, describes how social media is “key to enhancing our real world interaction”. It advises that Facebook will show the name of a person to a canvasser and “roughly where they live”.

“By engaging with them you may be able to elicit more specific information that will help you pinpoint them in the real-world,” the slide says.

It continues: “You can use the search function in the Abu system to find the person you have engaged with online, tag them as a social media engager and follow up with a canvass on their doorstep”.

However, Mr O Broin said this was “stupidly worded”. He said no facility existed within the Sinn Féin system to upload the information in the manner described by the slide. He also said no data-matching took place, and was not possible in the system.

companies often overstate their abilities (Cambridge Analytics being a prime example of that), but I don't understand why they would create this national database and not doing these thing describe aboved, its not far fetched, like some of CA claims about the effect of psychological profiling were.

skimpydoo wrote: »

Wow just wow. https://twitter.com/BowesChay/status/1385696777110700040?s=20

ripping off jokes from others https://twitter.com/DrHaroldNews/status/1385614662021095427

Wow just wow. https://twitter.com/BowesChay/status/1385696777110700040?s=20

NovemberWren

expectationlost wrote: »

is that just a redirect or is finegael website hosted by the same company as SF's database?

wow.

Add to that Leo "methinks he doth protest too much" at SF.

expectationlost wrote: »

is that just a redirect or is finegael website hosted by the same company as SF's database?

It is a Linode IP but the site redirects to finegael.ie index page. FG's main site is using Cloudflare for DDoS prevention.

Regards...jmcc

expectationlost wrote: »

is that just a redirect or is finegael website hosted by the same company as SF's database?

Looks like both are hosted by Linode. So all FG's bitching when they are using the exact same hosts. You couldn't make it up.

skimpydoo wrote: »

More than one site, I believe Leo's websites is down. There might be others down too.

Philip won't like this, SF are not the only party hosting in Germany.

is that just a redirect or is finegael's website hosted by the same company/location as SF's database?

blanch152 wrote: »

Just like there are degrees of road traffic offences from breaking a speeding limit or an amber light to drunkenly killing a pedestrian, there are degrees of GDPR offences from unknowingly having a setting on a website to deliberately constructing a database of people without their consent and using it to profile their political opinions with information gathered from other sources.

Simple as.

Hmmm do I get the feeling that Blanch thinks that FG unknowingly having a setting on a website?

skimpydoo wrote: »

Cloudflare as a hosting company , I bet they also think Kerry is good for cloud computing because of the amount of clouds over Kerry.

Wouldn't be surprising. Technically, Cloudflare has about 5.86 million gTLD websites on its nameservers. It is also an ICANN accredited registrar.

Regards...jmcc

bobbysands81

blanch152 wrote: »

Just like there are degrees of road traffic offences from breaking a speeding limit or an amber light to drunkenly killing a pedestrian, there are degrees of GDPR offences from unknowingly having a setting on a website to deliberately constructing a database of people without their consent and using it to profile their political opinions with information gathered from other sources.

Simple as.

You’re comparing a GDPR breach to a drunk driver killing someone. Would you ever just take a proper look at yourself and measure what you’re saying?

FrancieBrady wrote: »

If only there was a meme to represent that.

Here it is.

FrancieBrady wrote: »

If only there was a meme to represent that.

I have the perfect one on my phone. I will go get it and post it up here.

skimpydoo wrote: »

Oh I know all too well about the hidden Facebook tracker. I was told about it recently when I attended a virtual Apple media security briefing. Apple is not too pleased with it and it's the main reason why FB is having beef with Apple.

This is a serious problem for FG as it is hiding the tracker from people when they consent to cookies. Now it has its very own Cambridge Analytica situation. Not sure of the legal situation on that one but there was an element of uncertainty over what SF was doing. This was being done on at least one FG site.

Regards...jmcc

jmcc wrote: »

Yep. It might be interesting to take a look through the archived copies of their sites on the Wayback Machine. FG and FF are going to be very pissed off with the Sindo/Indo over this. That hidden Facebook tracker in the FG site was quite nasty as was one of the hidden trackers that people had to unwittingly accept while consenting to cookies. That Daragh O Brien chap from that data protection company had a video of it and it shows it at 1 minute 16 seconds into the video.

Regards...jmcc

Oh I know all too well about the hidden Facebook tracker. I was told about it recently when I attended a virtual Apple media security briefing. Apple is not too pleased with it and it's the main reason why FB is having beef with Apple.

skimpydoo wrote: »

If you read some of the replies, a few FG TD's have pulled their websites offline. It looks like FG won't want Philip Ryan darkening their doors again.

Yep. It might be interesting to take a look through the archived copies of their sites on the Wayback Machine. FG and FF are going to be very pissed off with the Sindo/Indo over this. That hidden Facebook tracker in the FG site was quite nasty as was one of the hidden trackers that people had to unwittingly accept while consenting to cookies. That Daragh O Brien chap from that data protection company had a video of it and it shows it at 1 minute 16 seconds into the video.

Regards...jmcc

CDarby

skimpydoo wrote: »

Its popcorn time.

https://twitter.com/michael_o_regan/status/1385669340989698049?s=21

The replys to that are bloody hilarious, seems ryan has opened a Pandora's box, FG and Leo website caught with their data pants down, and them been pointing at others for the last few weeks.
When will they ever learn?

FrancieBrady

skimpydoo wrote: »

If you read some of the replies, a few FG TD's have pulled their websites offline. It looks like FG won't want Philip Ryan darkening their doors again.

If only there was a meme to represent that.

FrancieBrady

skimpydoo wrote: »

Its popcorn time.

https://twitter.com/michael_o_regan/status/1385669340989698049?s=21

Ouch!

jmcc wrote: »

In the words of the immortal quote from Aliens, "Game over, man!"

Regards...jmcc

If you read some of the replies, a few FG TD's have pulled their websites offline. It looks like FG won't want Philip Ryan darkening their doors again.

skimpydoo wrote: »

Its popcorn time.

https://twitter.com/michael_o_regan/status/1385669340989698049?s=21

In the words of the immortal quote from Aliens, "Game over, man!"

Regards...jmcc

jmcc wrote: »

The Sindo/Indo has also landed its friends in the other political parties in the crap because they have their own databases which will have to be checked for compliance with GDPR.

All parties now have to appear before the Oireachtas Housing Committee and answer questions on their online activities. That hidden Facebook tracking link on the FG website may be one of the things that will be brought up. RTE seems to have landed FG in the crap on that one. At this stage the Indo is probably producing more methane than the national herd and effecting Global Warming. Surprised that Philip Ryan hasn't managed to drag Greta Thunberg into some story to condemn SF.

Regards...jmcc

Its popcorn time.

https://twitter.com/michael_o_regan/status/1385669340989698049?s=21

CDarby

FrancieBrady wrote: »

What data are you guys using to assess that these people are from SF?

The guy who meme'd Philip Ryan for instance?

Please tell us your methods...coz fecked if I can make a link.

I think the assumption is, if you ain't supporting of, or highlight FF/FG incompetence on the internet, you must be shinner, which is a complete fable of the highest order.

Also, don't forget trolls on the internet can imitate party supporters of particular party's and post negative and hateful bile in order to portray supporters as a certain type of cohort. Don't believe me? There's a guy on here who's openly admitted to being a member of several Sinn Facebook groups here. Pruning just because you're in a group, doesn't = you're there for good intentions or because you're necessarily a party supporter.

piplip87 wrote: »

Unfortunately again their supporters let them down though. I follow a few SF accounts and I am a member of a few SF groups on Facebook. The abuse Micheal Martin and Micheal D took for expressing condolences after the death is unreal yet the exact same accounts are now hailing Michelle and Marylou for doing the same.

come to think of it, it's the same guy you just quoted. :cool:

I was a FF voter up until last year, and both my father, and my grandfather were proudly serving members of the party. I'm not quite ready to give SF my vote just yet, but let's see how they do in this opposition role.

Yet people wrongly assume I'm a shinner by default. The pirate flag thing is weird though, just odd.