Here's a read for you on the subject.
I think there is a clear difference, but how this impacts Facebook is not necessarily political. What I think might be happening to the Facebook business model is that people are rethinking the value of their personal data and their privacy. Cambridge Analytica appears to be part of that in ways that the Obama campaign was not, because the Obama campaign mined data from those people who chose to download an Obama Campaign app, with disclosure that their info would be used for political purposes if you click "yes". That permission did, however, wind up linking info from friends of those who gave permission - so these friends did not give permission unless they also downloaded the O campaign app.
Cambridge Analytica mined the data from people who took a personality survey supposedly given by Cambridge University. Those people gave permission for their data's use in an academic study, not for a political campaign. So the primary difference is disclosure from what I know.
But IMO mostly what you have is the now generally accepted way that social media was exploited in 2016 to spread political misinformation in ways we haven't seen before. And all the many data breaches since 2012. So my point here was never political. It isn't an assertion that what Obama did was fine and what CA did was wrong. It is that we have evolved to a very different place than we were even when Facebook haughtily dismissed any responsibility at all for the 2016 misinformation campaigns, to where we are today, which is a full blown media PR blitz by Facebook, because I think they see a real problem for themselves.
I think they fear that people are beginning to rethink how much they "pay" for Facebook services. The market used to call it "free". Now the market seems to realize that there is a cost, just not in dollars.
It's not about politics and I don't think it's even about regulation. I think it's about the marketplace. That's what has the Facebook senior folks spooked. IMO.
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In response to this post by CharlestonSC)
Link: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/mar/22/meghan-mccain/comparing-facebook-data-use-obama-cambridge-analyt/
Posted: 04/08/2018 at 3:26PM