Cambridge Analytica Had Nothing on Obama

When I first heard about the whole controversy regarding Cambridge Analytica, my first thought was "at least this isn't another contrived 'muh Russia' controversy." 

My second thought was, "wait, didn't we already know that Facebook and other big tech companies did stuff like that?" Was the controversy just that an outside firm got access? Or was it just because it helped Donald Trump? Well, perhaps.

From the Independent Journal Review,

"A former Obama campaign official is claiming that Facebook knowingly allowed them to mine massive amounts of Facebook data — more than they would’ve allowed someone else to do — because they were supportive of the campaign.

"In a Sunday tweet thread, Carol Davidsen, former director of integration and media analytics for Obama for America, said the 2012 campaign led Facebook to “suck out the whole social graph” and target potential voters. They would then use that data to do things like append their email lists."
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Regarding Big Tech, you're not the customer, you're the product. These tech companies are basically the closest thing to Big Brother out there, well, aside for the NSA and CIA. This doesn't surprise me at all, but it is gravely concerning given the well-known political leanings of these companies and what that could mean going forward.