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8
Apr
2018
Facebook has taken a lot of criticism recently in the media -- enough that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg bought some very expensive full-page ads in newspapers across America to defend his company. He’s expected to testify before several U.S. Congressional committees; he has refused to testify to a British parliamentary investigation.
Perhaps Facebook deserves its criticism; perhaps it doesn’t. But I think the critics have missed the point. They’ve concentrated on what’s called “data mining,” as if it were intrinsically wrong. They’ve focussed on what was done, not why it was done.
I contend that there is nothing wrong with data mining itself.
The difference is the purpose for which the data is used.
Categories: Sharp Edges
Tags: data mining, Cambridge Analytica. Facebook, B.C. Health Ministry, Adrian Dix, Therapeutics Initiative