Boris and Cambridge Analytica

Interesting article from the New Statesman

'oday it was confirmed that Dominic Cummings has been officially hired by our new Prime Minister as an advisor in Number 10. The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg tweeted that the appointment was “controversial”.

But it’s not just controversial. It’s dangerous. Even more so than Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister. This shift in tone leaves Liberals like me in no doubt that we are now in a battle for the very future of our democracy.

Let us remind ourselves of what Dominic Cummings stands for. Made famous for masterminding the Leave Campaign, immortalised by Benedict Cumberbatch in a C4 drama, this is a man who commentators describe as either an “eccentric” or an “evil genius”. He is responsible for the iconic £350m a week bus slogan, the lie that the Turkish migrants were ready to join the EU and flood our borders with kebabs and cheap labour and fined by the Electoral Commission for illegal spending in the 2016 referendum. Lies are his currency. At his own admission, “accuracy is for snake-oil pussies”.

He has shown nothing but contempt for our judicial system, and parliament, indeed any vehicle that asks questions of him and his methods and sees the eyes of scrutiny set upon him. Not even the disintegrated and discredited Cambridge Analytica refused to be questioned by the DCMS select committee; not even Rupert Murdoch. '

Whether you believe any of it is up to you. Whatever it is, it is 'contempt of Court' and totally undemocratic.

I am human and if you're off to pour gin, I believe you are too SirChenjin, it wouldn't be wise for a robot to drink it.
And I am off to see if the rosé wine is chilled.

Are you fictitious, growstuff?
How can we tell?
Any tips on how to sort out AI from human beings?
Is Elon Musk real or AI?

What a choice!

Dominic Cummings or Seamus Milne
It is scary indeed.

It's up to you whether you believe I'm fictitious - in the same you could be entirely fictitious.

No, I don't really have any tips. I'm really not that clever enough, although I know how to find the sources of pictures used on the internet.

There are very few people in the world who understand how it all works and are truly ahead of the game. Dominic Cummings is almost certainly one of them, which is Johnson has hired him, along with Matthew Elliott. If he hadn't hired them, it's probable the Brexit Party would have done.

All you can do is read things with a little scepticism. If something doesn't seem to add up, Google it and see which news sources are using the news. Check for any sources embedded within the articles and how things are worded. If no named person is credited, warning bells should be ringing. The trouble is that we all process thousands of pieces of data every day and we can't check them all out.

However, refusing to admit that it's happening is amazingly short-sighted.

I agree with you, Callistemon, although I don't think Seamus Milne has the same understanding of AI that Dominic Cummings does.

I am always sceptical.
Which may prove that I'm human!

By the way, I don't drink alcohol, so I'm unsure about the reference to gin.

The gin reference was for SirChenjin!

I understand now. But don't be complacent. Complacency is the enemy of democracy.

I recommend gin from The Cotswold Gin Company.Hic.?

Definitely Scottish from the Lochness Distillery.

I tried that once jura....it had something swimming about in it! ?

SirChenjin you've always been search engine since I first worked it out, and search engine you will remain, despite my love of a nice G&T

Cambridge Analytica are a huge concern, along with all the other sources mining our data. I imagine we all think we personally would not be susceptible to their techniques, but I doubt we are quite as immune as we'd like to believe.

Hi, again, from the USA. I continue to follow your current news and see so many parallels to what's going on here in the states. It will always be difficult for liberals (like me) and conservatives to agree on any number of issues and to make decisions about what direction we want to take to address any problems that arise.

What's upsetting me right now is that we can't seem to agree on anything anymore, even things that used to be nonpolitical or nonpartisan. Over here, we just finished listening to hearings about our president's obstructive and illegal behavior and yet we can't come together about the most basic things - like not letting foreign governments meddle in our election process, appreciating and BELIEVING reputable press and newspapers like the NY Times and our intelligence gathering agencies

What's happened that we can't even agree that throwing children in cages is horrible?

We all used to think that narcissistic, bloviating candidates were disgusting. I didn't agree with Presidents Bush or Reagan much of the time but I respected them!

Every social media company is collecting data. They are no more trustworthy than Cambridge Analytica. I sometimes go to access some information to be met by the message that they collect data about me so they can 'best provide me with personalised information'. At that point I leave the site. Online news sources may harvest the letters and comments to know more about the writers. Facebook, Google, Twitter and so many other data gathering companies are private companies.

Everyone would be wise to change their date of birth on profiles. Confound them by either adding or subtracting years from your age and changing your gender.

lemon, you obviously had far too much - Nessie is on the bottle, not inside

gmarie good to hear from someone from another country and how we parallel each other so much in the way our country has become so terribly divided, and seemingly like the USA we have rejected expert advice based on sound academic research, but prefer to believe the propaganda spewing from the media with clear agenda or, are as Persuadables being bombarded by various companies like Cambridge Analytica to change our behaviour, and vote in a particular way.

It is an extraordinary time we are living through. The U.K. has never seen such a period and very likely after 31 October will see the sort of chaos that we experienced inWW2.

It is quite astounding. One of our parliamentary committees after looking at CA and Facebook for 18 months concluded that the U.K.s electoral laws are not fit for purpose. We cannot have a free and fair election in the U.K. They understand that individuals have been identified as being open to suggestion (they are known as persuadable) and were manipulated into behaviour change. The technology that was developed to connect us all is now being used to drive us apart.

Authoritarian governments are on the rise and using the politics of hate and fear.

Brazil a nasty right wing extremist was elected . Facebook clearly implicated in the dissemination of fake news there
during the elections.

Myanmar - Facebook used to incite racial hatred which caused a genocide.

Russian government used Facebook in the USA. They targeted individuals by using their personal data and fed them fake news stories.
Stoking fear and hate to turn the country against itself
Divide and conquer.
All this was a key part of the Muller investigation.

It is the manipulation of us all as individuals.

We need to counter the populist argument be asking-

"who are the people?"

and

"who are the elites?"

But don't be complacent.

And never ever have a gin or a before you vote. Could affect your judgement!

That is not addressed to you, growstuff as you've said you do not imbibe alcohol.

Everyone would be wise to change their date of birth on profiles.
Do people actually give their real dob?

I don’t mind being honest about my birthday....
29th June 1975 ?

It is surprising that a very young granny born in 1975 can do such a convincing impression of a seventy-five year old blue rinsed member of the Tory Party.

varian??????? lovely.