Still waiting....
On that Russian connection that ties Facebook, CA, Brexit, and Trump all together in a nice giftwraped package.
The recently-sidelined former CEO of Cambridge Analytica has declined the opportunity to make a second appearance in front of the UK Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Alexander Nix was due for a second grilling on Wednesday, April 18, but the committee's chairman Damian Collins, issued a statement …
They have a common link - Robert Mercer.
He does not look particularly Russian to me.
What's your obsession with Russia Michael?
Leave the man alone, he is doing his civic duty and relaying what he has been hired to. Same as the idiot who once a day runs a script to mod down on all my posts on all articles.
It's a living. Not a rich one, but a living.
He may even earn some money at the end of the day after he has done all of his assigned quota.
What's your obsession with Russia Michael?
He's still sore about Operation Barbarossa - you know, the one where Hitler stabbed Stalin in the back before Stalin could stab him in the back. And they had such an nice agreement to divide Eastern Europe between themselves too!
My mum was taking an unhealthy (for her) interest in Cambridge Analytica. She's never been anywhere near Facebook which made it even more odd. Turns out she was interested in Mr Nix because I was at primary school with him. Not that I really remembered him as it was a very long time ago.
Now that Facebook wants to enable face scanning in Canada and Europe?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43797128
Haven't they learned a lesson that WE the People don't want this shit. After all, the majority of us are not signed up to FaceBook so why don't we get a say in the way FB wants to use our data?
I'd like to be able to walk around say London and not have to worry that the hundreds of selfies that may have me in shot and the posted on Social Media can be used by advertisers to track me. Sometimes, wearing a Nicab can have its advantages...
I don't want anything to do with FB (or Twatter etc for that matter)
Come on MP's get off your fat arses and make it illegal for FB to collect data on people who are not signed up to their evil empire.
Come on MP's get off your fat arses and make it illegal for FB to collect data on people who are not signed up to their evil empire.
Write to yours.
Mine is quite responsive and actually stood for the views of his constituents regarding the empty shed demolition operation yesterday. So was the previous one and so was the one before him.
Though none of them are tories, so maybe that's your problem.
"The political party they belong to bears little relationship to how competent and receptive they are."
This is true. I've received more helpful responses from the (back bench) Tory MP in the constituency I grew up in than I have of some of my other MPs. Although the Lib Dem MP I used to have would personally reply to my letters, so props for doing the job they're paid (a fuckton) to do.
they cannot summons the Zuckerborg
Not even by sacrificing a data protection person and chanting "all your data are belong to us" three times in quick succession?
(Mind you, that would probably summon Microsoft and Google too. The UnHoly Trinity, all in the same place..)
"Haven't they learned a lesson that WE the People don't want this shit. "
There are numerous people and organisations that scan all photos uploaded to FB doing facial recognition and the Niqab won't help because they can also use gait recognition now too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNZrq2iK87k
Haven't they learned a lesson that WE the People don't want
Remember - in the Big Money[1] world, there is no We the People. There is only We the Rich and Them the proles. And in Facebooks worldview, we are only datasources to be mined.
[1] Money has no political affiliation - you get oligarchs of every nation and political stripe. Whatever makes them more money. (Wanders off humming Peter Gabriel's song "Big")
“There is therefore no legal reason why Mr Nix cannot appear. "
What you expected him to reappear out of the goodness of his heart.
With no charges, summons or subpoena
There is no legal reason for him to appear.
Gez. Stop whining and issue a summons already. Better still open an active investigation on him and let the police crawl through his professional and personal life. Why do these politicians think that they have the investigative credentials of a seasoned detective.
If Parliament committees retained any honour then you may have a point. But committees have descended to the point where they are a forum for MPs to score political points by slinging abuse and unsubstantiated allegations at people which, without parliamentary privilege, would be actionable slander.
They've become the modern equivalent of a tar-and-feather. It's understandable not to want to attend.
I'm thoroughly astonished that there still are apparently sane adult people willing to use concepts like "honour" and "anything related to politics, government or the state" in the same paragraph with a straight face - I have to conclude it must be some kind of Stockholm syndrome. Now do excuse me, I need to lie down and laugh uncontrollably for the rest of the day.
"Of which he clearly has neither."
I suppose if I were in his position my reasoning would be "Does attending give me a chance of dropping my former colleagues in it instead of me? If so, go, if not, try and stay out of it.". In that case my not going would be indicative of my thinking I had something to hide. I wonder what his reasoning is.
>I'd love to know when this golden age of honest politicians was. Back before the Romans invaded, one assumes.
You mean, you haven't heard about the comings and goings at the court of King Caractacus!?!
Actually, I quite agree, This kneejerk dismissal of politicians, as a class, is as daft as kneejerk adulation of politicians we happen to like.
"It used to be, back when the MPs had a smidgen of honour and sense of duty"
Back in those days a minister would accept that he carried the responsibility for his department's failings and resign. It even happened that a minister, might resign if the actual failing took place took place under a previous minister's period in office. Say something as serious as the Windrush business.
however all political parties have failed in that respect
And, in general, have done since the invention of political parties. There are some instructive lessons to be taken from Ancient Athens in that regard.. (they didn't call them political parties but they essentially were - bodies of citizens who campaigned and voted with others of like mind - usually on the basis of birth class or philosophical concordances).
That should be summons enough to anyone with a smidgen of honor and sense of duty.
It's been a while since I have heard anyone on El Reg saying we should do as we are told.
I guess, like me, he's a traitor, saboteur, enemy of the people, and a lot worse - unpatriotic perhaps seeing how you spell "honor" - simply because he is exercising his free will and not bowing down to others telling him what he should do.
Sorry, but not really, if doing that offends you.
Why do these politicians think that they have the investigative credentials of a seasoned detective.
Why? Dunning Kruger, I suspect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning-Kruger_effect
Why else would a postman or lawyer think he should be running the country rather than delivering mail or chasing ambulances?
The ICO were already investigating CA, they had not yet "raided" the offices.
He has been implicated of breaking election laws by other witnesses.
He has been videoed by Channel 4 telling porkies and being a slimey crook.
Nix is generally seen by the MPs and public as being guilty of numerous crimes.
He knows where the dead bodies are buried...
Look at the stress Trump is feeling right now! Zuk & Nix impose the same kind of Global Power of the strong hunting the weak. We're just Pawns on a behavioral chessboard to them, and their dodgy firms!
They both operate global spying apparatus available to anyone with $$$. So they can't really talk about how their firms work. Its also why politicians don't want to mess with Facebook / CA, as they're useful tools - for hire.
Facebook combined with Cambridge Analytica, is basically the world's greatest behavioral experiment on humans ever ... What's not to like about that kind of propaganda machine power!
'We are the native people's now'!
"Its also why politicians don't want to mess with Facebook / CA, as they're useful tools - for hire."
Governments might not want to. Select Committees give power to MPs who don't have the funds for that sort of hiring. ITYF they're rather keen on using that power if they see it as having popular appeal. Given that FB/CA etc. have rather dirtied their nappies now Committee members can probably see it as having public appeal.
Nix should count himself lucky; three or four centuries back he would have received the invitation for the appearance in front of parliamentary officials from a bloke in a tin shirt with a couple of mates with halberds.
After the initial chat he would have been invited downstairs for a chat by a real fire complete with tongs, a poker and another bloke who could put them places one wouldn't want to think about.
Now, it's just a load of questions that could lead (eventually) to a comfy cell in an open prison, that's if he hasn't found a new job in a country with no extradition treaty with the UK, before they get that far.
If I was in charge I would revoke his passport.
invited downstairs for a chat by a real fire complete with tongs
I sincerely hope that you are not advocating a return to the use of torture. It's unethical, immoral and hideous and only produces information that is required for the torturer to stop torturing - which is generally the one being tortured saying anything to get the torture stopped.
That anyone who believes in democracy and the rule of law can advocate torture is appalling.