Cambridge Analytica

You gave away the rights to your face. The one you use to unlock your phone.

“The obvious privacy concern is it’s your face that is now in the hands of a company that can go and use that face however they want, according to their terms and conditions,” says David Choffnes, an assistant professor at Northeastern’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences who designs solutions to internet security and privacy.

by Khalida Sarwari July 19, 2019

How does fake news spread on Facebook?

Four Northeastern professors have been selected to receive access to closely guarded Facebook data that could shed light on how people share fake news on social media.

by Molly Callahan May 14, 2019

Worried about your Facebook data? Read this.

Last weekend, The New York Times revealed that data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica misused data from as many as 50 million Facebook profiles to aid messaging tied to the Trump campaign in the 2016 presidential election. We spoke with assistant professor David Choffnes to see what social media users should learn from this, and what steps they can take to keep themselves safe online.

by Shannon Nargi March 26, 2018

With no clear liability against Facebook, professor calls for stronger data privacy laws

The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday that it is investigating Facebook after millions of users’ personal data was harvested and passed along to a campaign analytics firm. Professor Woodrow Hartzog specializes in privacy and data protection law, and says that while there’s ‘no clear-cut’ liability case against Facebook, the case may be enough to spur Congress to pass much-needed privacy laws.

by Danny Hajjar March 22, 2018

Fake news. Real research.

The concept of “fake news” has been in the real news almost daily for more than a year. While separating fact from misinformation has always been critical, the current social and political climate made research on the topic especially pertinent for this year’s NULab conference, which showcased the work researchers are doing to understand and combat the spread of fake news.

by Molly Callahan March 21, 2018