Reputation Manipulation with Collusion Networks

Had such a thing mentioned to me some time ago, and I just discovered this ACM study/paper on the topic.  How can such 'collusion networks' be effectively detected?  Facebook seems to be the target here.

Technical Perspective: Fake 'Likes' and Targeting Collusion Networks
By Geoffrey M. Voelker
Communications of the ACM, May 2020, Vol. 63 No. 5, Page 102   10.1145/3387722

The following scenario might sound like fiction. You and a million of your closest Facebook friends are going to band together to artificially improve your social networking reputation. You will willingly give a reputation manipulation service such as "official-liker.net" authorized access to your Facebook account. The manipulation service will cleverly exploit an authentication vulnerability in third-party Facebook apps to automate actions with your account. To use the service, you will view ads or pay explicit fees. The service will then use your account to "like" another Facebook account under their control—and that account will "like" yours back. You and others gain fake "likes," presumably improving your perceived online social standing, and the reputation service makes a profit.

But this scenario, and the problem it presents to Facebook and other successful online social networks, is both a very real and challenging problem: How to completely undermine this abusive activity without negatively impacting your users (who are knowingly and entirely complicit in the abuse) or changing how apps authenticate (because that would add friction to the app ecosystem).

The following paper presents a rigorous study that explores this reputation manipulation ecosystem, ultimately working with Facebook to examine ways to stop this kind of large-scale online social networking abuse. The manipulation services are called collusion networks since the users who knowingly participate collude with each other to generate fake actions. In their work, the authors describe how to use honeypot accounts to infiltrate the collusion networks and reveal how they operate. The authors detail how the collusion networks take advantage of an authentication vulnerability using leaked access tokens to perform their actions, and comprehensively measure the extent and activity of the collusion networks they find. Who would do this? Over a million Facebook users. How many apps are vulnerable? More than half of the top 100 third-party Facebook apps. How many services are exploring this unexpected business opportunity? More than 20 such services. Finally, can these collusion networks be safely and effectively shut down? Yes.

As a final effort, the authors performed a series of careful interventions with Facebook against these services. Consider the defensive perspective of the online social network. Companies know which accounts are using collusion networks, which apps are being exploited to perform collusion, and who the collusion networks are. But services cannot shutdown the user accounts: the users are legitimate, and services want them to continue to use the platform. They also cannot shutdown the apps, or how apps perform authentication: the apps have millions of legitimate users, and ease of app development relies upon the client-side token-based authentication. ... " 

Value of Halo Effect

Interesting top line, suggesting that established and known strategy and process is not enough.  Though I would still think its useful to document what you are doing as a means to finding improvement.  A  'Halo' is a easy to use simplification that is often not enough.  Perhaps a driver of driver of technology hype?

The halo effect, and other managerial delusions   By Phil Rosenzweig in McKinsey

Companies cannot achieve superior and lasting business performance simply by following a specific set of steps.

The quest of every high-quality corporate executive is to find the keys to superior performance. Achieving market leadership is hard enough, but staying at the top—given intense competition, rapidly changing technology, and shifting global forces—is even more difficult. At the same time, executives are under enormous pressure to deliver profitable growth and high returns for their shareholders. No wonder they constantly search for ways to achieve competitive advantage. .... "

Reputation in the Age of the Internet

In the Edge: The internet has changed the means and the metrics.  You could always sculpt your reputation, but not as easily as you can today.  Positive and negative. What are the correct measures?

Reputation is Our Most Important Asset

Have been involve in several investigations lately that have born this out.  K@W article that discusses the elements of reputation.   A personal exploration here that provides some good tips for the modern, more often many step, career journey.

Learning from Emergent Markets

In HBR:   At one level obvious, but useful cautions.    Especially about regulatory warnings, and connected risk.  " ... In a study we recently conducted of 150 North American and European-based companies with revenues over $1 billion, we found that along with growth, those investments can generate huge losses — more than $1 billion per responding company over the last five years. Those losses stemmed not from poor product, marketing, or supply chain decisions but from regulatory violations, loss of business and fines resulting from bribery and fraud, and concomitant reputational damage. .... " 

Intelligence of Algorithms

Emerging Technology in the Enterprise
By Erika Morphy
Maybe robots, A.I. and algorithms aren't as smart as we think

We are offloading more and more sophisticated knowledge work to smart technology. But the public won't be demanding the head of the algorithm when something goes awry. Rather it will be the company holding the reputational bag.  .... "

Big Data Winning at the Casinos

In Forbes:  Still think there is real connection between the analytics of casinos and retail.  We explored.  Simulation in particular is a direct application.   We talked this to Harrah's.  See the casino tag link below.

" ... Caesars Entertainment, formerly known as Harrah’s – the company which runs the famous Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas and more than 50 other casinos worldwide – established itself as an early leader in Big Data customer service.

It has hit more than a spot of bother recently with a messy bankruptcy of its casino operating unit and reportedly facing fines of up to $20 million over money laundering allegations. The most valuable of the individual assets being fought over by creditors is the data collected over the last 17 years through the company’s Total Rewards loyalty program, which gained Caesar’s a reputation as a pioneer in Big Data-driven marketing and customer service. .. "

Amazon Private Label Diapers

In Retailwire: Amazon competing with major CPG.  Amazon has the consumer data to compete with Pampers.  Amazon has sold P&G products directly for years.   This will be interesting to follow.   " ... Amazon has launched Amazon Elements, a new line of private label diapers and baby wipes offered exclusively to Amazon Prime members. The launch has been rumored for over a year based on job postings. ... " 

Includes a video which points to Amazon's extensive use of consumer research on the use of diapers and also emphasizes their on time delivery reputation.  A well done, convincing ad.

Supply Chain Transparency Visualization

From Deloitte. Data visualization of risk. Good piece that looks at the application of descriptive analytics for supply chain risk.

" ... Supply chain transparency is critical for managing rising levels of risk in an environment where corporate supply chain practices are attracting increasing legal, regulatory, and consumer scrutiny .... 

The dispersed nature of today’s supply chains creates increasing levels of risk for multinational businesses, making transparency both critical and complex. Without effective visibility into their supply chains, executives potentially have a significant blind spot in their enterprise risk management structure, from which substantial legal, financial, and reputational exposure could emerge.

Supply chain transparency isn’t easily achieved; it requires a solid foundation and continuous improvement over time. This article presents a practical four-step approach that companies can take to begin the process of building a transparent supply chain in the current global environment. ... " 

Destroying Online Reputation

An area we looked at in the early days of the Wikipedia. Now becoming considerably more sophisticated.    From The Intercept:   A number of documents extracted to show how governments in infiltrate the Internet to influence reputation.  Not unexpected at all.   Not particularly sophisticated either, but the breadth of it is telling. What has happened is that destroying online reputation now has become a big portion of your entire reputation.

The Sharp Rise of Human Resource Analytics

We used to do very few analytical decisions in Human resources.  There were a few tests, a few hurdles to overcome, very loose impressions gained by short interactions with management. Choices made by reputations of attended schools. Now things have changed and the precision of the decisions needed have become acute.  Universities are coming back to practitioners of analytics to find out what the curriculum's should be, and how to match them more closely and analytically to the needs of industry.

Very much on the topic:  In the Atlantic: What happens when Big Data meets human resources? The emerging practice of "people analytics" is already transforming how employers hire, fire, and promote   Good general, non technical piece on the topic.  Have sent it to several people who are working in this field to get their further specific impressions and will write about their views here.

First response:  Too little is said of the power of descriptive analytics, in particular data visualization, to get a grip on these problems.  It should always be a first step in understanding the problem.  And given to the decision makers in the field to work with their data, Big or otherwise.

Reputation Risks from Technology

In CIO Insight:  A low information slide infomercial accounts the means by which corporate reputation can be endangered from new technologies.    Though the information content is low, the statistics that lay out the risk are useful.

Techniques in Sentiment Analysis

In CACM:   Excellent overview piece on the subject.  The abstract itself has interest: " ... Sentiment analysis (or opinion mining) is defined as the task of finding the opinions of authors about specific entities. The decision-making process of people is affected by the opinions formed by thought leaders and ordinary people. When a person wants to buy a product online he or she will typically start by searching for reviews and opinions written by other people on the various offerings. Sentiment analysis is one of the hottest research areas in computer science. Over 7,000 articles have been written on the topic. 

    Hundreds of startups are developing sentiment analysis solutions and major statistical packages such as SAS and SPSS include dedicated sentiment analysis modules. There is a huge explosion today of 'sentiments' available from social media including Twitter, Facebook, message boards, blogs, and user forums. These snippets of text are a gold mine for companies and individuals that want to monitor their reputation and get timely feedback about their products and actions. Sentiment analysis offers these organizations the ability to monitor the different social media sites in real time and act accordingly. Marketing managers, PR firms, campaign managers, politicians, and even equity investors and online shoppers are the direct beneficiaries of sentiment analysis technology .... " 

Social Analytics with Voziq

Correspondent Chris Herbert sends along a link to Voziq.

... Monitor the social web for mentions of your brand, competitors and industry
- Benchmark how you compare with your competitors and identify strategic focus areas
- Identify topics and trends so you can lead the conversation
- Analyze real-time sentiment, and leverage it as part of your marketing campaigns
- Protect your brand reputation with real-time responses and by engaging brand advocates
- Develop consumer insights based on social media mentions across the social web
- Improve marketing effectiveness and generate sales leads ... 

SNCR Publishes the Social Mind

From SNCR, of which I am a senior fellow:

Professionals Spend 40% of Time Online Interacting in Peer Communities according to the Society for New Communications Research report, "The Social Mind," led by three SNCR Fellows, Vanessa DiMauro, CEO of Leader Networks; Peter Auditore, Principal of Asterias Research, and Donald Bulmer, Vice President of Royal Dutch Shell.

This study explores the interrelationships between online content, global communications, information consumption, social media channels and social networks and changing influence patterns. The Social Mind also identifies key characteristics and insights into the engagement behaviors of influencers and individuals, and how organizations can maximize reach and influence to execute on what we call the new Principals of Engagement in the Millennium. This research is part of a 3-year on-going study on social communications and influence from the New Symbiosis of Professional Networks. The Social Mind research study clearly defines the characteristics and behavior of social media influencers within social media networks that impact the brand, reputation and potentially the sale of products. To purchase a copy of this report, please visit: http://bit.ly/NB6ZIU.

Key findings of The Social Mind Study include:

• Professionals spend 40% of their time online interacting in peer-based communities, closely followed by interactions with friends (31%), and 13% of time interacting with family online.

• 65% participate to engage with a professional community of colleagues and peers via social media networks.80% participate in groups online to help others by sharing information, ideas and experiences.

• 82% exchange information with professional networks and 78% exchange information online with friends, whereas 37% exchange information with “experts.”

• Nearly 80% of respondents participate in online groups to help others by sharing information and experiences; 66% participate in a professional community of colleagues and peers; 41% participate in groups to be seen as someone knowledgeable.

• For seeking information about companies, nearly 50% of respondents said that visiting company websites was most meaningful, 45% read blogs; followed by microblogging (41%), direct email (40%) and information exchange in online groups or forums (41%).

• Educational information was by far the most frequently shared (61%).

Sociologically Inspired Technology

In the Edge:   Looking at how people and animals socially interact and applying that organization more broadly.  Akin to agent-based simulation methods we applied in marketing.   Still being used today by companies like Thinkvine.  Another exploration looked at how corporate organizational structures might be improved via restructure and acquisition.  Does this work at ETH take the solution to new levels of social organization?  " ... Society has many wonderful self-organization mechanisms that we can learn from, such as trust, reputation, culture. If we can learn how to implement that in our technological system, that is worth a lot of money; billions of dollars, actually. We think this is the next step after bio-inspired technology.... " 

Managing Brand and Corporate Reputation

A conversation reminded me again of the company Neputation, who's technical people I had the chance to talk to recently.  Impressive methods being used to address the problem, beyond just doing lots of Web searches.  at the marketing level:   " ... Marketing Agencies cannot grow and sustain their business without effectively managing their client’s public image and reputation in today’s “socially networked” world. Customers are turning to the web and social media to voice their opinion, learn what others are saying, and engage in meaningful discussions. As a Marketing agency, you and your clients can no longer rely on traditional methods of measuring the brand reputation and customer experience. Embrace the new paradigm shift and exploit to your fullest advantage in light of the following marketing challenges: ... " 

SAP and NetBase

More on the use of social media analytics to manage client reputation and interaction.

" ... Taking a cue from rivals such as Salesforce.com, SAP on Monday announced a partnership under which it will resell and support social media analytics software from NetBase. NetBase is one of a growing variety of vendors with platforms that ingest large amounts of data from social websites such as Facebook and Twitter, and then analyze it to give companies a sense of what people are saying about their products, strategies and brands. The move follows Salesforce.com's acquisition earlier this year of Radian6, a NetBase competitor, as well as Oracle's recent US$1.5 billion acquisition of RightNow, which has social-media monitoring software among its offerings ... "   " ... the solution indexes over 95 million posts to Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. These are managed in the social intelligence warehouse where these insights are made available through the web based UI, and to custom applications that use the web services API ... "

See also more details on this on the blog of Blair Wheadon of SAP.  Note in particular the use of sentiment and emotion  analysis in the analytics.  I saw some early presentations by SAP on how they planned to use social media methods.

Your Business Channel

Newly brought to my attention YourBusiness Channel.   See also their blog.

A hub for business expertise ... yourBusinessChannel produces and distributes TV quality, engaging online video editorial.A YouTube partner, we have worked with some of the world’s biggest brands as well as celebrated experts to create a catalogue of over 1700 punchy, informative online shows – each offering the audience nuggets of insight, and enhancing the reputation of the businesses involved ...

Clever idea, content linked to businesses 

Neputation: Business Intelligence and Reputation Management

Neputation: Talked to these folks recently, very impressive.   I like thinking of Business Intelligence/Competitive Intelligence as a form of reputation management. 

Your Reputation is your Business and your Business is your Reputation

At Neputation, we take a DEEP approach (Discover, Evaluate, Enhance, and Protect) in offering a full life-cycle solution to proactively manage your reputation. Our innovative Business Intelligence (BI) solution provides meaningful insights to make strategic decisions that are critical in achieving your business objectives ....