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Trump-linked Cambridge Analytica suspended from Facebook after 'harvesting 50 million profiles'

Facebook has suspended the firm after what is thought to be its biggest ever data breach - AFP or licensors
Facebook has suspended the firm after what is thought to be its biggest ever data breach - AFP or licensors

A data analytics firm that worked with Donald Trump’s election team has been suspended from Facebook amid claims it harvested 50 million profiles from the social media site. 

Cambridge Analytica got information from an academic who was asking Facebook users to fill out surveys via an app as it sought to develop an effective campaigning tool. 

Around 270,000 Facebook users download the app but it allowed for information about hundreds of their online friends to be obtained without consent, a whistleblower claimed. 

Christopher Wylie, the former research director at Cambridge Analytica, went public about the alleged behaviour after admitting regret over his involvement. 

“It allowed us to move into the hearts and minds of American voters in a way that had never been done before,” Mr Wylie told Channel 4 News

Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner, said she would be “investigating the circumstances in which Facebook data may have been illegally acquired and used”

Donald Trump, the US president - Credit: REUTERS/Leah Millis
Donald Trump, the US president Credit: REUTERS/Leah Millis

Facebook faced new calls for regulation from within US Congress and was hit with questions about personal data safeguards.

"It's clear these platforms can't police themselves," Democratic U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar tweeted.

Pulling information from 50 million Facebook profiles reportedly amounts to the tech giant’s biggest ever data breach - though that figure is disputed by the company. 

Channel 4 News, the Guardian and The New York Times all published stories carrying interviews with Mr Wylie around the same time on Saturday. 

At the heart of the reporting was Cambridge Analytica, a company owned by the billionaire Robert Mercer and once involving Steve Bannon, Mr Trump’s ex-chief strategist. 

The firm specialised in voter-profiling and was involved in US political campaigns in the 2014 mid-term elections and the 2016 presidential race. 

To improve its models, the firm reportedly worked with the Cambridge University academic Aleksandr Kogan, who had an app that got Facebook users to take a survey. 

Mr Kogan passed on the data to Cambridge Analytica, though it is disputed whether any privacy rules were broken in this process. 

Mr Wylie claimed in a Channel 4 News interview that when a Facebook user took the survey, data would be scraped from hundreds of their friend's online profiles without their knowledge.

Facebook said that 270,000 people downloaded the app but have not addressed publicly how many others were affected. 

Mr Wylie, who has since been in legal dispute with Cambridge Analytica, denied he was acting for commercial advantage, saying that he regrets what took place. 

In a statement, a Cambridge Analytica spokesman denied any wrongdoing.  He said the parent company Strategic Communication Laboratories [SCL] hired Mr Kogan to undertake "a large scale research project in the US". 

He added that SCL later learned Mr Kogan had obtained data in violation of Facebook policies and subsequently deleted all the data. 

The spokesman added that for the "avoidance of doubt” none of Mr Kogan's data was used in Cambridge Analytica's 2016 election work. 

Facebook said it was suspending SCL - including Cambridge Analytica - as well as Mr Wylie and Kogan “pending further information”

Paul Grewal, Facebook’s vice president and deputy general counsel, said: “We are committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people’s information.

“We will take whatever steps are required to see that this happens. We will take legal action if necessary to hold them responsible and accountable for any unlawful behavior.”

Facebook by numbers
Facebook by numbers

Facebook insisted the data was misused but not stolen, because users gave permission, sparking a debate about what constitutes a hack that must be disclosed to customers.

"The lid is being opened on the black box of Facebook's data practices, and the picture is not pretty," said Frank Pasquale, a University of Maryland law professor who has written about Silicon Valley's use of data.

Prof Pasquale said Facebook's response that data had not technically been stolen seemed to obfuscate the central issue that data was apparently used in a way contrary to the expectations of users.

"It amazes me that they are trying to make this about nomenclature. I guess that's all they have left," he said.