Facebook Suspends Data Analytics Firm With Ties to Trump Campaign for Harvesting Voter Data

Social media network’s user info was gathered under false pretenses

Tony Maglio | Last Updated: March 17, 2018 @ 10:41 AM

Facebook has suspended data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica for harvesting data from more than 50 million user profiles and allegedly using the information to aid President Trump’s 2016 campaign.

According to a New York Times expose, which first exposed the violations, “Cambridge paid to acquire the personal information through an outside researcher who, Facebook says, claimed to be collecting it for academic purposes.”

That “outside researcher” was University of Cambridge professor Dr. Aleksandr Kogan.

Knowing that this morning’s Times piece was coming, Facebook posted a lengthy statement on Friday. In part, it reads: “Kogan lied to us and violated our Platform Policies by passing data from an app that was using Facebook Login to SCL/Cambridge Analytica.”

Kogan also handed his data over to Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, Inc., the social media network said.

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But how did Kogan gather the intel in the first place? He made an app.

“Like all app developers, Kogan requested and gained access to information from people after they chose to download his app,” Facebook wrote in its explanation.

Kogan’s thisisyourdigitallife app was billed as “a research app used by psychologists,” and offered users a personality prediction. Roughly 270,000 people downloaded the app, Facebook said, giving consent for Kogan to access information on user location, content they “Liked,” and what Mark Zuckerberg’s company qualified as some “limited information” about friends without strict privacy settings.

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When Facebook learned of the violations in 2015, it removed Kogan’s app, the company said. Furthermore, Facebook “demanded certifications from Kogan and all parties he had given data to that the information had been destroyed.”

Everyone said they destroyed it — though that may have been untrue, something Facebook says it found out just days ago.

“We are moving aggressively to determine the accuracy of these claims,” Facebook said.

“We are committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people’s information,” it continued. “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.”

The New York Times said it inquired about the data’s destruction for a week, during which “Facebook downplayed the scope of the leak and questioned whether any of the data still remained out of its control.”