Facebook is in an unprecedented crisis related to user data.
What is Cambridge Analytica?
Cambridge Analytica is a company hired by US President Donald Trump’s election campaign team in 2016. This company is partly funded by billionaire investor Robert Mercer and his family – donors to the Republican Party.
CEO Cambridge Analytica – Alexander Nix during a conference in 2016. Photo: Engadget
Cambridge Analytica also has multiple ties to Mr. Trump’s former and current advisers.
Cambridge Analytica also cooperates with media company SCL Group (UK) – specializing in providing data, analysis and strategy to governments and military organizations around the world.
Why is Cambridge Analytica the focus of attention?
The scandal broke out last weekend, when the New York Times and British media reported that Cambridge Analytica tried to influence American voters by using information obtained from 50 million Facebook users.
At that time, Facebook allowed Mr. Kogan to collect information from people who downloaded his application, to do a personality test.
Facebook is being criticized for not managing user information.
However, Kogan later gave this data to SCL Group and Cambridge Analytica, which were then developing tools that could be used to influence voters.
Since last weekend, this company has continuously defended itself on Twitter.
Latest developments
Facebook blocked the social network accounts of Cambridge Analytica and SCL, and asked Cambridge Analytica to agree to an audit to determine all data that had been deleted.
The British Information Commissioner’s Office announced that it is waiting for a court order to conduct its own investigation.
Meanwhile, Cambridge Analytica is also in turmoil internally.
This announcement was made just before Britain’s Channel 4 News was due to broadcast a news report in a series exploring the company’s work.
`We did all the data research, analytics, audience targeting. We ran the entire campaign digitally, on TV, and our data informed the strategy,` Nix said.
In another video, Alex Tayler – Chief Data Officer of Cambridge Analytica also said that this company’s research was behind Mr. Trump’s electoral vote win.
`Mr. Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million votes, but won the electoral vote, that’s thanks to data and research. That’s why he was elected,` Tayler said.
In a statement, Nix denied the company engaged in bribery or entrapment.
The crisis at Facebook
The incident also seriously affected Facebook.
Facebook shares lost 6.8% on Monday – the most in nearly four years.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself was also criticized for his poor leadership skills in this incident.
