Tag Archives: Cambridge Analytica

The Associated Press reports: A company run by former officials at Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm brought down by a scandal over how it obtained Facebook users’ private data, has quietly been working for President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election effort, The Associated Press has learned. The AP confirmed that at least four former Cambridge Analytica employees are affiliated with …

From Facebook’s corporate blog: The investigation process is in full swing, and it has two phases. First, a comprehensive review to identify every app that had access to this amount of Facebook data. And second, where we have concerns, we will conduct interviews, make requests for information (RFI) — which ask a series of detailed questions about the app and …

Gizmodo reports: On Wednesday, Cambridge Analytica employees learned that its parent company, the SCL Group, was shuttering the business, with American-based workers directed to return their keycards immediately, according to documentation reviewed by Gizmodo. The news was announced during a conference call led by Julian Wheatland, the current chairman of the SCL Group who was reportedly tapped to take over …

Law & Crime reports: Cambridge Analytica is threatening legal action against journalists who report unfavorable information regarding the controversial big data-mining firm. Perhaps the embattled firm is frightened by the swelling amount of attention due to Mark Zuckerberg‘s two days worth of congressional testimony. In any event, Cambridge Analytica has shifted its denial strategy to issuing vague threats of litigation …

USA Today reports: Mark Zuckerberg says his data was exposed in the Cambridge Analytica leak. The Facebook CEO made the admission during questioning on Capitol Hill Wednesday. The hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee was his second appearance before lawmakers in as many days. He took questions on privacy practices, foreign interference in U.S. elections and whether Facebook …

CNBC reports: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified to a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees Tuesday that Facebook is cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. “I know we are working with them,” Zuckerberg said during the hearing. When asked by Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont about Facebook’s involvement with Mueller’s investigation, Zuckerberg confirmed the cooperation but …

CNBC reports: Mark Zuckerberg is testifying at a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees Tuesday, in the first of two congressional hearings for the Facebook founder and CEO. The company is facing questions following reports that research firm Cambridge Analytica improperly gained access to the personal data of as many as 87 million Facebook users. Zuckerberg is …

The Hill reports: Facebook on Tuesday officially launched a program to reward users for reporting “data abuse” on its platform. The move comes as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepares to testify before lawmakers on Capitol Hill amid scrutiny over the controversy surrounding Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that Facebook says improperly obtained data on potentially 87 million of its users. …

Slate reports: The House Energy and Commerce Committee released Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s prepared introductory remarks on Monday. Zuckerberg is expected to testify before the committee on Wednesday. He will also appear before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees on Tuesday. Zuckerberg expresses regret for both the Russian interference and the Cambridge Analytica scandal at the beginning of his testimony: …

The Associated Press reports: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is shutting down his Facebook account as the social media giant struggles to cope with the worst privacy crisis in its history. In an email to USA Today, Wozniak says Facebook makes a lot of advertising money from personal details provided by users. He says the “profits are all based on the …

Axios reports: Christopher Wylie, the former Cambridge Analytica employee who sounded the alarm on the firm illicitly obtaining user data from Facebook, told Meet the Press’ Chuck Todd that Steve Bannon “absolutely wanted to use [the data] for Republican candidates … [and] alt-right candidates in the United States.” Wylie also said he’s been contacted by American authorities — both from …

The Washington Post reports: Facebook’s disclosure this week that its search tools were used to collect data on most of its 2.2 billion users could potentially trigger record fines and create new legal vulnerability for not having prevented risks to user data, said three former federal officials. The three former officials, all of whom were at the Federal Trade Commission …

CNBC reports: Facebook has asked several major U.S. hospitals to share anonymized data about their patients, such as illnesses and prescription info, for a proposed research project. Facebook was intending to match it up with user data it had collected, and help the hospitals figure out which patients might need special care or treatment. The proposal never went past the …

The Associated Press reports: Facebook revealed Wednesday that tens of millions more people might have been exposed in the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal than previously thought and said it will restrict the user data that outsiders can access. Those developments came as congressional officials said CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify next week, while Facebook unveiled a new privacy policy that …

Digital Chew reports: On Wednesday, Facebook announced they will be updating their terms of service to clarify what it does with user’s social media information. The changes to the TOS are in response to major business shakeups to Facebook’s business since the last time the company implemented major changes in 2015. This news comes after the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal. However, …

Business Insider reports: Mark Zuckerberg fired back at Tim Cook after the Apple CEO criticized Facebook amid a burgeoning scandal around the company’s data practicies and its role in political campaigns. Cook said that “privacy to us is a human right” and a “civil liberty,” and ultimately, because Facebook is a free service, the users become the products that are …

The Hill reports: Two watchdog groups on Thursday filed a criminal complaint alleging that the Trump campaign and a super PAC controlled by President Trump’s new national security adviser John Bolton worked with the consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to violate a law preventing foreign nations from participating in U.S. elections. In the complaint, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington …

The Guardian reports: SCL, Cambridge Analytica’s predecessor, had access to secret UK information and was singled out for praise by the UK Ministry of Defence for the training it provided to a psychological operations warfare group, according to documents newly released by MPs. The document also noted that SCL – which was subsequently rebranded as Cambridge Analytica by Steve Bannon …

The New York Times reports: As a start-up called Cambridge Analytica sought to harvest the Facebook data of tens of millions of Americans in summer 2014, the company received help from at least one employee at Palantir Technologies, a top Silicon Valley contractor to American spy agencies and the Pentagon. It was a Palantir employee in London, working closely with …

The Guardian reports: There was a “common plan” to use the network of companies orbiting Cambridge Analytica to get around election spending and co-ordination laws, Christopher Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, has told a parliamentary committee. “For me, this is about the integrity of the democratic process, which is more important than anything else,” Wylie said, before emphasising his words: …