A shocking revelation about Trump consultants firm resurfaced just last week. According to Facebook, the data-analysis firm has collected improperly obtained user data under the name of research tool!
Trump consultants collected data from 50 million Facebook users!!!
Recently, Facebook has suspended Cambridge Analytica, which worked for President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. In details, Facebook claimed that the firm has held onto inappropriately obtained user data after claiming that they had deleted all the information. Previously, Cambridge Analytica collected many user data from a Facebook app. Despite claiming that the app is a psychological research tool, the firm wasn’t entitled to possess the information.
Based on the New York Times statement, the firm has now collected the private information from up to 50 million Facebook users, all with their permission. As a result, this can might as well be one of the most significant data leaks in Facebook’s history. In their response in 2015, Cambridge Analytica claimed that they had destroyed all of the information they collected. However, Facebook said they had received reports that not all of the data was deleted just recently.
In Facebook’s blog post, written by their deputy general counsel Paul Grewal, cited the “public prominence” of Cambridge Analytica. Furthermore, they called the alleged data retention an “unacceptable violation of trust”. On the other hand, Facebook is going to take legal action if necessary; to hold all parties “responsible and accountable for any unlawful behaviour.” On the contrary, Cambridge Analytica denied any accusation from Facebook. Moreover, Christopher Wylie, who worked with a Cambridge University academic to obtain the data, revealed to the Observer: “We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles. Additionally, we built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis of the entire company”
About Cambridge Analytica
In details, Cambridge Analytica is famous for their political work in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Additionally, the company claims to build psychological profiles based on personal details from millions of Americans that can categorise individual voters. It worked for both the primary campaign of Texas Senator Ted Cruz and the Trump general-election campaign.