Facebook suspends Trump-linked data firm Cambridge Analytica

Late Friday night, Facebook has announced it’s suspending Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) from its site. While you may not have heard of SCL, its political analytics firm Cambridge Analytica has made headlines in the last few years due to work for the Trump campaign and the Brexit initiative. According to former US Magistrate and current Facebook Deputy General Counsel Paul Grewal, this move is occurring because an app “thisisyourdigitallife” pulled in personal information of the 270,000 people who used it as well as information from their friends. While this is allowed under its policy, its creator, a Cambridge psych professor named Dr. Aleksandr Kogan, passed the data onto other parties including Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook’s stance is that it requested the deletion of the data in 2015, which Cambridge Analytica, Kogan and another man Christopher Wylie said they did, however now the social network says it has been informed that not all of the data was deleted. Now it’s suspending their access while it investigates.

So who are these people and what did they do with that data? Last May The Guardian reported on Cambridge Analytica, reporting on a source who said Wylie is “the one who brought data and micro-targeting [individualised political messages] to Cambridge Analytica.” That same report specifically pointed out Kogan’s app and its link to the company, which combined psychological profiles with specific names, phone numbers and email address plus information it bought from consumer databases.

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Source: Facebook