Cambridge Analytica closing after scandal
Blames unfair media coverage; Victoria company AggregateIQ says it’s business as usual
NEW YORK — Cambridge Analytica, the Trump-affiliated data firm at the centre of Facebook’s worst privacy scandal in history, is declaring bankruptcy and shutting down.
The London firm blamed “unfairly negative media coverage” and said it has been “vilified” for actions it says are both legal and widely accepted as part of online advertising.
Cambridge Analytica said it has filed papers to begin insolvency proceedings in the U.K. and will seek bankruptcy protection in a federal court in New York.
“The siege of media coverage has driven away virtually all of the company’s customers and suppliers,” Cambridge Analytica said in a statement. “As a result, it has been determined that it is no longer viable to continue operating the business.”
Facebook said it will keep looking into data misuse by Cambridge Analytica even though the firm is closing down. And Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy, a digital advocacy group in Washington, said criticisms of Facebook’s privacy practices won’t go away just because Cambridge Analytica has.
“Cambridge Analytica’s practices, although it crossed ethical boundaries, is really emblematic of how data-driven digital marketing occurs worldwide,” Chester said. “Rather than rejoicing that a bad actor has met its just reward, we should recognize that many more Cambridge Analytica-like companies are operating in the conjoined commercial and political marketplace.”
Cambridge Analytica, whose clients included Donald Trump’s 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, sought information on Facebook users to build psychological profiles on a large portion of the U.S. electorate.
The company was able to amass the database quickly with the help of an app that purported to be a personality test. The app collected data on tens of millions of people and their Facebook friends, even those who did not download the app themselves.
Victoria-based firm AggregateIQ Data Services Ltd., which has been linked to Cambridge Analytica but consistently denied any connection, said Wednesday it is business as usual and has no plans of shuttering.
“AggregateIQ is and has always been 100 per cent Canadian owned and operated. AggregateIQ has never been a part of Cambridge Analytica or SCL. We have no plans to close our business,” co-founder Jeff Silverster told the Canadian Press.
Whistleblower Christopher Wylie, who grew up in Victoria, has said he helped found AggregateIQ while he worked for SCL, which is the parent company of Cambridge Analytica. Wylie alleged that Cambridge Analytica used data harvested from more than 50 million Facebook users to help Trump win the 2016 presidential election.
Facebook suspended AggregateIQ from its platform last month following reports that the company might be connected to Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, SCL.
AggregateIQ is under investigation by privacy officials in Ottawa, B.C. and the United Kingdom for its role in influencing the outcome of the U.K.’s Brexit referendum. It is also under investigation for allegedly violating limits on spending during that campaign to benefit the “leave” side.
Facebook estimates the personal information of 622,161 users in Canada — and nearly 87 million worldwide — was improperly accessed by Cambridge Analytica.