Twitter sold data access to CA–linked researcher
Twitter sold data access to the Cambridge University academic who also obtained millions of Facebook users’ information that was later passed to a political consulting firm without the users’ consent. Aleksandr Kogan, who created a personality quiz on Facebook to harvest information later used by Cambridge Analytica, established his own commercial enterprise, Global Science Research. That firm was granted access to large-scale public Twitter data.
After Facebook, another major social media outlet Twitter has now been caught up in the data scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, the British political consulting firm which collected the data of nearly 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge and permission, according to a media report.
Aleksandr Kogan, who created tools for Cambridge Analytica that allowed the political consultancy to psychologically profile and target voters, bought the data from the microblogging website in 2015, before the recent scandal came to light, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
Kogan had established Global Science Research (GSR), which was granted access to Twitter data. The academic said the information had only been used to create “brand reports” and “survey extender tools” and that he had not violated Twitter’s policies.
Kogan bought tweets, usernames, photos, profile pictures and location data from Twitter over a five-month period between December 2014 and April 2015 through his GSR, the report said.
Earlier this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had admitted making a "huge mistake" as personal data of up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.
According to the report, while most tweets are public, Twitter charges companies and organisations to collect them en masse.
Large datasets are particularly useful for building a pattern of public opinion or receptiveness to certain topics and ideas, although Twitter bans companies from using the data to derive sensitive political information or matching it with personal information obtained elsewhere, it said.
“Twitter has also made the policy decision to off-board advertising from all accounts owned and operated by Cambridge Analytica. This decision is based on our determination that Cambridge Analytica operates using a business model that inherently conflicts with acceptable Twitter Ads business practices,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
A Cambridge Analytica spokesperson said the company used Twitter for political advertising but insisted that it had never “undertaken a project with GSR focusing on Twitter data and Cambridge Analytica has never received Twitter data from GSR”.
It added that “Cambridge Analytica is a data-driven marketing agency and does not manipulate political views.”