Facebook bans Trumplinked data firm for violations

WASHINGTON : Facebook Inc has suspended Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that helped Donald Trump win the US presidential election, saying it retained user information to which it should not have had access.

Also suspended were the accounts of its parent organisation, Strategic Communication Laboratories, and those of University of Cambridge psychologist Aleksandr Kogan and Christopher Wylie, who runs Eunoia Technologies.

Facebook said on Friday that Cambridge Analytica got some user data through an app developer, violating its policies. In 2015, Facebook said Cambridge Analytica certified that it had destroyed the information.

“We received reports that, contrary to the certifications we were given, not all data was deleted,” Facebook said.

Cambridge Analytica, which hired Global Science Research in 2014 for a US project, said on Saturday that it is in touch with Facebook to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

“No data from GSR was used by Cambridge Analytica as part of the services it provided to the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign,” it said.

Cambridge Analytica uses data to reach voters with targeted messaging, including on Facebook and other online services. It was hired to help with voter outreach by the Trump campaign, whose former manager, Steve Bannon, had been on the company’s board. Britain’s information commissioner is also investigating whether Facebook data was “illegally acquired and used.” AGENCIES