Psychologist defends role in Facebook data scandal

Washington: The psychologist behind an app that harvested data from 50 million Facebook users defended his role in the scandal, saying he “never heard a word” of opposition from the social media giant.

Facebook says Aleksandr Kogan’s app, This Is Your Digital Life, was downloaded by 270,000 people and also gave Kogan access to their friends.

The data was passed to British communications firm Cambridge Analytica and was used to help elect US President Donald Trump. But the company has blamed Kogan for misusing it, while he claims they and Facebook have used him as a scapegoat.

The University of Cambridge lecturer told CBS’ 60 Minutes he was “sincerely sorry” for the data mining, but insisted there was a widespread belief that users knew their data was being sold and shared.

“Back then we thought it was fine... I think that core idea that we had – that everybody knows and nobody cares – was fundamentally flawed. And for that, I’m sincerely sorry,” he said.

The psychologist also accused Facebook of framing him as a “rogue app” – and insisted that while he was not sure that he read Facebook’s developer policy banning the transfer or sale of users’ data, the social network failed to enforce it in any case.

“I had a terms of service that was up there for a year and a half that said I could transfer and sell the data. Never heard a word,” he said. — AFP