Facebook privacy scandal: Court grants search of data firm’s offices
‘Inunommalu nimrovuokl?uau loonyuonomyu tokldugrnunou playvuhknu n?roruamrn’nu nommalu nimro’
THE Information Commissioner was last night granted a warrant to search the London offices of a company at the centre of a Facebook privacy scandal as the Prime Minister’s political secretary was drawn into the row.
The High Court issued a warrant for searches at Cambridge Analytica, a company that obtained details from more than 50 million Facebook profiles without the permission of users.
At 8pm, less than an hour after the warrant was granted, a group of 18 enforcement officers working for the Information Commissioner entered the premises of Cambridge Analytica in New Oxford Street.
It came as Stephen Parkinson, a special adviser to Theresa May, disclosed that he had a personal relationship with a whistleblower after he was accused of breaching election rules.
Mr Parkinson, who also worked for the Vote Leave campaign, has been accused of secretly directing another Leave-backing group.
He was allegedly introduced to the whistleblower by Christopher Wylie, who disclosed the data-harvesting scandal at Cambridge Analytica.
During the referendum campaign, Vote Leave gave £625,000 to Beleave. While it was entitled to give the donation, it was barred from directing its activities.
Mr Parkinson said that he gave the whistleblower advice and encouragement in a personal capacity.
“I am clear that I did not direct the activities of any separate campaign groups,” he said.
“I had no responsibility for digital campaigning or donations during the referendum, and am confident that Vote Leave acted entirely within the
law and strict spending rules at all times.”
Last night, the whistleblower in question, Shahmir Sanni, hit back at Mr Parkinson, accusing him and 10
Downing Street of publicly disclosing his sexuality and putting his family in danger.
In a statement via his lawyers, Mr Sanni said: “I never imagined that he, with the help of Number 10, would choose to tell the world I am gay, in a last desperate attempt to scare me. This is something I’ve never told most of my friends or family, here or in Pakistan, some of whom are having to take measures to ensure their safety.”
Mr Parkinson made his statement in a blog posting by Dominic Cummings, the former head of Vote Leave. Mr Cummings denied separate claims that Vote Leave was connected to Cambridge Analytica, the election consultancy accused of harvesting the data of Facebook users so they could be targeted with advertising. He said: “Up against tough competition, the whole story is the most loony accusation I’ve ever faced in 20 years in politics.
“In normal times, such a loony story would get no play, but these aren’t normal times. A powerful set of people will do anything to try to shift public opinion in order that they can overturn the referendum.” He said the allegations being made were “factually wrong, hopelessly confused, or nonsensical”.
Mr Cummings also published emails that appear to suggest that Mr Wylie offered to harvest data for Vote Leave from social networks. As a whistleblower, Mr Wylie has described data harvesting as “grossly unethical”.
Vote Leave also spent £3million on the services of Aggregate IQ, a Canadian digital agency, in the run-up to the EU referendum. Mr Cummings said that suggestions that the company shared data with Cambridge Analytica were “ludicrous”.
In a separate development, a former director at Cambridge Analytica told The Guardian the firm had carried out data analysis for Leave.eu, the Brexit campaign group fronted by Nigel Farage. Cambridge Analytica has previously said it carried out “no paid or unpaid work” for Leave.eu.