Data row boss hailed SNP’s digital strategy
The suspended boss of the firm at the centre of controversy surrounding the harvesting of voters’ online data once hailed a huge digital survey launched by the SNP.
Alexander Nix, who was suspended by the board of Cambridge Analytica, which he founded, after being filmed by undercover reporters, praised the Nationalists’ plan to canvas two million people on independence and Brexit.
He hailed the so-called national survey, launched by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in the aftermath of the EU referendum.
Speaking when the questionnaire closed in December 2016, Mr Nix said: “If they have managed to achieve somewhere in the region of two million completes, that’s a phenomenal achievement and that data is going to be incredibly valuable to driving their campaign.”
He added: “If they have that much data, they can begin to break down that homogenous mass of voters into individual constituents, and that’s going to allow them to be much more targeted in the way they communicate.” Cambridge Analytica was not involved in the SNP survey. It asked people, on a scale or one to 10, how important issues like Scottishness, the EU and pensions were to them.
The information, collected before the party lost 21 seats in last year’s snap General Election, was widely thought to be being gathered as part of a renewed push to a second independence referendum.