Facebook suspends data firm linked to Trump over user data

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook has suspended Cambridge Analytica as it investigates whether the Donald Trump-connected data analysis firm failed to delete personal data that the social network says it improperly obtained from hundreds of thousands of users.

Facebook announced the suspension of the accounts of Cambridge Analytica and its parent company late Friday after being tipped off that the user data the analysis firm had received from a researcher – who had obtained it from a personality quiz app accessed through Facebook – was not destroyed as promised.

In a statement Saturday, Cambridge Analytica said that it fully complies with Facebook’s terms of service and is working with the tech giant to resolve the matter.

“No data from (Global Science Research) was used by Cambridge Analytica as part of the services it provided to the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign,” the company said in a statement. “Cambridge Analytica only receives and uses data that has been obtained legally and fairly.”

Cambridge Analytica’s suspension comes as Facebook continues to deal with the fallout from the 2016 election, when campaigns and foreign influence operations used social media in unprecedented ways to sway voters.

Cambridge Analytica, backed by top Trump donor and hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer, claims it can predict how people will vote based on the 5,000 pieces of data it collects on nearly every American adult combined with the results of thousands of personality surveys. Enlisted by the Trump campaign, it touted its role in swinging the 2016 presidential election.

The firm was asked in December to turn over documents to special counsel Robert Mueller.