Profiles made for 136,000 in Colo.
British data firm assisted GOP in winning key U.S. seats in the 2014 election.
The British data firm that helped Republicans win key U.S. seats in the 2014 election created personality and psychological profiles for at least 136,000 Colorado voters — data derived in part from Facebook, according to a new report.
Cambridge Analytica said it deleted the personal information harvested from Facebook and any derivative data sets after reports exposed the firm’s work to influence elections in the United States, including its work on behalf of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
But Channel 4 News in Great Britain reported Wednesday that it obtained a cache of the Colorado data from a Cambridge Analytica source, confirming it still exists and raising questions about who possesses the information.
Reporting from Colorado, the television station used the data to find a handful of Arvada residents who were profiled by Cambridge Analytica and affiliated SCL Elections on behalf of political organizations that worked to help Republicans win in 2014.
The Denver Post reported last week that two political nonprofits that don’t disclose their donors paid $460,500 to Cambridge Analytica and SCL Elections for their work to help elect a Republican state Senate majority — the first in a decade. One of the state Senate seats Republicans targeted and won is in Arvada.
The company also claims it helped drive Republican voter turnout in the state with digital advertising that boosted U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner in his victory against Democratic incumbent Mark Udall.
Andy George, a consultant with the Senate Majority Fund, the
campaign organization that oversaw the Republican state legislative efforts, said Wednesday he does not have the data in question and his team never had access to it.
“They were very secretive and guarded when it came to their database. It is one of the reasons we were skeptical of their product to begin with,” said George, who has suggested the company exaggerated its work in Colorado.
The use of data to profile voters is not new, but what Cambridge Analytica did with Facebook data is apparently unique.
The data reviewed by Channel 4 News rated the Colorado voters on five different psychological factors: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism — to help the Republican strategists better target them with tailored campaign messages.
The company acknowledged in internal documents that is also used foreign workers to help with early data work in Colorado. The Colorado Democratic Party has asked Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman to investigate, but it did not allege that any laws were broken.