Cambridge Analytica shuts down
Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy that worked for the Trump campaign and had come under attack for its use of personal Facebook data in other elections, announced Wednesday it would cease operations and declare bankruptcy in the United States and United Kingdom.
The firm said it had lost clients because of revelations in March that it had obtained the personal information of millions of Facebook users improperly. “It is no longer viable to continue operating the business,” the company said.
Cambridge Analytica defended its use of Facebook, saying it was “vilified for activities that are not only
but also widely accepted as a standard component of online advertising in both the political and commercial arenas.”
The decision by the firm comes as it continues to face potential investigations and sanctions from regulators around the world for charges.
The controversial tactics of Cambridge Analytica — whose former vice president, Republican strategist Steve Bannon, later worked for Trump’s campaign and in the White House — first came to light in March in news reports that it had amassed data from tens of millions of Americans through a Facebook quiz app. Facebook suspended the firm at the time.
In a statement Wednesday, Facebook said, “This doesn’t change our commitment and determination to understand exactly what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again. We are continuing with our investigation in cooperation with the relevant authorities.”
Bannon, who later left the company, did not respond to requests for comment.
Critics of Cambridge Analytica and the largely unregulated use of personal data for political campaigns said the closing of the company will have little effect on the kinds of abuses that the company is alleged to have committed.
“The closing of Cambridge Analytica doesn’t stop the problem that voters and consumers face in terms of a growing loss of privacy and a gross misuse of their data,” said Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy. “Cambridge Analytica’s practices, although it crossed ethical boundaries, is really em- blematic of how datadriven digital marketing occurs worldwide. Americans are currently helpless to stop the massive flows of their personal information now regularly fed to Google, Facebook, ISPs and many others.”
Cambridge Analytica was born of as an American offshoot of London-based SCL Group, whose affiliates had worked in campaigns around the world, including Kenya, Nigeria and India Initial funding for Cambridge Analytica came from Republican financier Robert Mercer, who invested at least $10 million in the company as it sought to help exclusively GOP candidates across a range of U.S. congressional and state legislative elections beginning in 2014.
His daughter Rebekah Mercer was the company’s first president. Neither Mercer responded to requests for comment Wednesday.
In 2014, Cambridge Analytica gained access to the Facebook data of tens of millions of people using a technique widely used during that era to collect information on Facebook users Among its leading clients then was a super PAC controlled by Republican John Bolton, now Trump’s national security adviser.
Designed by an outside researcher named Alexander Kogan, the tool, called ThisIsYourDigitalLife, collected information not only on Facebook users who approved it but also their friends.
In total, Facebook has said that Cambridge Analytica had access to data on 87 million people, including 71 million Americans, in its efforts to create detailed profiles about voters’ backgrounds and behaviors, as well as what types of political messages might appeal to them based on their personalities.