Investigation into Cambridge Analytica continues after closure

Now that Cambridge Analytica is closing down, what happens to all the data it collected?

The political data consulting firm at the center of the Facebook privacy scandal remains under investigation in the U.K., and Facebook has said it deferred to British officials but is waiting to conduct its own probe into whether the firm retained the data of tens of millions of Facebook users it obtained without permission.

“Even if the name plate on the door changes, we are still able to pursue the former directors of SCL & Cambridge Analytica,” Damian Collins, a member of the British Parliament, tweeted Thursday.

“This doesn’t change our commitment and determination to understand exactly what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” a Facebook spokesman said Thursday. “We are continuing with our investigation in cooperation with the relevant authorities.”

Cambridge Analy t- ica announced Wednesday that it and parent SCL Elections are both shutting down.

“The siege of media coverage has driven away virtually all of the company’s customers and suppliers,” Cambridge Analytica said in its announcement, noting that it “has been vilified for activities that are not only legal, but also widely accepted as a standard component of online advertising in both the political and commercial arenas.”

Cambridge Analytica is said to have obtained the information of Facebook users, and their friends, who used a personality quiz app designed by Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan. Kogan initially collected the data for research, but later said he informed users of his intention to sell the data.

The data collection was first reported a couple of years ago, but media reports in mid- March — bolstered by claims from a former Cambridge Analytica employee — blew the scandal wide open and moved Facebook’s handling of user data into the spotlight once again.