[149] Tillis's campaign and the North Carolina Republican Party paid Cambridge Analytica $345,000 for these services. [121] The Jubilee Party downplayed CA's role, saying it had hired the firm's parent company, to assist with branding. "[120], After the revelations in March 2018, where CA staff boasted of their power in Kenya, opposition figures called for an investigation. One of Germany’s top banking regulators has warned that London could lose its status as “gateway to Europe” for the banking sector after Britain quits the European trading bloc. [69], CA would collect data on voters using sources such as demographics, consumer behaviour, Internet activity, and other public and private sources. Mercer – and his daughter Rebekah – are emerging as key figures in the ascendancy of Trump and, as the Observer details today, the strategic disruption of the mainstream media. ", "Wylie: Foreigners worked for Cambridge Analytica on NC Senate campaign", "Much-Hyped Data Firm's Promise Could Be Tested in Iowa", "Tillis and NC Republicans paid $345,000 to the data firm that's now banned from Facebook", "Former Cambridge Analytica workers say firm sent foreigners to advise U.S. campaigns", "Hedge-Fund Magnate Robert Mercer Emerges as a Generous Backer of Cruz", "Ted Cruz erased Trump's Iowa lead by spending millions on voter targeting", "How Ted Cruz Engineered His Iowa Triumph", "Cambridge Analytica Congratulates Senator Ted Cruz on Iowa Caucus Win", "Trump Spending With Cambridge Analytica Looks Like Peanuts Compared to Cruz", "Organization and Analytics Help Take Down Trump in Iowa", "Data-Mining Firm Searches for Voters by Combing High School Yearbooks", "The GOP nominee makes a late attempt at data-driven targeted messaging", "Data Firm Says 'Secret Sauce' Aided Trump; Many Scof", The poison in politics runs deeper than dodgy data, "Congressional investigators find irregularities in FBI's handling of Clinton email case", "Trump Data Guru: I Tried to Team Up With Julian Assange", "Trump campaign analytics company contacted WikiLeaks about Clinton emails", "Inside Russia's Social Media War on America", "Trump campaign's digital director agrees to meet with House Intel Committee", "U.S. [75], Channel 4 News, a news programme broadcast by the British public service Channel 4, conducted a four-month investigation into Cambridge Analytica starting in November 2017. [72], Regarding CA's use of Facebook users, a speaker for CA indicated that these users gave permission when signing up with the provider, while Facebook declared that "misleading people or misusing information" is in violation of Facebook's policies. He advises that Nix and any foreign nationals without a green card working for the company must not be involved in any decision making regarding any work the company performs for any clients related to U.S. elections. [17] SCL gained work on a large number of campaigns for the US and UK governments' War on Terror advancing their model of behavioral conflict during the 2000s. He directed his data analytics firm to provide expert advice to the Leave campaign on how to target swing voters via Facebook – a donation of services that was not declared to the electoral commission. [184] A global infrastructure with operations to manipulate voters on "an industrial scale". [147], The company worked with the John Bolton Super PAC (political action committee) on a major digital and TV campaign focused on senate races in Arkansas, North Carolina and New Hampshire and helped turn out voters for the Republican Party candidates in those states. [42][43][16] In 2019 the Federal Trade Commission filed an administrative complaint against Cambridge Analytica for misuse of data. A bit like a reverse TikTok, Facebook is threatening to exit the EU market after Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) ruled that they company could not transfer European user data to USA due to privacy concerns. [50] In March 2018, Jennifer Mercer and Rebekah Mercer became directors of Emerdata limited. [136] Articles by Carole Cadwalladr in The Observer and Guardian newspapers, respectively published in February and May 2017, speculated in detail that CA had influenced both the Brexit/Vote Leave option in the UK's 2016 EU membership referendum and Trump's 2016 US presidential campaign with Robert Mercer's backing of Donald Trump being key. [103] The business name "Cambridge Analytica" was registered in Australia to the Lorraine Family Trust in June 2015. Robert Mercer, who bankrolled Donald Trump, played key role with ‘sinister’ advice on using Facebook data, • In-depth: Mercer, Breitbart, Farage and the data war against mainstream media, Sun 26 Feb 2017 00.04 GMT In response to the media reports, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) of the UK pursued a warrant to search the company's servers. By: Warwick Ashford. [71] CA operated out of the United States; its operations would be illegal in Europe with its stricter privacy laws. Services then can be individually targeted for the benefit of its clients from the political arena, governments, and companies providing "a better and more actionable view of their key audiences." [108][109][110], In India, Cambridge Analytica had been used by the Indian National Congress (INC) to carry out "in-depth electorate analysis" and influence voters, including in the 2010 elections to the Bihar Legislative Assembly. "[35] By giving this third-party app permission to acquire their data, back in 2015, this also gave the app access to information on the user's friends network; this resulted in the data of about 87 million users, the majority of whom had not explicitly given Cambridge Analytica permission to access their data, being collected. Slate writer Sharon Weinberger compared one of SCL's hypothetical test scenarios to fomenting a coup. [32] As a result, Nix was suspended as CEO, and replaced by Julian Wheatland. [30][31] On 23 March 2018, the British High Court granted the ICO a warrant to search Cambridge Analytica's London offices. [161][failed verification], In 2016, the company said that it had not used psychographics in the Trump presidential campaign. Hannes Grassegger und Mikael Krogerus, in: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (, Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, acquired and used personal data about Facebook users, Association for Data-driven Marketing and Advertising, Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum, Unlawful campaigning in the 2016 EU referendum, 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections (July 2016–election day), 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, Tech companies in the New York metropolitan area, "Behind the scenes at Donald Trump's UK digital war room", "The man that killed Cambridge Analytica: 'We made mistakes, but they aren't what you think, "Cambridge Analytica, the shady data firm that might be a key Trump-Russia link, explained", "Cambridge Analytica LLC: Private Company Information", "SCL Group's founders were connected to royalty, the rich and powerful", "Cambridge Analytica staff set up new firm", "Filing record for Cambridge Analytica (UK) Limited – Company number 09375920", "Alexander James Ashburner NIX – Appoinments", "Old Etonian smoothie fails to buff Indonesian leader's image", "Cambridge Analytica CEO Post Goes to Julian Wheatland", "Tory donors among investors in Cambridge Analytica parent firm", "Cruz-Connected Data Miner Aims to Get Inside U.S. "In my opinion, I was lying. [20] Marco Rubio's campaign was supported by Optimus Consulting. A minimum of 15 million dollars has been invested into the company by Mercer, according to The New York Times. We shared a lot of information.”. [18][19] While its parent SCL had focused on influencing elections in developing countries since the 1990s, Cambridge focused more on the western world, including the United Kingdom and the United States; CEO Alexander Nix has said CA was involved in 44 U.S. political races in 2014. During the 2016 election, the company was employed both by Trump's campaign and Robert Mercer's Make America Number 1 Super PAC which supported Trump. [150], CA sent dozens of non-U.S. citizens to provide campaign strategy and messaging advice to Republican candidates in 2014, opening the firm and individuals to prosecution under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, for being foreign agents having not registered through the United States Department of Justice as such. [111][112] 355 Indian Facebook users installed a Cambridge Analytica app, exposing the data of 562,455 users. Eyes Michael Flynn's Links to Russia", "Facebook "embeds," Russia and the Trump campaign's secret weapon", "I can confirm an approach by Cambridge Analytica and can confirm that it was rejected by WikiLeaks", "Trump. Maybe it wasn’t, but we have no way of knowing. [77][179] During the investigation it was admitted that the company has been contacted from a famous Italian party to manage the electoral campaign in Italy but the name of the party was not revealed. Because Nigel is a good friend of the Mercers. An undercover reporter posed as a potential customer for Cambridge Analytica, hoping to help Sri Lankan candidates get elected. 72,508 talking about this. [167] According to the Trump campaign's digital operations chief, CA worked "side-by-side" with representatives from Facebook, Alphabet Inc. and Twitter on Trump's digital campaign activities. And Mercer introduced them to us. [154][155] Ultimately the Cruz campaign spent $5.8 million on work by CA. [7] Cambridge Analytica (SCL USA) was incorporated in January 2015 with its registered office in Westferry Circus, London and just one staff member, its director and CEO Alexander James Ashburner Nix (also appointed in January 2015). By law, all donations of services-in-kind worth more than £7,500 must be reported to the electoral commission. [180] Duterte's camp denied this association. The commission held inconclusive crisis talks with AstraZeneca on Monday night over the production shortfall, which threatens to leave EU countries … [153] After Cruz's win at the Iowa caucus CA was credited with having been able to identify and motivate potential voters. Trump’s team paid the firm more than $6m (£4.8m) to target swing voters, and it has now emerged that Mercer also introduced the firm – in which he has a major stake – to Farage. The company claimed to use "data enhancement and audience segmentation techniques" providing "psychographic analysis" for a "deeper knowledge of the target audience". [16][152] The Mercer family funded CA directly and indirectly through several super-PACs as well as through payments via Cruz's campaign. Nope: It just changed its name to Emerdata", "The power players behind Cambridge Analytica have set up a mysterious new data company", "SCL GROUP LIMITED - Officers (free information from Companies House)", "Exclusive: Paul Bettany to Co-Star in Cambridge Analytica Drama From 'Avengers' Team", "The strange afterlife of Cambridge Analytica and the mysterious fate of its data", Cambridge Analytica, LLC, In the Matter of, "Cambridge Analytica 'not involved' in Brexit vote", "Cambridge Analytica, Trump-Tied Political Firm, Offered to Entrap Politicians", "Bannon sold Cambridge Analytica stake, fined for late ethics report", «Ich habe nur gezeigt, dass es die Bombe gibt» (I only showed, that there is a bomb), "ICO to audit data protection practices at Leave.EU and Eldon Insurance after fining both companies for unlawful marketing messages", "Foreign Office sought advice from Cambridge Analytica chiefs", "Boris Johnson's undisclosed meeting with Alexander Nix of Cambridge Analytica", "Friday briefing: Former Cambridge Analytica chiefs set up 'ethical' data analysis firm", https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3035777/cambridge-analyticas-latest-wants-your-google-search-history. Video footage from this operation was published on 19 March 2018. [181] The SCL Group, Cambridge Analytica's parent company, claimed that it rebranded the politician's image to target voters who they found are swayed by qualities such as toughness and decisiveness. A brilliant computer scientist who did pioneering work at IBM in AI, Mercer made billions with Renaissance Technologies, a hedge-fund that specialises in automated trading. [99] On 26 March, the US Federal Trade Commission announced it is "conducting an open investigation of Facebook Inc's privacy practices following the disclosure that 50 million users' data got into the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. [119] The company claimed on its website to have conducted a survey of 47,000 Kenyans during the 2013 elections in order to understand "key national and local political issues, levels of trust in key politicians, voting behaviours/intentions, and preferred information channels". [22][95], The use of personal data collected without knowledge or permission to establish sophisticated models of user's personalities raises ethical and privacy issues. They also discuss the legality of using the social data farmed. Drawing on Cambridge Analytica’s advice, Leave.eu built up a huge database of supporters creating detailed profiles of their lives through open-source data it harvested via Facebook. The Upper Tribunal has dismissed appeals by broker Eldon (which has been rebranded as Somerset Bridge) and campaigning organisation Leave.EU against fines from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO). [47] SCL's involvement in the political world has been primarily in the developing world where it has been used by the military and politicians to study and manipulate public opinion and political will. 465 likes. Cambridge Analytica Ltd (CA) was a British political consulting firm that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. [25][26], In March 2018, multiple media outlets broke news of Cambridge Analytica's business practices. [44] In 2020, the British Information Commissioner's Office closed a three-year inquiry into the company, concluded that Cambridge Analytica was "not involved" in the 2016 Brexit referendum and found no additional evidence for Russia's alleged interference during the campaign. [143], During a committee hearing in March 2018 Christopher Wylie told UK lawmakers that AggregateIQ, a firm linked to Cambridge Analytica, helped the official Vote Leave campaign circumvent campaign financing laws during the Brexit referendum. [44], In 2020 the BBC reported that the group Facebook You Owe Us had filed a lawsuit against Facebook for failing to protect users' personal data in the Cambridge Analytica breach, involving the misuse of information from almost one million users in England and Wales. [137], No campaign contributions, in cash or in kind, by Cambridge Analytica were reported to the UK electoral authorities. Cambridge Analytica's executives said in 2018 that the company had worked in more than 200 elections around the world, including in India, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia (CA's website stated that it supported Prime Minister Najib Razak's Barisan Nasional coalition),[178] Colombia, Cyprus, Zambia, South Africa, Romania, Italy, Lithuania, Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria (Nigeria's 2015 presidential election),[178] the Czech Republic, and Argentina. [40][41] The Russo brothers are producing an upcoming film on Cambridge Analytica. [51] Leave.EU Cornwall. He and Farage have been close friends since at least 2012 and the site has been an important cheerleader for Ukip, with its editor, Raheem Kassam, at one point working as chief adviser to Farage. [13] Several of the company's executives were Old Etonians. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 35,351 talking about this. Brittany Kaiser, an employee of Cambridge Analytica/SCL, appeared on a panel at a Leave.eu press conference to explain the technology behind the campaign. [151], CA's involvement in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries became known in July 2015. Continuing the fight for the 17.4 million [134], Many donors to the UK Conservative Party reportedly have connections to the parent company of Cambridge Analytica. Norman Magaya, an official of the National Super Alliance, accused CA and the ruling Jubilee Party of committing a crime and called for an investigation. [170] Parscale cited the example in which he was able to target specific universes (audiences) who care about infrastructure and promote Trump and his message to build back up the crumbling American infrastructure. ! [28][29] Facebook banned Cambridge Analytica from advertising on its platform, saying that it had been deceived. Wigmore admitted the technology and the level of information it gathered from people was “creepy”. [116] The Indian National Congress, however, lost the elections by a sizable margin, winning not even enough seats to be the official opposition party in India. However, digital rights protection groups raised concerns that private information is collected, stored, and shared while individuals are "left in the dark about [it]" and have no control. Representatives for both UKIP and Leave.EU were not immediately available for comment. According to verified sources, CA worked with 360 Media, a company formed by Simon Gicharu (founder of Mount Kenya University) and Tom Mshindi (Editor-in-Chief of Nation Media Group). [117][118] In 2018, a CA employee said that his predecessor at the company had been found dead in his hotel room in Kenya while working on Uhuru Kenyatta's 2013 campaign. Leave.eu declined to say why it had not declared any donation of services to the electoral commission. In 2008, Kosinski had joined the Psychometrics Centre of Cambridge University where he then developed with his colleagues a profiling system using general online data, Facebook-likes, and smartphone data. [135], CA became involved in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum (Brexit) supporting "persuadable" voters to vote for leaving the European Union (EU). [98] Due to the scandal of enabling monetization of Facebook personal data, one assessment was that only 41% of Facebook users trust the company. The firm was credited for its role in identifying a sizeable cluster of North Carolinians who prioritised foreign affairs, which encouraged Tillis to shift the conversation from state-level debates over education policy to charges that incumbent Kay Hagan had failed to take ISIS's rise seriously. According to The Guardian, CA used psychological data derived from millions of Facebook users, largely without users' permission or knowledge. Latest News. [145][146], CA had entered the US market in 2012[147] (or 2013),[16] and was involved in 44 US congressional, US Senate and state-level elections in the 2014 US elections. Facebook claimed it was misled by Kogan about how the data was used, ... ICO to audit Leave.EU and Eldon Insurance. Voters' Heads", "Cruz partners with donor's 'psychographic' firm", "Factbox: Who is Cambridge Analytica and what did it do? [36], On 1 May 2018, Cambridge Analytica and its parent company filed for insolvency proceedings and closed operations. And in documents Leave.eu filed with the commission, it reported that Cambridge Analytica was “a strategic partner”.The Observer reported in December that Cambridge Analytica had worked on the Leave campaign and received a letter from the campaign to say this was untrue. [158], After Cruz dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination in May 2016, Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah Mercer started to support Trump. [82][83][81], Cambridge Analytica said that the video footage was "edited and scripted to grossly misrepresent" the recorded conversations and company's business practices. [7] The firm maintained offices in London, New York City, and Washington, DC. Bannon’s role within the Trump administration is being increasingly examined but, until now, Mercer’s connection has escaped the same sort of close scrutiny – particularly with regard to the media. LinkedIn . [17] In 2016, CA worked for Donald Trump's presidential campaign[21] as well as for Leave.EU (one of the organisations campaigning in the United Kingdom's referendum on European Union membership). [69][70] He showed that with a limited number of "likes", people can be analysed better than friends or relatives can do and that individual psychological targeting is a powerful tool to influence people. [172] He also denied any assistance with links to Russia. “AI won it for Leave,” he said. [113] In addition, Christopher Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, alleged that the company had offices and staff in India, and that the INC party was a major client. [101] In December 2019 the Federal Trade Commission also filed a complaint against Cambridge Analytica for its practices, while filing settlements with CEO Alexander Nix and app developer Aleksandr Kogan. Print this page . [25], Research discussed by Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth College showed that it is extremely hard to alter voters' preferences because many likely voters are already committed partisans; as a result, it is easier to simply mobilize partisan voters. [85][2] The company also released a statement that the allegations did not represent the ethics of the company, and an independent entity would investigate Nix's statements. [96], Alexander Nix suggested that data collection and microtargeting benefits the voters – because they receive messages about issues they care about. The men who ran Cambridge Analytica and its parent SCL were described as having close ties to the Conservative Party, royalty and the British military. Until now, however, it was not known that Mercer had explicitly tried to influence the outcome of the referendum. France May Be Next to LEAVE EU as Support for Scotland Independence SURGES!!! It also covered consumer topics about different brands and preferred products, building up an image of how someone shops as much as how they vote. [164][165][166], On 18 May 2017, Time reported that the US Congress was investigating CA in connection with Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. According to Sasha Issenberg, CA indicates that it can tell things about an individual he might not even know about himself. I find this extremely worrying and disturbing.”, Your support powers our independent journalism, Available for everyone, funded by readers. [33], The personal data of up to 87 million[34] Facebook users were acquired via the 270,000 Facebook users who used a Facebook app called "This Is Your Digital Life. On 14 December 2017, it was revealed that Robert Mueller had requested during the fall of 2017 that Cambridge Analytica turn over the emails of any of its employees who worked on the Trump campaign, as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. [129], After the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Forbes published that the British news program Channel 4 News had mentioned the existence of proof revealing ties between the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Cambridge Analytica, suggesting a modus operandi similar to the one in the United States. He further advises Nix to recuse himself from any involvement with the company's U.S. election work because he is not a U.S. [53] The Information Commissioner's Office in February 2019 decided to audit the campaign, and its funder Arron Banks company Eldon Insurance for unlawful marketing involving repurposing of data. [58][59] In July 2018, several former Cambridge Analytica staff launched Auspex International, a company intended to influence politics and society in Africa and the Middle East; another company called Emerdata also had substantial overlap with Cambridge Analytica. took place on Jan. 31, 2020, when the U.K. legally revoked its membership in the 28-nation EU. [148], CA also supported Thom Tillis's successful campaign to oust Kay Hagan as a senator for North Carolina. This is a local group based in Cornwall to raise awareness for the Leave.EU campaign [8] At that time Robert Mercer was a major supporter of Ted Cruz. “We have no idea what people were being shown or not, which makes it frankly sinister. 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