Millions of Facebook Users Impacted by Massive Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal
A British consulting firm harvests personal data from up to 87 million Facebook users without consent to build psychological profiles for political advertising.
Personal data belonging to millions of Facebook users is improperly collected by British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica for political advertising without informed consent. The data is gathered through a quiz app called "This Is Your Digital Life," which data scientist Aleksandr Kogan and his company Global Science Research develop in 2013. This app consists of a series of personality questions designed to build detailed psychological profiles on its users.
The application harvests the private information of up to 87 million Facebook profiles by exploiting the platform's Open Graph API to access not just the user's data, but also the personal information of their Facebook friends. This aggressive data collection method allows the consulting firm to amass a massive database of psychological insights without the knowledge or permission of the vast majority of affected individuals.
Cambridge Analytica uses this illicitly obtained data to analytically assist the 2016 presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. The firm also faces widespread accusations of interfering with the Brexit referendum, highlighting the significant impact that unauthorized social media data wields over modern global political events.