Cambridge Analytica ‘strongly denies’ mishandling Facebook users’ information

Cambridge Analytica, the data firm used by the Trump campaign, pushed back Monday against reports that it obtained the private information of millions of Facebook users without their permission and failed to destroy it.

The company said in a statement it “strongly denies” reports that it used data harvested from 50 million Facebook profiles for the Trump campaign, and said it deleted all the Facebook data it had accumulated. 

“This Facebook data was not used by Cambridge Analytica as part of the services it provided to the Donald Trump presidential campaign; personality targeted advertising was not carried out for this client either. The company has made this clear since 2016,” Cambridge Analytica said.

Facebook suspended the firm from its platform on Friday, saying it did not fully delete data given to it by Aleksandr Kogan, a University of Cambridge professor.

{mosads}Kogan reportedly obtained the information from an app he created, which used a Facebook login.

The New York Times reported that 30 million of the profiles provided by Kogan contained enough information for the firm to create psychographic profiles.

Cambridge’s use of the data and Facebook’s role have drawn the attention of federal lawmakers. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), John Kennedy (R-La.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have all called on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and other technology CEOs to provide Congress with information following the data issue.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has also invited Christopher Wylie, a self-proclaimed whistleblower on the data firm, to testify before the House Intelligence Committee.