Outcry at personal data ‘harvested’ on 50million Facebook users
Her office called on the social media giant and Cambridge Analytica – the UK data firm that worked with Donald Trump’s election team – to co-operate fully with an official probe. A whistleblower claims Cambridge Analytica used personal data about more than 50 million people, taken without authorisation in 2014, to profile individual US voters and target them with political advertisements. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “It is essential that people can have confidence that their personal data will be protected and used in an appropriate way.” Britain’s data protection watchdog, Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham, is investigating some 30 firms’ use of data in political campaigns.
GETTY It's alleged Cambridge Analytica harvested personal data from 50m Facebook profiles
Facebook in pictures Mon, September 28, 2015 We look at the social networking phenomena Facebook in pictures Play slideshow ASSOCIATED PRESS 1 of 10 Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg speaks in the Galileo Auditorium on Microsoft’s Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010
Canvassing someone’s voting intentions is as old as democracy itself Matt Hancock - Digital and Culture Secretary
Last night she said Facebook had been co-operative but Cambridge Analytica had not and she would today seek a warrant to search its building and computers “on behalf of the public”. Digital and Culture Secretary Matt Hancock told the Commons the allegations were “very worrying”. “Canvassing someone’s voting intentions is as old as democracy itself,” he said. “But it is important the public is comfortable with how information is gathered, used and shared in modern political campaigns.” Legislation now going through Parliament already proposed to give the Information Commissioner new powers, he said.
GETTY Theresa May called on Facebook and Cambridge Analytica to co-operate fully with an official prob
Mr Hancock said it was “outrageous” that Facebook had suspended the social media accounts of whistleblower Christopher Wylie, a former research director at Cambridge Analytica. He added: “Blocking an account, when we know they don’t act fast enough to block other accounts of obviously outrageous behaviour, shows us that when they need to, they can block things incredibly quickly, and they’re going to have to do a lot more of that.” Several MPs asked whether the social media strategies may have influenced UK elections or the EU referendum. Mr Hancock insisted: “There’s no evidence yet but we remain vigilant.” Cambridge Analytica allegedly obtained data gathered through an app called thisisyourdigitallife. Hundreds of thousands of users were paid to take a personality test and agreed to academic use of the data. But the app also allegedly collected their Facebook friends’ data, creating an unprecedented cache of private information.