Cambridge Analytica’s London headquarter was raided on Friday by the British regulator of data protection, after the controversy over the use of data of millions of users without their consent.
The British regulator of data protection was conducted a search of Cambridge Analytica office on Friday night in London, accused of acquiring data from millions of Facebook users without their consent .
Eighteen members of the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) were in the company’s British headquarters. This independent authority responsible for protecting personal data, had earlier obtained a search warrant issued by a judge of the High Court of London.
A Search Warrant
The ICO had called for this measure to “search the servers” of Cambridge Analytica and “perform a data check” .
“This is only part of a larger investigation into the use of personal data for political purposes. We will now have to collect, evaluate and review the evidence before drawing any conclusions,” said an ICO spokesperson after obtaining the warrant.
Data from millions of people are used
The regulator had indicated that it had asked Cambridge Analytica to access its files as early as March 7, but it did not receive an answer “on time”.
CA is accused of unwittingly recovering the data from 50 million Facebook users and using it to develop a computer tool (APP) to target voters in order to weigh Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The British press also questions its role during the referendum campaign on Brexit, also in 2016.
“Anyone who knows our staff and our work can testify: we are nothing like the company motivated by political and unethical motivations that some have tried to portray,” said Friday in a statement the interim president from CA, Alexander Tayler.
CA announced Tuesday the suspension of his boss Alexander Nix following “comments” of the latter recorded by Channel 4 News, as well as other “allegations” against him, which “do not represent the values” of the society.
These comments came from a survey broadcast by the British channel where Nix appears on camera and boasts of the role played by his company in the Trump campaign. “we managed his digital campaign, Research and analysis” he says.
Marck Zuckerberg’s apology
A strategic communications and large-scale data analysis company, CA has offices in London, Washington, and New York, among others.
The scandal has plunged Facebook into turmoil, exposing it to mass complaints, and forcing its billionaire boss Mark Zuckerberg to make a public apology .
In the columns of the New York Times, whoever launched the world’s largest social network from his student time at Harvard in 2004 promised to “fix the system so that this kind of thing does not happen again . “