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Cambridge Analytica Ltd (CA), previously known as SCL USA, was a British
political consulting Political consulting is a form of consulting that consists primarily of advising and assisting political campaigns. Although the most important role of political consultants is arguably the development and production of mass media (largely te ...
firm that came to prominence through the
Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal In the 2010s, personal data belonging to millions of Facebook users was collected without their consent by British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, predominantly to be used for political advertising. The data was collected through an app ca ...
. It was started in 2013, as a subsidiary of the private intelligence company and self-described "global election management agency"
SCL Group SCL Group (formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories) was a private British behavioural research and strategic communication company that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal involving its subsidiaries ...
by long-time SCL executives Nigel Oakes, Alexander Nix and Alexander Oakes, with Nix as CEO. The well-connected founders had contact with, among others, the
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
, the British royal family and the
British military The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, su ...
. The firm maintained offices in London, New York City, and Washington, DC. The company closed operations in 2018 in the course of the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, although firms related to both Cambridge Analytica and its parent firm SCL still exist.


History

Cambridge Analytica was established as a subsidiary of the private intelligence company
SCL Group SCL Group (formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories) was a private British behavioural research and strategic communication company that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal involving its subsidiaries ...
that was active in military and political arenas. The men who ran Cambridge Analytica and its parent SCL were described as having close ties to the
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
, royalty and the British military. Cambridge Analytica (SCL USA) was incorporated in January 2013 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). Nix was also the director of nine similar companies sharing the same registered offices in London, including Firecrest technologies, Emerdata and six SCL Group companies including "SCL elections limited". Nigel Oakes, known as the former boyfriend of Lady Helen Windsor, had founded the predecessor
SCL Group SCL Group (formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories) was a private British behavioural research and strategic communication company that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal involving its subsidiaries ...
in the 1990s, and in 2005 Oakes established SCL Group together with his brother Alexander Oakes and Alexander Nix; SCL Group was the parent company of Cambridge Analytica. Conservative minister and MP Sir Geoffrey Pattie was the founding chairman of SCL;
Lord Ivar Mountbatten Lord Ivar Alexander Michael Mountbatten, DL (born 9 March 1963) is a British aristocrat, farmer, geologist and businessman. He is a former director of SCL Group, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica. Although he is not a member of the B ...
also joined Oakes as a director of the company. As a result of the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal Nix was removed as CEO and replaced by Julian Wheatland before the company closed. Several of the company's executives were Old Etonians. The company's owners included several of the Conservative Party's largest donors such as billionaire Vincent Tchenguiz, former British Conservative minister Jonathan Marland, Baron Marland and the family of American hedge fund manager
Robert Mercer Robert Leroy Mercer (born July 11, 1946) is an American hedge fund manager, computer scientist, and political donor. Mercer was an early artificial intelligence researcher and developer and is the former co-CEO of the hedge fund company Renaissan ...
. The company combined misappropriation of
digital assets A digital asset is anything that exists only in digital form and comes with a distinct usage right. Data that do not possess that right are not considered assets. ''Digital assets'' include but are not exclusive to: digital documents, audible ...
, data mining,
data broker A data broker is an individual or company that specializes in collecting personal data (such as income, ethnicity, political beliefs, or geolocation data) or data about companies, mostly from public records but sometimes sourced privately, and ...
age, and
data analysis Data analysis is a process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making. Data analysis has multiple facets and approaches, enc ...
with
strategic communication Strategic communication can mean either communicating a concept, a process, or data that satisfies a long-term strategic goal of an organization by allowing facilitation of advanced planning, or communicating over long distances usually using in ...
during electoral processes. While its parent SCL had focused on influencing elections in
developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
since the 1990s, Cambridge Analytica 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. In 2015, CA performed data analysis services for
Ted Cruz's presidential campaign The 2016 presidential campaign of Ted Cruz, the junior United States Senate, United States senator from Texas, was announced on March 23, 2015. He was a candidate for the Republican Party's 2016 presidential nomination and won the second-most sta ...
. In 2016, CA worked for Donald Trump's presidential campaign as well as for Leave.EU (one of the organisations campaigning in the United Kingdom's referendum on European Union membership). CA's role in those campaigns has been controversial and is the subject of ongoing inquiries in both countries. Political scientists question CA's claims about the effectiveness of its methods of targeting voters.


Data scandal

In March 2018, multiple media outlets broke news of Cambridge Analytica's business practices. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' and ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'' reported that the company had acquired and used personal data about Facebook users from an external researcher who had told
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
he was collecting it for academic purposes. Shortly afterwards, ''
Channel 4 News ''Channel 4 News'' is the main news programme on British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since Channel 4's launch in November 1982. Current productions ''Channel 4 News'' ''Channel 4 News'' ...
'' aired undercover investigative videos showing Nix boasting about using prostitutes, bribery
sting operation In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a role ...
s, and honey traps to discredit politicians on whom it had conducted opposition research, and saying that the company "ran all of (Donald Trump's) digital campaign". In response to the media reports, the
Information Commissioner's Office The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is a non-departmental public body which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). It is the independ ...
(ICO) of the UK pursued a warrant to search the company's servers.
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
banned Cambridge Analytica from advertising on its platform, saying that it had been deceived. On 23 March 2018, the British High Court granted the ICO a warrant to search Cambridge Analytica's London offices. As a result, Nix was suspended as CEO, and replaced by Julian Wheatland. The personal data of up to 87 million Facebook users were acquired via the 270,000 Facebook users who used a Facebook app called "This Is Your Digital Life." 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. The app developer breached Facebook's terms of service by giving the data to Cambridge Analytica. On 1 May 2018, Cambridge Analytica and its parent company SCL filed for insolvency proceedings and closed operations. Alexander Tayler, a former director for Cambridge Analytica, was appointed director of Emerdata on 28 March 2018.
Rebekah Mercer Rebekah Mercer is an American heiress and Republican political donor who is the director of the Mercer Family Foundation. She began overseeing day-to-day operations of political projects for the Mercer family when the Mercers became involved ...
,
Jennifer Mercer Rebekah Mercer is an American heiress and Republican political donor who is the director of the Mercer Family Foundation. She began overseeing day-to-day operations of political projects for the Mercer family when the Mercers became involved i ...
, Alexander Nix and , who has links to American businessman Erik Prince, are in leadership positions at Emerdata. The
Russo brothers Anthony Russo (born February 3, 1970) and Joseph Russo (born July 18, 1971), collectively known as the Russo brothers (), are American directors, producers, and screenwriters. They direct most of their work together. They are best known for dir ...
are producing an upcoming film on Cambridge Analytica. In 2019 the
Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction o ...
filed an administrative complaint against Cambridge Analytica for misuse of data.Cambridge Analytica, LLC, In the Matter of
,
Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction o ...
In 2020, the British
Information Commissioner's Office The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is a non-departmental public body which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). It is the independ ...
closed a three-year inquiry into the company, concluded that Cambridge Analytica was "not involved" in the
2016 Brexit referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...
and found no additional evidence for Russia's alleged interference during the campaign. US sensitive polling and election data however were passed to Russian Intelligence via a Cambridge Analytica contractor Sam Patten and Konstantin Kilimnik who was indicted during the affair. Publicly, parent company SCL Group called itself a "global election management agency", ''Politico'' reported it was known for involvement "in military disinformation campaigns to social media branding and
voter Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holde ...
targeting". SCL gained work on a large number of campaigns for the US and UK governments'
War on Terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...
advancing their model of behavioral conflict during the 2000s. riant, Emma (2015) Propaganda and Counter-terrorism: Strategies for Global Change, Manchester: Manchester University Press./ref> 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. ''
Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
'' writer Sharon Weinberger compared one of SCL's hypothetical test scenarios to fomenting a coup. Among the investors in Cambridge Analytica were some of the Conservative Party's largest donors such as billionaire Vincent Tchenguiz, former Conservative minister Jonathan Marland, Baron Marland, Roger Gabb, the family of American hedge fund manager
Robert Mercer Robert Leroy Mercer (born July 11, 1946) is an American hedge fund manager, computer scientist, and political donor. Mercer was an early artificial intelligence researcher and developer and is the former co-CEO of the hedge fund company Renaissan ...
, and
Steve Bannon Stephen Kevin Bannon (born November 27, 1953) is an American media executive, political strategist, and former investment banker. He served as the White House's chief strategist in the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump during t ...
. A minimum of 15 million dollars has been invested into the company by Mercer, according to ''The New York Times''. Bannon's stake in the company was estimated at 1 to 5 million dollars, but he divested his holdings in April 2017 as required by his role as
White House Chief Strategist Stephen Kevin Bannon (born November 27, 1953) is an American media executive, political strategist, and former investment banker. He served as the White House's chief strategist in the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump during the ...
. In March 2018, Jennifer Mercer and
Rebekah Mercer Rebekah Mercer is an American heiress and Republican political donor who is the director of the Mercer Family Foundation. She began overseeing day-to-day operations of political projects for the Mercer family when the Mercers became involved ...
became directors of Emerdata limited. In March 2018 it became public by Christopher Wylie, that Cambridge Analytica's first activities were founded on a data set, which its parent company SCL bought 2014 from a company named Global Science Research founded by Aleksandr Kogan and his team present across the world who worked as a psychologist at Cambridge. Dr
Emma Briant Emma L. Briant (born 1979) is a British scholar and academic researcher on media, contemporary propaganda, surveillance and information warfare who was involved in exposing the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal concerning data misuse ...
, an academic at University of Essex had researched the firm and the parent company SCL interviewing employees as part of her research on political propaganda and her 2015 book 'Propaganda and Counter-Terrorism.' During the revelations she published evidence through the British Parliament's Fake News Inquiry indicating that Cambridge Analytica did work for the UK's LeaveEU
Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time, GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 Central Eur ...
campaign during the 2016 EU Referendum which they denied. The
Information Commissioner's Office The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is a non-departmental public body which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). It is the independ ...
in February 2019 decided to audit the campaign, and its funder
Arron Banks Arron Fraser Andrew Banks (born 1966) is a British businessman and political donor. He is the co-founder (with Richard Tice) of the Leave.EU campaign. Banks was previously one of the largest donors to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and helpe ...
company
Eldon Insurance Eldon Insurance Services Limited or simply Eldon Insurance is a British insurance broking and claims management company controlled by Arron Banks. It is based in Bristol but also has offices in Newcastle, Southampton, and South Africa. Founde ...
for unlawful marketing involving repurposing of data. In November 2020 the Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham MP wrote that she "found no further evidence to change erearlier view that SCL/CA were not involved in the EU referendum campaign in the U.K." Denham also said she found no evidence of Russian involvement in the referendum. During
Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as ...
's tenure as foreign secretary, the
Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...
 sought advice from Cambridge Analytica and
Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as ...
had a meeting with Alexander Nix in 2016.


Aftermath

Following the downfall of Cambridge Analytica, a number of companies have been established by executives who had also been involved with Cambridge Analytica. In July 2018, several former Cambridge Analytica staff launched
Auspex International Auspex International is a company founded in London in 2018 by former Cambridge Analytica staff. It is one of several companies founded by people formerly affiliated with Cambridge Analytica following its downfall in the aftermath of the Faceboo ...
, 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. According to the Associated Press, Data Propria, a data analysis firm launched May 2018, is run by former officials at Cambridge Analytica. A firm called Emic, set up by staff from the original SCL defence contractor were revealed in 2020 by
Emma Briant Emma L. Briant (born 1979) is a British scholar and academic researcher on media, contemporary propaganda, surveillance and information warfare who was involved in exposing the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal concerning data misuse ...
to be continuing to work for governments. In December 2022, Reuters reported that Facebook owner Meta Platforms agreed to pay $725 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that had been initiated by its release of personal data to Cambridge Analytica in 2018.


Methods

CA's data analysis methods were based on those originally patented by Facebook. While Facebook did not publicly disclose the accuracy of this method, it was studied by Michal Kosinski. In 2008, Michal Kosinski had joined the Psychometrics Centre of
Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
where he then developed with his colleagues a profiling system using general online data,
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
-likes, and
smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whi ...
data. 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. Psychological targeting describes the practice of extracting people's psychological profiles from their digital footprints (e.g., their Facebook Likes, Tweets or credit card records) in order to influence their attitudes, emotions or behaviors through psychologically informed interventions at scale. It is defined by two interrelated components: (1) psychological profiling refers to the automated assessment of psychological traits and states from digital footprints, and (2) psychologically informed interventions describe the attempt to influence people's attitudes, emotions or behaviors by speaking to their fundamental psychological motivations. Research in fields such as psychology, marketing and health communication has shown that interventions aimed at influencing and changing human behavior are most effective when they are tailored to individuals’ psychological states and traits. A large amount of data can be extracted from the record of the trace of almost every step we take online — a digital footprint of human behavior. Whether it is our Facebook profile, Tweets, Google searches or GPS sensor, our digital footprints create extensive records of our personal habits and preferences. CA would collect data on voters using sources such as
demographics Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...
,
consumer behaviour Consumer behavior is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and all the activities associated with the purchase, use and disposal of goods and services. Consumer behaviour consists of how the consumer's emotions, attitudes, and p ...
, Internet activity, and other public and private sources. According to ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'', CA used psychological data derived from millions of Facebook users, largely without users' permission or knowledge. Another source of information was the "Cruz Crew"
mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
that tracked physical movements and contacts and according to the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...
, invaded personal data more than previous presidential campaign apps. The company claimed to use "data enhancement and audience segmentation techniques" providing " psychographic analysis" for a "deeper knowledge of the target audience". The company used the Big Five model of personality Using what it called "
behavioral Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as we ...
microtargeting Microtargeting is the use of online data to tailor advertising messages to individuals, based on the identification of recipients’ personal vulnerabilities. Such tactics can be used for promoting a product or a political candidate. Direct marketi ...
" the company indicated that it could predict "
needs A need is dissatisfaction at a point of time and in a given context. Needs are distinguished from wants. In the case of a need, a deficiency causes a clear adverse outcome: a dysfunction or death. In other words, a need is something required for ...
" of subjects and how these needs may change over time. Services then could 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." According to
Sasha Issenberg Sasha Issenberg is an American journalist. His articles have been published in '' Philadelphia'', '' Slate'', the ''Washington Monthly'', '' The New York Times Magazine'', '' The Atlantic'', ''Boston'', '' The Boston Globe'', ''Monocle'' and ''Geor ...
, CA indicated that it could tell things about an individual he might not even know about himself. CA derived much of its personality data on online surveys which it conducted on an ongoing basis. For each political client, the firm would narrow voter segments from 32 different
personality style Personality is the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that are formed from biological and environmental factors, and which change over time. While there is no generally agreed-upon definition of personality, mos ...
s it attributed to every adult in the United States. The personality data would inform the tone of the language used in ad messages or voter contact scripts, while additional data was used to determine voters' stances on particular issues. The data would get updated with monthly surveys, asking about political preferences and how people get the information they use to make decisions. 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.


''Channel 4 News'' investigation

''
Channel 4 News ''Channel 4 News'' is the main news programme on British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since Channel 4's launch in November 1982. Current productions ''Channel 4 News'' ''Channel 4 News'' ...
'', a news programme broadcast by the British public service
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
, conducted a four-month investigation into Cambridge Analytica starting in November 2017. An undercover reporter posed as a potential customer for Cambridge Analytica, hoping to help
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
n candidates get elected. Video footage from this operation was published on 19 March 2018. From the footage, Cambridge Analytica executives say they worked on over 200 elections across the world. Alexander Nix was recorded in this investigation, talking "unguardedly about the company's practices". Nix said that his company uses honey traps, bribery stings, and prostitutes, for opposition research. For example, Nix offered to discredit political opponents in Sri Lanka with suggestive videos using "beautiful Ukrainian girls" and offers of bribes, even if the opponents did not accept the offers. He also said he uses "Israeli companies" to entrap political opponents with bribes and sex, the Wall Street Journal confirmed that it was referring to
Psy-Group Psy-Group is a former Israeli private intelligence agency. It closed after revelations that it was under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Psy-Group’s CEO was Royi Burstein, a former lieutenant colonel in the Israel Defense Forc ...
. Zamel signed a memorandum of understanding for Psy-Group with Cambridge Analytica on 14 December 2016. Cambridge Analytica said that the video footage was "edited and scripted to grossly misrepresent" the recorded conversations and company's business practices. Nix said that he had "entertained a series of ludicrous hypothetical scenarios", but insisted his company does not engage in entrapment or bribery. In the third part of the series, Nix also said that Cambridge Analytica "ran all the digital campaign" for Trump. Nix stated they used communications that would be self-destructive, leaving no incriminating evidence. After the news segment was broadcast, the board of Cambridge Analytica suspended Nix as chief executive officer, and Julian Wheatland became the new CEO. 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. The investigation also raised questions regarding campaign finance law. During the 2016 election, the company was employed both by Trump's campaign and Robert Mercer's
Make America Number 1 Make America Number 1 is a right-wing super PAC (political action committee) that supported the presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election. During the primary campaign, the super PAC was kn ...
Super
PAC Pac or PAC may refer to: Military * Rapid Deployment Force (Malaysia), an armed forces unit * Patriot Advanced Capability, of the MIM-104 Patriot missile * Civil Defense Patrols (''Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil''), Guatemalan militia and paramil ...
which supported Trump. While PACs are not limited in the amount of funds they can spend on behalf of a candidate, they are not allowed to coordinate strategy with the campaigns they are supporting. Nix's statements in the recorded video describe how the Trump campaign itself could "take the high road" and "stay clean", while the negative attacks were handled by the firm and the Super PAC, in a way which makes it "unattributable, untrackable". These statements potentially suggested unlawful coordination between Trump's campaign and the PAC, although Cambridge Analytica has denied this.


Assessment of impact

Some political scientists have been skeptical of claims made by Cambridge Analytica about the effectiveness of its
microtargeting Microtargeting is the use of online data to tailor advertising messages to individuals, based on the identification of recipients’ personal vulnerabilities. Such tactics can be used for promoting a product or a political candidate. Direct marketi ...
of voters. They believe that access to digital data doesn't provide significantly more information than from public voter databases, and the digital data has limited value over time as the preferences of voters change. While studies have shown that personality does impact political preferences, some political scientists still believe that it is hard to infer political values from personality traits. On the other hand, a paper by Stanford professor Michal Kosinski and colleagues confirms that it can have a significant impact with a sample base of 3.5 million users 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. Tufts University political scientist Eitan Hersh, who has published on microtargeting in campaigns, has expressed strong skepticism about Cambridge Analytica's methods and their purported effectiveness, saying, "Every claim about psychographics etc made by or about
ambridge Analytica Ambridge may refer to: * Ambridge (''The Archers''), a fictional place in the UK radio programme, ''The Archers'' * Ambridge, Indiana, a former neighborhood, now part of Ambridge Mann, Indiana, US ** Ambridge station, a former railway station in A ...
is BS." In 2017, CA claimed that it has psychological profiles of 220 million US citizens based on 5,000 separate data sets. In March 2017, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reported that CA had exaggerated its capabilities: "Cambridge executives now concede that the company never used psychographics in the Trump campaign." Trump aides have also disputed CA's role in the campaign, describing it as "modest" and noting that none of the company's efforts involved psychographics. According to an aide and consultant for Ted Cruz's presidential campaign, their campaign stopped using CA after its psychographic models failed to identify likely Cruz supporters. The Cruz campaign ceased access to all of Cambridge's data after the South Carolina Republican primary on 20 February 2016 when Cruz came in third after Trump and Rubio.


Privacy issues and investigations

The use of
personal data Personal data, also known as personal information or personally identifiable information (PII), is any information related to an identifiable person. The abbreviation PII is widely accepted in the United States, but the phrase it abbreviates ha ...
collected without knowledge or permission to establish sophisticated models of user's personalities raises ethical and privacy issues. CA operated out of the United States; its operations would be illegal in Europe with its stricter
privacy law Privacy law is the body of law that deals with the regulating, storing, and using of personally identifiable information, personal healthcare information, and financial information of individuals, which can be collected by governments, public o ...
s. While Cruz was outspoken about protecting personal information from the government, his database of CA has been described as "political-voter
surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as ...
". 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. In 2015, Facebook indicated that it was investigating the matter. In March 2018, Facebook announced that it had suspended the accounts of Strategic Communication Laboratories for failing to delete data on Facebook users that had been improperly collected. Alexander Nix suggested that data collection and microtargeting benefits the voters – because they receive messages about issues they care about. However,
digital rights Digital rights are those human rights and legal rights that allow individuals to access, use, create, and publish digital media or to access and use computers, other electronic devices, and telecommunications networks. The concept is particula ...
protection groups raised concerns that private information is collected, stored, and shared while individuals are "left in the dark about t and have no control. Significant backlash against Facebook came to light in March 2018, resulting in controversy as well as a $37 billion drop in the
market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...
of Facebook, as of 20 March. Due to the scandal of enabling monetization of Facebook personal data, one assessment was that only 41% of Facebook users trust the company. On 26 March, the US
Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction o ...
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." In March 2019 Facebook acknowledged it had concerns about “improper data-gathering practices” by CA, months before the previously reported onset-of-alert at December 2015. 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. 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.


Elections


Australia

In Australia, Cambridge Analytica set up an office. Allan Lorraine, a friend of Alexander Tayler who was a former director for Cambridge Analytica and later appointed director of Emerdata, set up SCL (the parent company of Cambridge Analytica) in Australia. Representatives of Cambridge Analytica had a private dinner with
Dan Tehan Daniel Thomas Tehan (; born 27 January 1968) is an Australian politician who was the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment in the Morrison Government from 2020 to 2022. He is a member of the Liberal Party and previously served as Minist ...
when he was then the minister responsible for cyber security, and Liberal party executives. The business name "Cambridge Analytica" was registered in Australia to the Lorraine Family Trust in June 2015. SCL Group, promoted Mr Lorraine online as its head of Australian operations. Alexander Nix spoke at an Australian data-driven advertising conference run by the Association for Data-driven Marketing and Advertising and met with Liberal Party officials. Cambridge Analytica was scoping both political as well as commercial work in Australia. Cambridge Analytica's managing director of political operations said in a video recorded by Channel 4 that "We’ve done it in Mexico, we’ve done it in Malaysia, we’re now moving into Brazil, Australia, China." More than 310,000 Australian Facebook users were among the millions globally who may have had their information improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, to be sold and used for political profiling.


India

Cambridge Analytica functioned in India through a company called Strategic Communication Laboratories Private Limited, a venture of its parent company based in London, the
SCL Group SCL Group (formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories) was a private British behavioural research and strategic communication company that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal involving its subsidiaries ...
, and Ovleno India. Christopher Wylie, the CA
whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
, tweeted documents that suggested that SCL India had been involved in at least six state elections in 2003-2012, including the 2010 state elections in
Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...
, as well as the 2009 national election. He also suggested that CA's role in Indian elections was
neocolonial Neocolonialism is the continuation or reimposition of imperialist rule by a state (usually, a former colonial power) over another nominally independent state (usually, a former colony). Neocolonialism takes the form of economic imperialism, g ...
in nature. Both leading national parties, the
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...
(BJP) and the
Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...
(INC) denied contracting SCL India for any elections, and each accused the other party of having hired the firm. An INC spokesperson admitted that it was possible that party leaders might have merely met with the firm—yet, the SCL website listed their 2009 Bihar election campaign in its display of past projects. A clip from a BBC documentary showing a poster of the INC in ex-CEO Alexander Nix's office went viral in India. However, some CA executives, including Nix, claimed that their business venture in India was unsuccessful and that they falsified claims about their projects to win other business contracts. Further, one of the co-founders of the Indian CA counterpart, Avneesh Rai, claimed that Wylie's documents were some of the corporate advertising created by Nix and others that displayed the independent work of Rai and others as CA projects. Rai further claimed that several of Wylie's claims were false, and alleged that his partners and contractors held an anti-INC party idealogical bent. In early 2018, CA pitched a 50-page proposal potentially costing INR 25 million for the INC campaign in the upcoming 2019 general election in India and "crucial" state elections, but the INC maintained that no transaction was made. India was in the list of ten most-affected countries in the 2018 Cambridge Analytica data leak. 335 Indian Facebook users installed a CA associated app, exposing the data of their friend networks—in total leaking the data of 562,455 users. After the data leak allegations became public, the Indian government took down the local website of SCL India and began formal investigations.


Kenya

CA ran campaigns in secret during Kenya's
2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...
and 2017 elections. 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 Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (born 26 October 1961) is a Kenyan politician who served as the fourth president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022. Kenyatta was chosen by Daniel Arap Moi as his preferred successor, but Kenyatta was defeated by opposition le ...
's 2013 campaign. 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". According to verified sources, CA worked with 360 Media, a company formed by Simon Gicharu (founder of
Mount Kenya University Mount Kenya University (MKU) is a private, multi-campus, university in the municipal county of Thika, Kenya. The university was founded by Prof. Simon N. Gicharu and has since become one of the largest private universities in Kenya, with an es ...
) and Tom Mshindi (Editor-in-Chief of
Nation Media Group Nation Media Group (abbreviated as NMG) is a Kenyan media group listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange. NMG was founded by Aga Khan IV in 1959 and is the largest private media house in East and Central Africa with offices in Kenya, Uganda, and ...
). 360 Media developed online campaigns in the 2017 Kenyan elections portraying "Raila Odinga as a blood-thirsty individual who is also sympathetic to Al-Shabaab and having no development agenda," whilst portraying the incumbent President Kenyatta as "tough on terrorism, and being good for the economy." After the revelations in March 2018, where CA staff boasted of their power in Kenya, opposition figures called for an investigation. Norman Magaya, an official of the
National Super Alliance The National Super Alliance, known by the abbreviation NASA, was a Kenyan political coalition of opposition centre-left parties that was formed in January 2017. These parties include the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), Wiper Democratic Movement ...
, accused CA and the ruling
Jubilee Party The Jubilee Party of Kenya was the ruling political party of the Republic of Kenya from 2016 until 13 September 2022. The party was founded on 8 September 2016, following the merger of 11 smaller parties. During the 2017 election, the Jubilee ...
of committing a crime and called for an investigation. The Jubilee Party downplayed CA's role, saying it had hired the firm's parent company, to assist with branding.


Malta

In its Disinformation and 'fake news' inquiry, published on 29 July 2018, the UK Parliament's
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, formerly the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, is one of the select committees of the British House of Commons, established in 1997. It oversees the operations of the Department for ...
noted that it is believed that CA, or its associated companies, worked with the Labour Party in
Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, on the 2013 Maltese general election campaign. Several sources claim that CA had close relationships with Henley & Partners who would immediately after the election introduce and run a lucrative Citizenship by Investment Program in Malta. The Maltese Government issued a press release denying the claims and calling the report and its sources "
fake news Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.Schlesinger, Robert (April 14, 2017)"Fake news in reality ...
". Henley & Partners denied any wrongdoing. According to Henley & Partners, there was never a formal working relationship with CA. The Final Report by the
UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...
's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, published on 18 February 2019, took note of the Maltese Government's submissions (including through PR agency Chelgate's services) but determined that compelling evidence shown to the Committee confirmed that "SCL certainly had meetings in Malta, that Christian Kalin of Henley & Partners was introduced by SCL to
Joseph Muscat Joseph Muscat (born 22 January 1974) is a Maltese politician who served as the prime minister of Malta from 2013 to 2020, and as the leader of the Labour Party from June 2008 to January 2020. Muscat was re-elected as prime minister in the ...
in 2011, and that Christian Kalin met with both political parties before 2013". The Maltese Government later issued a further denial decrying the use of "''unnamed sources''" and "''confidential documents''".


Mexico

After the
Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal In the 2010s, personal data belonging to millions of Facebook users was collected without their consent by British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, predominantly to be used for political advertising. The data was collected through an app ca ...
, ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' published that the British news program ''Channel 4 News'' had mentioned the existence of proof revealing ties between the
Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party ( es, Partido Revolucionario Institucional, ; abbr. PRI) is a political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 and held uninterrupted power in the country for 71 years, from 1929 to 2000, first as the Nati ...
(PRI) and Cambridge Analytica, suggesting a ''
modus operandi A ''modus operandi'' (often shortened to M.O.) is someone's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also more generally. It is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode (or manner) of o ...
'' similar to the one in the United States. According to Channel 4 News' Guillermo Galdos, CA worked for the PRI at least until January 2018. An investigation was requested. In 2017 the company had reached out to the PRI, Mexico's ruling political party, in order to bolster the party's presidential campaign during the largest-ever political elections of 2018. The party decided that it was sufficiently equipped to mess with the election on its own, but still paid Cambridge Analytica to prevent it from working with rival parties.


United Kingdom

Many donors to the UK
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
reportedly have connections to the parent company of Cambridge Analytica. CA became involved in the
2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...
(Brexit) supporting "persuadable" voters to vote for leaving the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
(EU). Articles by
Carole Cadwalladr Carole Jane Cadwalladr (; born 1969) is a British author, investigative journalist and features writer. She is a features writer for ''The Observer'' and formerly worked at ''The Daily Telegraph''. Cadwalladr rose to international prominence in ...
in ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'' and ''
Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unit ...
'' newspapers, respectively published in February and May 2017, speculated in detail that CA had influenced both the
Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time, GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 Central Eur ...
/
Vote Leave Vote Leave was a campaigning organisation that supported a "Leave" vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. On 13 April 2016 it was designated by the Electoral Commission as the official campaign in favour of leav ...
option in the UK's 2016 EU membership referendum and Trump's 2016 US presidential campaign with
Robert Mercer Robert Leroy Mercer (born July 11, 1946) is an American hedge fund manager, computer scientist, and political donor. Mercer was an early artificial intelligence researcher and developer and is the former co-CEO of the hedge fund company Renaissan ...
's backing of
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
being key. They also discuss the legality of using the social data farmed. CA is pursuing legal action over the claims made in Cadwalladr's articles. No campaign contributions, in cash or in kind, by Cambridge Analytica were reported to the UK electoral authorities. Both CA and Leave.EU refused to comment on any donation of services. On 23 March 2018, it was reported that a former employee, Brittany Kaiser, who was the company's former director of business development, revealed that the company misled the public and MPs over its links with Leave.EU and the analysis of data which had been provided by the
UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...
(UKIP). She said she felt she had lied by supporting Cambridge Analytica's company line that it had done "no paid or unpaid work" for Leave.EU. "In my opinion, I was lying. In my opinion I felt like we should say, 'this is exactly what we did'". The following day, it was reported that the company claimed that it would be able to affect the outcome of the Referendum and that it had produced a 10-page document headed "Big Data Solutions for the EU Referendum", claiming it could single out 'Brexiteers' among voters, donors, politicians and journalists. In a 2019 interview with
France 24 France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned international news television network based in Paris. Its channels broadcast in French, English, Arabic, and Spanish and are aimed at the overseas market. Based in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Mo ...
, Kaiser said that democracy is under threat from the influence of groups like Cambridge Analytica, and that she does not believe social media users are more protected from this than in 2016. During a committee hearing in March 2018 Christopher Wylie told UK lawmakers that
AggregateIQ AggregateIQ (AIQ) previously known as SCL Canada is a Canadian political consultancy and technology company, based in Victoria, British Columbia. History AIQ was founded in 2013 by Zack Massingham, a former university administrator and Jeff Si ...
, a firm linked to Cambridge Analytica, helped the official Vote Leave campaign circumvent campaign financing laws during the Brexit referendum.


United States

Laurence Levy, a lawyer with the law firm
Bracewell & Giuliani Bracewell LLP is an international law firm based in Houston, Texas, that began in 1945. The firm has approximately 350 lawyers, and has United States offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Hartford, San Antonio, Seattle, Dallas and Austin, as w ...
, advises
Rebekah Mercer Rebekah Mercer is an American heiress and Republican political donor who is the director of the Mercer Family Foundation. She began overseeing day-to-day operations of political projects for the Mercer family when the Mercers became involved ...
,
Steve Bannon Stephen Kevin Bannon (born November 27, 1953) is an American media executive, political strategist, and former investment banker. He served as the White House's chief strategist in the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump during t ...
, and Alexander Nix on the legality of their company, Cambridge Analytica, being involved in
Elections in the United States Elections in the United States are held for government officials at the federal, state, and local levels. At the federal level, the nation's head of state, the president, is elected indirectly by the people of each state, through an Ele ...
. He advises that Nix and any foreign nationals without a
green card A green card, known officially as a permanent resident card, is an identity document which shows that a person has permanent residency in the United States. ("The term 'lawfully admitted for permanent residence' means the status of having been ...
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. 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. citizen.


2014 midterm elections

CA had entered the US market in 2012 (or 2013), and was involved in 44 US congressional,
US Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...
and state-level elections in the 2014 US elections. 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 Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
,
North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...
and
New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
and helped turn out voters for the
Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa * Republican Party (Liberia) *Republican Party ...
candidates in those states. Two of the Republican candidates backed by the Bolton Super PAC,
Thom Tillis Thomas Roland Tillis (born August 30, 1960) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from North Carolina since 2015. A Republican, he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 2006, and began ser ...
in North Carolina and
Tom Cotton Thomas Bryant Cotton (born May 13, 1977) is an American politician, attorney, and former military officer serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator for Arkansas since 2015. A memb ...
in Arkansas, won their Senate bids, while Scott Brown lost in New Hampshire. The PAC ran 15 different TV advertisements each in North Carolina and Arkansas and 17 in New Hampshire, mostly online with some targeted directly to households using
Dish Network DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling ...
and
DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...
. All were intended to push Bolton's national security agenda. CA also supported
Thom Tillis Thomas Roland Tillis (born August 30, 1960) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from North Carolina since 2015. A Republican, he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 2006, and began ser ...
's successful campaign to oust
Kay Hagan Janet Kay Hagan (née Ruthven; May 26, 1953 – October 28, 2019) was an American lawyer, banking executive, and politician who served as a United States Senator from North Carolina from 2009 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, she previ ...
as a senator for North Carolina. 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 Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...
's rise seriously. Tillis's campaign and the
North Carolina Republican Party The North Carolina Republican Party (NCGOP) is the affiliate of the Republican Party in North Carolina. Michael Whatley has been the chair since 2019. History Nineteenth century Although Republicans first nominated a candidate for President of ...
paid Cambridge Analytica $345,000 for these services. 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 The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...
as such.


2016 presidential election

CA's involvement in the
2016 Republican Party presidential primaries Presidential primaries and caucuses of the Republican Party took place within all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories between February 1 and June 7, 2016. These elections selected the 2,472 delegates that were se ...
became known in July 2015. As of December 2015, CA claimed to have collected up to 5,000 data points on over 220 million Americans. At that time
Robert Mercer Robert Leroy Mercer (born July 11, 1946) is an American hedge fund manager, computer scientist, and political donor. Mercer was an early artificial intelligence researcher and developer and is the former co-CEO of the hedge fund company Renaissan ...
was a major supporter of
Ted Cruz Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States Senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz served as Solicitor General of Texas fro ...
. The Mercer family funded CA directly and indirectly through several super-PACs as well as through payments via Cruz's campaign. Cruz became an early major client of CA in the 2016 presidential campaign. Just prior to the Iowa Republican caucuses, the Cruz campaign had spent $3 million for CA's services, with additional money coming from allied Super-PACs. After Cruz's win at the Iowa caucus CA was credited with having been able to identify and motivate potential voters. Ultimately the Cruz campaign spent $5.8 million on work by CA. Ben Carson was a second client of CA; his campaign had paid $220,000 for "data management" and "web service" as reported in October 2015. Marco Rubio's campaign was supported by Optimus Consulting. Meanwhile, the third competitor, Governor
John Kasich John Richard Kasich Jr. ( ; born May 13, 1952) is an American politician, author, and television news host who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001 and as the 69th governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019. A Republican, Kasic ...
, was supported by rivalling firm Applecart. 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. In August, it became known that CA followed their allegiance and worked for Trump's presidential campaign. Trump's campaign also worked with digital firm Giles Parscale. In September, the Trump campaign spent $5 million to purchase television advertising. The Trump campaign spent less than $1 million in data work. In 2016, the company said that it had not used psychographics in the Trump presidential campaign. Cambridge Analytica targeted potential voters with bespoke messages. Cambridge Analytica's data head, Alexander Tayler said, "When you think about the fact that Donald Trump lost the popular vote by 3m votes but won the electoral college vote, at's down to the data and the research." The head of Cambridge Analytica said he asked
WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...
founder,
Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army int ...
, for help finding
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
's 33,000 deleted emails. On 18 May 2017, ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' reported that the
US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...
was investigating CA in connection with
Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections The Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the goals of harming the campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the candidacy of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. Ac ...
. The report alleges that CA may have coordinated the spread of Russian propaganda using its microtargetting capabilities. According to the Trump campaign's digital operations chief, CA worked "side-by-side" with representatives from Facebook,
Alphabet Inc. Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It was created through a restructuring of Google on October 2, 2015, and became the parent company of Google and se ...
and
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
on Trump's digital campaign activities. On 4 August 2017,
Michael Flynn Michael Thomas Flynn (born December 24, 1958) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general and conspiracy theorist who was the 24th U.S. National Security Advisor for the first 22 days of the Trump administration. He resigned in light of ...
, who is under investigation by US counterintelligence for his contacts with Russian officials, amended a public financial filing to reflect that he had served in an advisory role in an agreement with CA during the 2016 Trump campaign. On 8 October 2017,
Brad Parscale Brad Parscale (born January 3, 1976) is an American digital consultant and political advisor who served as the senior adviser for data and digital operations for Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign. He previously served as the digital med ...
, who was the digital media director for Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, stated in an interview with
Lesley Stahl Lesley Rene Stahl (born December 16, 1941) is an American television journalist. She has spent most of her career with CBS News, where she began as a producer in 1971. Since 1991, she has reported for CBS's ''60 Minutes''. She is known for her ne ...
from
CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the '' CBS Evening News'', '' CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 4 ...
on ''
60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique st ...
'' that Parscale was able to utilize Facebook advertising to directly target individual voters in swing states. 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. Although he hired Cambridge Analytica to assist with
microtargeting Microtargeting is the use of online data to tailor advertising messages to individuals, based on the identification of recipients’ personal vulnerabilities. Such tactics can be used for promoting a product or a political candidate. Direct marketi ...
, and Cambridge Analytica stated that it was the key to Trump's victory, Parscale denied that he gained assistance from the firm, stating that he thought Cambridge Analytica's use of psychographics doesn't work. He also denied any assistance with links to Russia. According to Parscale, the Clinton campaign turned down assistance from these platforms. On 25 October 2017, Assange said on Twitter that he had been approached by Cambridge Analytica, but that he had rejected its proposal. Assange's tweet followed a story in ''
The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...
'' alleging that Cambridge Analytica chief executive Alexander Nix had proposed a collaboration with Wikileaks to find the 33,000 emails that had been deleted from Clinton's private server. CNN said it had been told by several unnamed sources that Nix intended to turn the Clinton email archive released to the public by the
State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...
into a searchable database for the campaign or a pro-Trump political action committee. On 14 December 2017, it was revealed that
Robert Mueller Robert Swan Mueller III (; born August 7, 1944) is an American lawyer and government official who served as the sixth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013. A graduate of Princeton University and New York ...
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. In 2018, following disclosures that the company had improperly used the personal information of over 50 million Facebook users while working on Trump's presidential campaign, ''
The Times of Israel ''The Times of Israel'' is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist David Horovitz, who is also the founding editor, and American billionaire investor Seth Klarman.
'' reported that the company had used what Nix had called "intelligence gathering" from British and
Israeli Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli (b ...
companies as part of their efforts to influence the election results in Trump's favor.


Other countries

Cambridge Analytica's executives said in 2018 that the company had worked in more than 200 elections around the world, including in
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
,
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
,
Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
,
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
,
Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...
(CA's website stated that it supported Prime Minister
Najib Razak Dato' Sri Haji Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak ( ms, محمد نجيب بن عبد الرزاق, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset, ; born 23 July 1953) is a Malaysian politician who served as the 6th prime minister of Malay ...
's Barisan Nasional coalition),
Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...
,
Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...
,
Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...
,
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...
,
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
,
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
,
Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
,
Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...
,
Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
(Nigeria's 2015 presidential election), the
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
, and
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...
. During the investigation it was admitted that the company has been contacted from a famous Italian party to manage the electoral campaign in
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
but the name of the party was not revealed. In the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
, Cambridge Analytica was also involved in the 2016 presidential election with reports citing it helped
Rodrigo Duterte Rodrigo Roa Duterte (, ; born March 28, 1945), also known as Digong, Rody, and by the initials DU30 and PRRD, is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He is the chairperson ...
win the race. Duterte's camp denied this association. The
SCL Group SCL Group (formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories) was a private British behavioural research and strategic communication company that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal involving its subsidiaries ...
, 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. During the election cycle, Facebook confirmed that its data of more one million Filipino users were improperly shared with the communications company. In 2020, Brittany Kaiser alleged that former Philippine Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr, son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr, had approached Cambridge Analytica with a request to do a "rebranding" of the family's image. On 4 January 2020, a release of more than 100,000 documents showed how Cambridge Analytica worked in 68 countries. A global infrastructure with operations to manipulate voters on "an industrial scale". The release of documents began on New Year's Day from an anonymous Twitter account called @HindsightFiles, that published material on elections in Malaysia, Kenya and
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
(and next days so more countries). This documents came from Brittany Kaiser, an ex-Cambridge Analytica employee turned whistleblower, and were retrieved from her email accounts and hard drives.


See also

*
Auspex International Auspex International is a company founded in London in 2018 by former Cambridge Analytica staff. It is one of several companies founded by people formerly affiliated with Cambridge Analytica following its downfall in the aftermath of the Faceboo ...
*
Catalist Catalist is a for-profit corporation based in Washington, D.C., that operates a voter database and works for progressive causes. History Catalist was founded as Data Warehouse, LLC. Catalist's first CEO was Laura Quinn, a former economic policy a ...
*
Data dredging Data dredging (also known as data snooping or ''p''-hacking) is the misuse of data analysis to find patterns in data that can be presented as statistically significant, thus dramatically increasing and understating the risk of false positives. T ...
* Data Propria *
Foreign electoral intervention Foreign electoral interventions are attempts by governments, covertly or overtly, to influence elections in another country. Academic studies Intervention measurements Theoretical and empirical research on the effect of foreign electoral inte ...
*
Foreign worker Foreign workers or guest workers are people who work in a country other than one of which they are a citizen. Some foreign workers use a guest worker program in a country with more preferred job prospects than in their home country. Guest worke ...
* ''
The Great Hack ''The Great Hack'' is a 2019 documentary film about the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, produced and directed by Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer, both previous documentary Academy Award nominees ( ''The Square'', ''Control Room'', '' ...
'' *
The Groundwork The Groundwork was a privately held technology firm, run by Michael Slaby, that was formed in June 2014. Campaign finance disclosures revealed that Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign was a client of the Groundwork. Most of the Groundwork's e ...
* Herd behaviour *
Mass surveillance Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizati ...
* ORCA (computer system) *
Predictive analytics Predictive analytics encompasses a variety of statistical techniques from data mining, predictive modeling, and machine learning that analyze current and historical facts to make predictions about future or otherwise unknown events. In busine ...
* Project Alamo *
Project Houdini Project Houdini is a computer program used by the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign of Barack Obama. Although it originally had missteps, it has been credited with helping increase Democratic Party turnout over the 2004 election. It has been compared ...
*
Project Narwhal Project Narwhal is the name of a computer program used by the 2012 campaign by Barack Obama. It was contrasted in the Mitt Romney presidential campaign by Project Orca, so named because the orca is one of the few predators of the narwhal. Develo ...
*
Right-wing politics Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, auth ...
*
Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections The Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the goals of harming the campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the candidacy of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. Ac ...
* Sam Patten (political consultant) * Social media analytics *
Tech companies in the New York metropolitan area Tech or The Tech may refer to: * An abbreviation of technology or technician *Tech Dinghy, an American sailing dinghy developed at MIT *Tech (mascot), the mascot of Louisiana Tech University, U.S. * Tech (river), in southern France * "Tech" ('' ...


References


Further reading

* Jungherr, Andreas, Gonzalo Rivero, and Daniel Gayo-Avello. 2020
''Retooling Politics: How Digital Media Are Shaping Democrac''y
Cambridge University Press. * Nazzareno Tirino, ''Cambridge Analytica. Il potere segreto, la gestione del consenso e la fine della propaganda''. Libellula Edizioni, Lecce (ITA), 2019. *Maschewski, Felix; Nosthoff, Anna-Verena
"Order from Noise. On Cambridge Analytica, Cybernetic Governance and the Technopolitical Imaginary"Public Seminar
* Wylie, Christopher (October 2019). ''Mindf*ck: inside Cambridge Analytica's plot to break the world''. London, United Kingdom: Profile Books. . Export edition.


External links


Archived website

The Cambridge Analytica Files
ongoing investigative reporting from ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
''/''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'', beginning 17 March 2018, part o
News: Cambridge Analytica
beginning a year earlier
Data, Democracy and Dirty Tricks
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
{{Authority control 2013 establishments in England 2018 disestablishments in England British companies established in 2013 British companies disestablished in 2018 Defunct technology companies of the United Kingdom Technology companies established in 2013 Technology companies disestablished in 2018 Big data companies Defunct companies based in London Data management Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign Facebook Political campaign techniques Political campaign technology Predictive analytics Transaction processing 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum Consulting firms established in 2013 Consulting firms disestablished in 2018 Brexit Government by algorithm