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Facebook suspends Trump election data firm for policy breach
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Facebook headquarters at 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California, United States. (Shutterstock/File)
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acebook suspended Cambridge Analytica, a data company that helped President Donald Trump win the presidential election, saying it retained user information to which it should not have had access.
Facebook said in a blog post Friday that Cambridge Analytica got some user data through an app developer on its social network, violating its policies. In 2015, Facebook said Cambridge Analytica certified that it had destroyed the information.
"Several days ago, we received reports that, contrary to the certifications we were given, not all data was deleted," Facebook said in a statement. Cambridge Analytica has been suspended from the social network, "pending further information," Facebook said.
Cambridge Analytica, which said it hired Global Science Research in 2014 for a US project, is in touch with Facebook in order to resolve the matter as quickly as possible, according to a company statement on Saturday.
"No data from GSR was used by Cambridge Analytica as part of the services it provided to the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign," the statement said.
“We are committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people’s information,” Facebook said in the blog post. “We will take whatever steps are required to see that this happens. We will take legal action if necessary to hold them responsible and accountable for any unlawful behavior.”
Cambridge Analytica uses data to reach voters with hyper-targeted messaging, including on Facebook and other online services. The company was hired to help with voter outreach by the Trump campaign, whose former campaign manager, Steve Bannon, had been on the company’s board.
