Claim: Trump's Campaign Consultants Took Data From Millions Of Facebook Users

The Guardian: Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach

Whistleblower describes how firm linked to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon compiled user data to target American voters

The data analytics firm that worked with Donald Trump’s election team and the winning Brexit campaign harvested millions of Facebook profiles of US voters, in one of the tech giant’s biggest ever data breaches, and used them to build a powerful software program to predict and influence choices at the ballot box.

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WNU Editor: Facebook is denying claims that this was a data breach .... and they are probably right. The firm in question .... Cambridge Analytica, got Facebook's data from University of Cambridge psychologist Aleksandr Kogan who got the data legitimately from Facebook. From Facebook's press release ....

.... The claim that this is a data breach is completely false. Aleksandr Kogan requested and gained access to information from users who chose to sign up to his app, and everyone involved gave their consent. People knowingly provided their information, no systems were infiltrated, and no passwords or sensitive pieces of information were stolen or hacked.

It was Cambridge psychologist Aleksandr Kogan's app that obtained this information .... information that everyone who signed onto his app had agreed to. The dispute is that Aleksandr Kogan gave this information to a third party (Cambridge Analytica) .... a violation of Facebook guidelines. As for Cambridge Analytica, in a statement Cambridge Analytica denied that they had knowingly breached Facebook’s terms of service, and once they became aware that it had been obtained improperly, deleted it immediately, was not used in the 2016 campaign, and have since gone through an audit to make sure that this data is no longer in their possession.

As for the Cambridge Analytica whistle-blower Christopher Wylie .... he left the company in 2014 .... a year before President Trump declared his intention to run for the Presidency. So why the news coverage over a story that is a really a non-story. Sensing that maybe there is no story, the media is now shifting to this .... Trump-linked data firm met with Russian executives: report (The Hill). So the firm met some executives from a Russian company interested in using social media data to promote their company. Quite frankly .... this is not news .... every company is trying to use social media data to their advantage .... Russians included. And if Cambridge Analytica is good at what it does .... and apparently they are .... this interest should surprise no one.

As of this writing, Facebook has suspended the accounts of Cambridge Analytica, Cambridge psychologist Aleksandr Kogan, and the whistle-blower himself .... Christopher Wylie.

Update: Critics of Facebook are not satisfied with their response to this story .... Facebook and its executives are getting destroyed after botching the handling of a massive data 'breach' (Business Insider)

More News On  Campaign Consultants Working For Trump During The Campaign Took Data From Millions Of Facebook Users

The Cambridge Analytica Files: ‘I created Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare tool’: meet the data war whistleblower -- The Guardian
How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions -- New York Times
Trump campaign consultant took data about millions of users without their knowledge -- Washington Post
Trump campaign data firm accused of harvesting Facebook data -- BBC
Cambridge Analytica harvested data from millions of unsuspecting Facebook users -- NBC
Trump consultants harvested data from 50 million Facebook users: reports -- Reuters
Facebook bans Trump campaign data firm Cambridge Analytica -- DW
Facebook suspends controversial data firm Cambridge Analytica -- BBC
'Cambridge Analytica harvested data of 50 million Facebook users' -- Al Jazeera