Cambridge Analytica, accused and investigated for the story of private data stolen from the network on Facebook and used to influence important electoral campaigns. The company has collected the personal data of more than 50 million social media users, violating its policy and influencing the US presidential elections, Brexit and other election campaigns, according to revelations by the New York Times and Guardian.
Throughout the affair, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is silent, despite the collapse of the stock market that sent the group up to 36 billion dollars in smoke and despite the reaction of the British Parliament, the EU Commission, the Congress of States Uniti and the #DeleteFacebook campaign, or 'delete Facebook' that has gone viral on social networks.
According to the revelations of the investigation, Facebook would have been aware of the violation as early as 2014. It would have activated to request the deletion of data but without informing users.
Zuckerberg, who owns 16% of Facebook, has personally lost $ 5,5 billion on the stock market, slipping to $ 69 billion, according to Forbes' monitoring of the richest men on the planet. But the founder appears strangely absent, in the first instance delegating the answers to the press releases and to his subordinates.
Facebook's head of security, Alex Stamos, is released even though he denies it via Twitter. “Despite the rumors, I am fully committed to my work at Facebook. It is true that my role has changed. I am currently spending more time evaluating emerging security risks and working on security in the elections, ”Stamos tweeted. According to Reuters, which cites Facebook sources, Stamos' resignation will take effect from August.
Facebook has relied on Stroz Friedberg, a company specializing in digital forensic investigations to verify if Cambridge Analytica is still in possession of the data it had asked it to delete. It is the same company that Uber had turned to to investigate Anthony Levandowsly that Google had accused of stealing trade secrets from Waymo, the autonomous driving division of Mountain View for which he had worked.
UK Information Supervisor Elizabeth Denham has announced that it intends to seek a warrant to search the Cambridge Analytica office. He had asked to be able to access the group's databases and servers but got no response. “We have to get there, Denham explained, we have to analyze their databases, we have to analyze the servers and understand how the data was processed or deleted. To access personal data Cambridge Analytica would have used an application called “thisisyourdigitallife”, presented to Facebook and its users as a kind of test. Once downloaded, the app would open the doors to data.
From the point of view of the European Union, the misuse for political purposes of personal data belonging to Facebook, if confirmed, is unacceptable ", said in a statement the EU Commissioner for Justice, Vera Jourova, who landed in the US where she will meet White House representatives and Facebook officials.