Britain is investigating whether Facebook, the world’s largest social media network, did enough to protect data.
Investigators from Britain’s data watchdog on Friday searched the London offices of Cambridge Analytica, the data analytics firm at the centre of a storm over allegations it improperly harvested Facebook data to target U. S. voters.
About 20 officials, wearing black jackets with “ICO Enforcement” on them, arrived at the firm’s central London offices soon after a High Court judge granted a search warrant sought by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The officials, who were let into the building by security guards, could be seen checking books and papers through the windows of the second-floor offices on London’s busy New Oxford Street, a Reuters witness said.
Elizabeth Denham, head of the ICO, sought the warrant after a whistleblower said Cambridge Analytica had gathered private information of 50 million Facebook users to support Donald Trump’s 2016 U. S. presidential campaign.
Britain is investigating whether Facebook, the world’s largest social media network, did enough to protect data.
U. S. lawmakers on Friday asked Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to come to Congress to explain to explain how the data got into Cambridge Analytica’s hands, adding to pressure on the firm, which is under fire from investors and advertisers.
Separately on Friday, Britain’s Guardian newspaper said a former Cambridge Analytica political consultant had accused the company’s management of misleading the British public about work it did for a pro-Brexit group before the vote to leave the European Union.
Brittany Kaiser, a business development director at the company from 2014 until earlier this year, told the Guardian that Cambridge Analytica carried out data-crunching and analysis work for Leave. EU, while publicly denying it was doing so.
