A British data analytics firm known for helping political campaigns including Donald Trump’s presidential bid, has been suspended from using Facebook’s advertising platform.
Facebook late on Friday said the firm, Cambridge Analytica, violated company policies related to collecting user data. According to a blog post written by Paul Grewal, a top Facebook attorney, Cambridge Analytica and its parent company, Strategy Communication Laboratories, improperly acquired and retained data from a third-party researcher.
According to Facebook, the researcher provided data to Cambridge Analytica that he had acquired through an app he called “thisisyourdigitallife” that was downloaded by 270,000 users and described as “a research tool used by psychologists.”
Facebook’s announcement came just hours before a report by The Guardian and The New York Times, based in part on extensive information from a Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, reported that the research company “harvested” data about 50 million Facebook users who were linked to those who used the app.
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