The London offices of Cambridge Analytica have been searched by enforcement officers from the UK's information commissioner. The High Court granted the data watchdog a warrant amid claims the firm amassed information about millions of people without their consent, based on a 2014 quiz on Facebook. Cambridge Analytica's acting chief executive, Alexander Tayler, said the company has been in touch with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) since February 2017 and it remained committed to helping the investigation. In a statement, he said checks in 2015 showed all the Facebook data had been deleted but the company was now undertaking an independent third-party audit to verify none remained. The company denies any of the data harvested in the 2014 Facebook quiz created by an academic was used in its work for Donald Trump's campaign.

Since the Observer reported that the personal data of about 50 million Americans had been harvested from Facebook and improperly shared with the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, it has become increasingly apparent that the social network has been far more lax with its data sharing practices than many users realised. They may now regret it but they knowingly unleashed the forces that have led to this lack of trust and loss of privacy Since Zuckerberg’s “dumb fucks” comment, Facebook has gone to great lengths to convince members of the public that it’s all about “connecting people” and “building a global community”. However in highlighting the apparent deceit, the company has been forced to shine a light on its underlying business model and years of careless data sharing practices. Sure, the data changed hands between the researcher and Cambridge Analytica in apparent violation of Kogan’s agreement with Facebook, but everything else was above board. They may now regret it but they knowingly unleashed the forces that have led to this lack of trust and loss of privacy.” The terms were updated in April 2014 to restrict the data new developers could get hold of, including to people’s friends’ data, but only after four years of access to the Facebook firehose.

March 24, 2018 03:33 AM Britain's information regulator says it is assessing evidence gathered from a raid on the office of data firm Cambridge Analytica, carried out as part of an investigation into alleged misuse of personal information by political campaigns and social media companies. More than a dozen investigators from the Information Commissioner's Office entered the data firm's central London office late Friday, shortly after a High Court judge granted a warrant. The investigators were seen leaving the premises early Saturday. The regulator said it will "consider the evidence before deciding the next steps and coming to any conclusions." Cambridge Analytica, known for working on President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, is being investigated over whether it improperly used data from around 50 million Facebook users to target voters with ads and political messages. View More Video

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India has set a March 31 deadline for London-based political consultancy Cambridge Analytica to respond to a query on whether it was engaged to improperly harvest Facebook data on Indian citizens, the information technology ministry said. Friday’s notice to the firm followed local media reports that Indian political parties had used the data analytics firm during elections. The ministry raised six questions in its notice, from whether the firm had engaged in profiling based on the data collected, to how the data was used and if consent had been secured from the concerned individuals. The government was deeply concerned with allegations that data could have been used to influence people’s behaviour, the ministry said. The ministry has threatened to take legal action against companies and individuals engaging in any unauthorised use of such data.

What started off as a major controversy in the United Stated has slowly pervaded into different parts of the world, with India also getting caught in this whole fiasco. Since the whole controversy encompasses a lot of elements like millions of Facebook’s users, psychological manipulation and the Indian political parties, here’s a quick low down on everything you need to know about the Cambridge Analytica controversy and its India connect. British data analysis firm, Cambridge Analytica (CA) has been at the centre of controversy over the last few days, following reports from The New York Times and UK-based Observer that it breached private data of more than 50 million Facebook users. The revelations about the breach were brought forward by Christopher Wylie, a former employee at CA and a whistle-blower. CA's CEO Alexander Nix has also been suspended pending further investigation into the matter.

Alexander Nix, the embattled chief executive of Cambridge Analytica used racial slurs to describe two of his potential black clients in an email. At the end of which Kogan’s app, called thisismydigitallife, gave him permission to access their Facebook profiles. Sensational as it sounds, however, the Cambridge Analytica scandal doesn’t indict Facebook in quite the way it might seem. It reveals almost nothing about the social network or its data policies that wasn’t already widely known, and there’s little evidence of blatant wrongdoing by Facebook or its employees. Facebook has also suspended Cambridge Analytica after reports that the firm harvested and retained the personal data of 50 million social media users without their knowledge or permission.

The move comes after a British High Court judge granted a warrant to the data watchdog Information Commissioner's Office, allowing its investigators to search the firm's offices. The search is reported to be part of a broader investigation into possible ties between Cambridge Analytica and the campaign for the U.K. The Guardian reports that a former Cambridge Analytica business development director, Brittany Kaiser, said that the firm provided data analysis for Leave.EU. "Cambridge Analytica conducted data research for one of the leading Brexit campaign groups and then misled the public and MPs over the work the company had undertaken, according to a former employee who has spoken to the Guardian." "Kaiser's revelations will reignite a fierce argument about the tactics used to try to influence voters in the Brexit campaign – and will add to the pressure on Alexander Nix, the [suspended] CEO of Cambridge Analytica. The company is already under investigation by the Electoral Commission over what role, if any, it played in the EU referendum campaign." A spokesman for Leave.EU, Aaron Banks, denied the claim, saying that his group did not receive any data or work from Cambridge Analytica.

Eighteen enforcement officers entered the Cambridge Analytica headquarters in London’s West End to search the premises after the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) was granted a warrant to examine its records. A judge issued the warrant on Friday evening, four days after the information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, first announced plans to raid the offices. The growing scandal stems from claims over the harvesting of personal data and whether it was used to affect the outcome of Donald Trump’s US presidential campaign and the EU referendum. Less than an hour after the warrant was granted, a group of 18 people, some wearing ICO enforcement jackets, entered the building from New Oxford Street, led by a woman holding a piece of paper which appeared to be a warrant. Brittany Kaiser, formerly Cambridge Analytica’s business development director, reveals the blueprint for how CA claimed to have won the White House for Donald Trump by using Google, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

NEW DELHI — India’s government has sent a notice to U.K.-based Cambridge Analytica asking whether it has misused data to profile Indians and influence their elections. The data-mining firm faces accusation of lifting the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission in order to manipulate elections. Authorities in both the United States and Britain are investigating both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. The Indian government also demanded the name of the entities that engaged Cambridge Analytica and the method used by it for possession of data. Governing Bharatiya Janata Party and main opposition Congress Party have accused each other of utilizing the services of the company.

March 23, 2018 04:19 PM Officers from Britain's information regulator are raiding the London offices of data firm Cambridge Analytica after being granted a warrant as part of an investigation into alleged misuse of personal information. A High Court judge granted the warrant Friday evening. Soon afterward, 18 people, some in Information Commissioner's Office jackets, entered the company's central London offices. The information commissioner is investigating whether the firm improperly used data from some 50 million Facebook users to target voters with ads and political messages. Authorities in the United States and Britain are investigating whether it and Facebook broke the law in their use of personal information.