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The data watchdog has closed its investigation into Cambridge Analytica, concluding that the controversial data company did not directly misuse the data to influence the Brexit referendum.
Elizabeth Denham, the information commissioner, said her team also found no evidence that Cambridge Analytica aided Russian intervention in the UK political process. However, she cautioned that the company’s data protection practices were lax “with little attention to effective security measures” and its activities raised broader concerns about the influence of technology on policy.
Cambridge Analytica had repeatedly claimed in its marketing material to have “over 5,000 data points per individual on 230 million adult Americans,” suggesting that it had incredible power to micro-target individuals with suggestive political messages using a psychographic database. giant.
However, the investigation concluded that “based on what we found, it appears this may have been an exaggeration” and many of the company’s activities followed “well-recognized processes using commonly available technology.”
The Information Commissioner’s Office spent three years investigating the company, which collapsed in 2018. The fall of Cambridge Analytica led to a global debate over the use of data targeting in politics and a reckoning for major companies in the US. technology that were ridiculed by governments around the world, prompting the introduction of restrictions on political advertising on major social media platforms.
Denham said his team analyzed 42 computers, 700 terabytes of data, 31 servers and more than 300,000 documents as part of their investigation into possible data crimes. In a letter to MPs, he said that while there was no evidence of law violations to justify enforcement action, Cambridge Analytica’s activities “confirm my earlier conclusion that there are systemic vulnerabilities in our democratic systems.”
Denham said he found no evidence that Cambridge Analytica was actively involved in the EU referendum campaign, beyond an initial proposal to work with UKIP that was not implemented. The successful Vote Leave campaign, led by Dominic Cummings, used the services of AggregateIQ, a Canadian data-selection company with longstanding ties to Cambridge Analytica.
Last month, Cambridge Analytica founder Alexander Nix was disqualified from serving as a director of the company for seven years for “offering potentially unethical services to prospective clients,” including bribery or honey traps, voter disengagement campaigns. , obtaining information to discredit political opponents and disseminating information anonymously. in political campaigns.
Cambridge Analytica’s sister company SCL Elections has already been fined £ 18,000 for failing to comply with a request for personal data submitted by American academic David Carroll. He wanted to learn how he may have been targeted by Republican activists who used the company’s services during the 2016 presidential election.
As part of its investigations, the ICO also imposed a £ 500,000 fine on Facebook and minor penalties for both Vote Leave and Leave.EU.
