Cambridge analytica
What is Cambridge analytica?
Cambridge Analytica LLC (CA) is a limited liability corporation incorporated in New York,
but largely run as a British political consulting firm which combines data mining, data brokerage,
and data analysis with strategic communication for the electoral process. It was started in 2013 as
an offshoot of the SCL Group.
The company is partly owned by the family ofRobert Mercer, an American hedge-fund
manager who supports many politically conservative causes. Alexander Nix is CEO of this
corporation. The firm maintains offices in London, New York City, andWashington, D.C.
Involvement
Alexander Nix has said CA was involved in 44 US political races in 2014. In 2015, it performed
data analysis services forTed Cruz's presidential campaign. In 2016, CA worked forDonald
Trump's presidential campaign as well as theLeave.EU-campaign for the United Kingdom's
withdrawal from theEuropean Union. CA's role in those campaigns has been controversial and is
the subject of ongoing criminal investigations in both countries Political scientists question CA's
claims about the effectiveness of its methods of targeting voters.
In March 2018, multiple media outlets broke news of Cambridge Analytica's business
practices.The New York Times andThe Observer reported on theFacebook and Cambridge
Analytica data breach, in which the company used for political purposes personal information
acquired about Facebook users, by an external researcher who claimed to be collecting it for
academic purposes. Shortly afterwards,Channel 4 News aired undercover investigative videos
showing Nix boasting about using prostitutes, briberysting operations, andhoney traps to
discredit politicians on whom it conductedopposition research, and saying that the company "ran
all of (Donald Trump's) digital campaign". In response to the media reports, theInformation
Commissioner of the UK pursued awarrant to search the company's servers. Facebook banned
Cambridge Analytica from advertising on its platform, saying that it had been deceived. On
March 23, 2018, theBritish High Court granted the Information Commissioner's Office a
warrant to search Cambridge Analytica's London offices.
