US and UK lawmakers have called for government action following Saturday’s high-profile reports of the mishandling of Facebook user data by the British electioneering firm Cambridge Analytica.
Whistleblower Chris Wylie, former Research Director of Cambridge Analytica, says his company improperly harvested data from as many as fifty million Facebook users to build profiles that would help target voters for political ads and stories.
Wylie says that the app designed by the firm, initially for surveys, was capable of capturing all of Facebook users’ information, without their consent, as well as information from other social networks they used.
Cambridge Analytica, which may be best known for working on US President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, has denied violating Facebook’s terms.
American and British lawmakers on Sunay called for an investigation.