Cambridge Analytica, the communications firm accused of using illegally obtained Facebook user info to aid Donald Trump’s US presidential bid, had practice right here in Malaysia, according to a new documentary produced by Britain’s Channel 4.
An affiliate of British firm Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), the firm at the center of the explosive allegations has offices in London, New York, Washington, as well as Brazil and, yep, Malaysia.
Surprisingly, Cambridge Analytica’s listed offices here lead to a gated housing community in the suburban Kuala Lumpur neighborhood of Kota Damansara. The owner of the property claims to have no knowledge of the house being used by the firm, although he did confirm it was indeed the address mentioned on the website.
British network Channel 4 has recently been investigating the work done by the big data company as part of a stealth documentary, and a key official in the organization alleged on camera that CA had done previous electioneering work in Malaysia.
Mark Turnbull, managing director of Cambridge Analytica Political Global, admitted this to undercover reporters in video footage shot last year.
The revelations came amid Channel 4’s investigation into the role of Cambridge Analytica’s work with Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“If you’re collecting data on people and you’re profiling them, that gives you more insight that you can use to know how to segment the population to give them messaging about issues that they care about, and language and imagery that they’re likely to engage with, and we use that in America, we use that in Africa, that’s what we do as a company.
“We’ve done it in Mexico, we’ve done it in Malaysia, and now we’re going to Brazil,” Turnbull said.
When news broke of Malaysia’s involvement with the seamy company, many began to call into question the ethics behind using such means to influence voters.
Cambridge Analytica lists openly on their website their work in helping BN win “a landslide victory” in the northern state of Kedah in the 13th General Election.
Others have wondered about what they consider suspicious timing, with the 14th General Election only months away, while others are simply calling it yet another international embarrassment for the country.
If data mining isn’t enough to make you question the company’s moral compass, we might add that other executives from CA were caught on camera admitting to using bribes, former spies and even Ukrainian sex workers to influence and strong-arm politicians around the world. Ahem.
Here’s the story behind the company using data to fuel political campaigns:
What does Cambridge Analytica do?
The company boasts it can “find your voters and move them to action” through data-driven campaigns and a team including data scientists and behavioral psychologists.
“Within the United States alone, we have played a pivotal role in winning presidential races as well as congressional and state elections,” with data on more than 230 million American voters, Cambridge Analytica claims on its website.
Speaking to TechCrunch in 2017, CEO Alexander Nix said the firm was “always acquiring more” data.
“Every day we have teams looking for new data sets,” he told the site.
Who are the company’s clients?
As well as working on the election which saw Trump reach the White House, Cambridge Analytica has been involved in political campaigns around the world.
In the US, analysts harnessed data to generate thousands of messages targeting voters through their profiles on social media such as Facebook, Snapchat, or the Pandora Radio streaming service.
British press have credited Cambridge Analytica with providing services to pro-Brexit campaign Leave.EU, but Nix has denied working for the group.
Globally, Cambridge Analytica said it has worked in Italy, Kenya, South Africa, Colombia and Indonesia.
What has the company been accused of?
According to the New York Times and Britain’s Observer newspapers, Cambridge Analytica stole information from 50 million Facebook users’ profiles in the tech giant’s biggest-ever data breach, to help them design software to predict and influence voters’ choices at the ballot box.
University of Cambridge psychologist Aleksandr Kogan created a personality prediction test app, thisisyourdigitallife, which was downloaded by 270,000 people.
The tool allowed Kogan to access information such as content Facebook users had “liked” and the city they listed on their profile, which was then passed to SCL and Cambridge Analytica.
The Observer reported the app also collected information from the Facebook friends of people who had taken the test.
Christopher Wylie, a former Cambridge Analytica employee, worked with Kogan and told Canadian television channel CBC the company used “private data they acquired without consent”.
Who else is involved?
US hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer — and major Republican party donor — bankrolled Cambridge Analytica to the tune of $15 million (12 million euros).
The Observer said it was headed at the time by Steve Bannon, a top Trump adviser until he was fired last summer.
How has Facebook responded?
Facebook suspended SCL and Cambridge Analytica, as well as Kogan and Wylie.
In explaining its decision on Friday, the social media giant said the thisisyourdigitallife app was legitimate, but accused Kogan of subsequently violating Facebook’s terms by passing the data on to SCL/Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook said it found out what had happened in 2015 and was told all parties involved had deleted the data.
“The claim that this is a data breach is completely false,” Facebook said in a new statement on Saturday, saying app users knowingly provided their information.
Watch the entire Channel 4 documentary here:
Additional reporting via AFP
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