The Latest: Firm employed by Trump campaign tapped Facebook

The Latest: Firm employed by Trump campaign tapped Facebook


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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on a data firm that worked with the Trump campaign, tapping Facebook profiles, (all times local):

5:45 p.m.

A data analysis firm employed by President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign tapped the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission, allowing it to capitalize on the private social media activity of a large portion of the U.S. electorate, newspapers reported Saturday.

One of the largest data leaks in Facebook history allowed Cambridge Analytica, which had ties to Trump campaign strategist Steve Bannon, to develop techniques that formed the basis of its work on the Trump campaign, The New York Times and The Guardian reported.

Facebook said it suspended Cambridge Analytica over allegations that it kept the improperly obtained user data after telling Facebook it had been deleted.

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Facebook is suspending Cambridge Analytica, a data-analysis firm that worked for the Trump campaign, while it investigates whether the company held onto improperly obtained user data after telling Facebook it had deleted the information.

The social network said in a blog post that the firm violated its policies by receiving user data from a Facebook app created by a University of Cambridge professor.

But while Cambridge Analytica certified in 2015 that it had destroyed the wayward data, Facebook said, the social network received reports "several days ago" that not all the data was deleted.

Cambridge Analytica claims to build psychological profiles based on personal details from millions of Americans that can categorize individual voters. The company has surfaced on several occasions in probes of 2016 Russian election interference.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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