As the Voter-Profiling Company Cambridge Analytica, where Michael Flynn was an Advisor, prepared to wade into the 2014 American Midterm Elections, it had a problem. The Firm had secured a $15 Million Investment from Robert Mercer, the wealthy Republican Donor, and wooed his Political Adviser, Stephen K. Bannon, with the promise of Tools that could Identify the Personalities of American Voters and Influence their Behavior. But it did not have the Data to make its New Products Work.
Alexander Nix, the Chief Executive of Cambridge Analytica, and his Colleagues, courted Mr. Mercer, who believed a Sophisticated Data Company could make him a Kingmaker in Republican Politics, and his daughter Rebekah, who shared his Conservative views. Mr. Bannon was intrigued by the possibility of using Personality Profiling to shift America’s Culture and Rewire its Politics.
Christopher Wylie, who helped find Cambridge, found a Solution at Cambridge University’s Psychometrics Centre. Researchers there had developed a Technique to Map Personality Traits based on what People had liked on Facebook. The Researchers paid Users Small Sums to take a Personality Quiz and Download an App, which would Scrape some Private Information from the their Profiles and those of their Friends, Activity that Facebook permitted at the time. The approach, the Scientists said, could reveal more about a Person than their Parents or Romantic Partners knew.
So the Firm harvested Private Information from the Facebook Profiles of more than 50 Million Users without their Permission, according to former Cambridge Employees, Associates, and Documents, making it one of the largest Data Leaks in the Social Network’s history. The Breach allowed the Company to Exploit the Private Social Media Activity of a huge swath of the American Electorate, developing Techniques that Underpinned its work on President Trump’s Campaign in 2016.
An Examination by The New York Times and The Observer of London reveals how Cambridge Analytica’s drive to bring to Market a potentially Powerful New Weapon put the Firm, and Wealthy Conservative Investors seeking to Reshape Politics, under Scrutiny from Investigators and Lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Mr. Wylie worked at Cambridge until late 2014, said of its Leaders: “Rules don’t matter for them. For them, this is a war, and it’s all fair. They want to fight a culture war in America. Cambridge Analytica was supposed to be the arsenal of weapons to fight that culture war.”
Details of Cambridge’s Acquisition and use of Facebook Data have surfaced in several Accounts since the Business began working on the 2016 Campaign, setting off a furious Debate about the Merits of the Firm’s so-called Psychographic Modeling Techniques. But the full Scale of the Data Leak involving Americans has not been previously disclosed, and Facebook, until now, has not acknowledged it.
Interviews with a half-dozen former Employees and Contractors, and a Review of the Firm’s Emails and Documents, have revealed that Cambridge not only relied on the Private Facebook Data but still Possesses most or all of the trove. Cambridge then paid to Acquire All the Personal Information through an outside Researcher who, Facebook says, claimed to be Collecting it for Academic purposes.
On Friday, the Facebook posted a Statement expressing Alarm and promising to take Action. “This was a scam — and a fraud,” Paul Grewal, a Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at the Social Network, said in a Statement to The Times. He added that the Company was Suspending Cambridge Analytica, Mr. Wylie, and the Researcher, Dr. Aleksandr Kogan, a Russian-American Academic, from Facebook. “We will take whatever steps are required to see that the data in question is deleted once and for all — and take action against all offending parties,” Mr. Grewal said.
Alexander Nix, the Chief Executive of Cambridge Analytica, in a Statement to The Times, acknowledged that it had acquired the Data, though it blamed Dr. Kogan for Violating Facebook’s Rules and said it had Deleted the Information as soon as it learned of the problem.
In Britain, Cambridge Analytica is facing intertwined Investigations by Parliament and Government Regulators, who are scrutinizing possible Data Privacy Violations and Allegations that it performed Illegal Work on the “Brexit” Campaign. In the United States, Mr. Mercer’s daughter, Rebekah, a Board Member, Mr. Bannon, and Mr. Nix received Warnings from their Lawyer that it was Illegal to Employ Foreigners in Political Campaigns, according to Company Documents and former Employees.
Congressional Investigators have questioned Mr. Nix about the Company’s Role in the Trump Campaign. And the Justice Department’s Special Counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has demanded the Emails of Cambridge Analytica Employees who worked for the Trump Team as part of his Investigation into Russian Interference in the Election. While the Substance of Mr. Mueller’s Interest is a closely guarded Secret, Documents viewed by The Times indicate that the Firm’s British affiliate Claims to have worked in Russia and Ukraine. And the WikiLeaks Founder, Julian Assange, Disclosed in October that Mr. Nix had reached out to him during the Campaign in hopes of obtaining Private Emails belonging to Mr. Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
The Documents also raise New Questions about Facebook, which is already grappling with intense Criticism over the Spread of Russian Propaganda and Fake News. The Data Cambridge collected from Profiles, a Portion of which was Viewed by The Times, included Details on Users’ Identities, Friend Networks, and “likes.” “Protecting people’s information is at the heart of everything we do,” Mr. Grewal said. “No systems were infiltrated, and no passwords or sensitive pieces of information were stolen or hacked.” Still, he added, “it’s a serious abuse of our rules.”
Cambridge Analytica's History
Mr. Mercer agreed to invest $15 Million in a Joint Venture with SCL’s Elections Division. The Partners devised a convoluted Corporate Structure, forming a new American Company, owned almost entirely by Mr. Mercer, with a License to the Psychographics Platform developed by Mr. Wylie’s Team. Mr. Bannon, became a Board Member and Investor, chose the name: Cambridge Analytica.
The Firm was effectively a Shell. Any Contracts won by Cambridge, originally Incorporated in Delaware, would be serviced by London-based SCL and overseen by Mr. Nix, a British Citizen who held Dual Appointments at Cambridge Analytica and SCL. Most SCL Employees and Contractors were Canadian, like Mr. Wylie, or European.
But in July 2014, an American Election Lawyer, Laurence Levy, advising the Company that the Arrangement could Violate Laws Limiting the Involvement of Foreign Nationals in American Elections. In a Memo to Mr. Bannon, Ms. Mercer, and Mr. Nix, the Lawyer, then at the firm Bracewell & Giuliani, warned that Mr. Nix would have to Recuse himself “from substantive management” of any Clients involved in United States Elections. The Data Firm would also have to find American Citizens or Green Card Holders “to manage the work and decision making functions, relative to campaign messaging and expenditures.”
In Summer and Fall 2014, Cambridge Analytica dived into the American Midterm Elections, Mobilizing SCL Contractors and Employees around the Country. Few Americans were involved in the Work, which included Polling, Focus Groups, and Message Development for the John Bolton Super PAC, Conservative Groups in Colorado, and the Campaign of Senator Thom Tillis, the North Carolina Republican.
Cambridge Analytica, in its Statement to The Times, said that all “personnel in strategic roles were U.S. nationals or green card holders.” Mr. Nix “never had any strategic or operational role” in an American Election Campaign, the Company said. Whether the Company’s American Ventures Violated Election Laws would depend on Foreign Employees’ Roles in each Campaign, and on whether their Work counted as Strategic Advice under Federal Election Commission Rules.
Cambridge Analytica appears to have Exhibited a similar Pattern in the 2016 Election Cycle, when the Company Worked for the Campaigns of Mr. Cruz and then Mr. Trump. While Cambridge hired more Americans to Work on the Races that year, most of its Data Scientists were Citizens of the United Kingdom or other European Countries, according to Two Former Employees.
Under the Guidance of Brad Parscale, Mr. Trump’s Digital Director in 2016 and now the Campaign Manager for his 2020 Re-Election effort, Cambridge performed a Variety of Services, former Campaign Officials said. That included Designing Target Audiences for Digital Ads and Fund-Raising Appeals, Modeling Voter Turnout, Buying $5 Million in Television Ads, and determining where Mr. Trump should Travel to best drum up Support.
Cambridge Executives have offered Conflicting Accounts about the use of Psychographic Data on the Campaign. Mr. Nix has said that the Firm’s Profiles helped Shape Mr. Trump’s Strategy, Statements disputed by other Campaign Officials, but also that Cambridge did not have enough Time to Comprehensively Model Trump Voters. In a BBC Interview last December, Mr. Nix said that the Trump Efforts drew on “legacy psychographics” built for the Cruz Campaign.
By early 2015, Mr. Wylie and more than half his Original Team of about a dozen People had Left the Company. Most were Liberal-Leaning, and had grown Disenchanted with Working on behalf of the Hard-Right Candidates the Mercer Family favored.
Cambridge Analytica, in its Statement, said that Mr. Wylie had left to start a Rival Firm, and that it later took Legal Action against him to enforce Intellectual Property Claims. It characterized Mr. Wylie and other Former “Contractors” as engaging in “what is clearly a malicious attempt to hurt the company.”
Near the end of that year, a Report in The Guardian revealed that Cambridge Analytica was using Private Facebook Data on the Cruz Campaign, sending Facebook Scrambling. In a Statement at the time, Facebook promised that it was “carefully investigating this situation” and would require any company misusing its data to destroy it. Facebook Verified the Leak and, without Publicly acknowledging it, sought to secure the Information, efforts that continued as recently as August 2016. That Month, Lawyers for the Social Network reached out to Cambridge Analytica Contractors. “This data was obtained and used without permission,” said a Letter that was obtained by the Times. “It cannot be used legitimately in the future and must be deleted immediately.”
Mr. Grewal, the Facebook Deputy General Counsel, said in a Statement that “both Dr. Kogan, SCL Group, and Cambridge Analytica certified to us that they destroyed the data in question.” But Copies of the Data still remain beyond Facebook’s Control. The Times viewed a Set of Raw Data from the Profiles Cambridge Analytica obtained. While Mr. Nix has told Lawmakers that the Company does not have Facebook Data, a Former Employee said that he had recently seen Hundreds of Gigabytes on Cambridge Servers, and that the Files were not Encrypted.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
