How a Canadian created Cambridge Analytica which helped bring Brexit

A Canadian computer expert who studied fashion trends in university created the powerful software tool which harvested 50 million Facebook profiles and is credited with electing Donald Trump and passing Brexit.  

Christopher Wylie, 27, developed software for London-based Cambridge Analytica which was able to use the data gleaned from the social media giant to target the users and manipulate their prejudices.

Speaking to the Observer, Wylie said: ‘We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles. And built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis the entire company was built on.’

Christopher Wylie, pictured, has blown the whistle on Cambridge Analytica and the extent to which they exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles

Cambridge Analytica is accused of using 50 million Facebook profiles to build a software program to predict and influence the choices of people at the ballot box. As a result, Facebook has suspended the London-based firm from their social network 

Cambridge Analytica is accused of using 50 million Facebook profiles to build a software program to predict and influence the choices of people at the ballot box. As a result, Facebook has suspended the London-based firm from their social network 

Prior to Donald Trump's election, Cambridge Analytica was headed by Steve Bannon, pictured

Prior to Donald Trump’s election, Cambridge Analytica was headed by Steve Bannon, pictured

Wylie, when aged 21, worked for the Liberal Democrats while studying at the London School of Economics and pitched them his software for targeting voters. He said he had developed a way for the party to find new supporters. 

He said the party, which was still in coalition with the Conservatives, listened to his pitch, but thought he was ‘too pessimistic’ about their chances at the 2015 election. 

He predicted they would lose half of their seats at the subsequent election, when they only returned to Westminster with eight. 

After being rebuffed by the party, a contact in the Lib Dems put Wylie in contact with a company which went on to form Cambridge Analytica – which was funded by US right wing hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer.

According to The Observer, Wylie was first introduced to Steve Bannon in autumn 2013. Bannon who was editor-in-chief of Breitbart at the time was sent to the UK by Robert Mercer to assist Nigel Farage in removing Britain from the European Union. 

Bannon met with Wylie to assess his product.  

‘He [Bannon] got it immediately. He believes in the whole Andrew Breitbart doctrine that politics is downstream from culture, so to change politics you need to change culture. And fashion trends are a useful proxy for that. Trump is like a pair of Uggs, or Crocs, basically. So how do you get from people thinking “Ugh. Totally ugly” to the moment when everyone is wearing them. That was the inflection point he was looking for.’

After meeting Bannon, Wylie was flown to New York and introduced to Mercer and his daughter Rebekah in her Manhattan apartment.

He said: ‘In politics, the money man is usually the dumbest person in the room. Whereas it’s the opposite way around with Mercer. He said very little, but he really listened. He wanted to understand the science. And he wanted proof that it worked.’

Bannon was sent to London by Robert Mercer in 2013 to meet with Nigel Farage to assist him in securing a Brexit referendum to remove Britain from the European Union 

Bannon was sent to London by Robert Mercer in 2013 to meet with Nigel Farage to assist him in securing a Brexit referendum to remove Britain from the European Union 

The company claimed they could target ads at individual people based on their social media profiles and play on their prejudices.

The claims raise questions over the 2016 Brexit referendum as Cambridge Analytica, which claims it only pitched to work on the Leave.EU campaign funded by Ukip backer Arron Banks, is already part of an investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office. 

In an interview with Channel 4, Mr Wylie told the broadcaster: ‘Imagine I go and ask you: I say, “Hey, if I give you a dollar, two dollars, could you fill up this survey for me, just do it on this app”, and you say, “Fine”.

‘I don’t just capture what your responses are, I capture all of the information about you from Facebook, but also this app then crawls through your social network and captures all that data also.

‘By you filling out my survey, I capture 300 records on average.

‘And so that means that, all of a sudden, I only need to engage 50,000, 70,000, 100,000 people to get a really big data set really quickly, and it’s scaled really quickly.

‘We were able to get upwards of 50 million-plus Facebook records in the span of a couple of months.’

He added that ‘almost none’ of the individuals knew about how their data was used. 

Chief Executive of Cambridge Analytica Alexander Nix, pictured, denied his firm worked along with Leave.EU during the Brexit referendum although said they did hold talks 

Chief Executive of Cambridge Analytica Alexander Nix, pictured, denied his firm worked along with Leave.EU during the Brexit referendum although said they did hold talks 

Cambridge Analytica could then tailor specific political adverts to small groups of people, already knowing what their likes and interests were, it is alleged. 

Cambridge Analytica denied working on behalf of Nigel Farage’s Leave.EU organisation.

Addressing MPs last month, the company’s chief executive Alexander Nix admitted the firm held exploratory meetings with the campaign. 

Appearing before the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, he said: ‘We didn’t get hitched. We dated each other. We had a couple of dinners but we didn’t get married.’ 

However, Leave.EU co-founder Arron Banks, who wrote in his book on the referendum campaign that they had ‘hired’ Cambridge Analytica in 2015 to ‘develop messages’ for target voters.

Writing on Twitter as the hearing was ongoing, Mr Banks said: ‘CA wanted a fee of £1m to start work & then said they would raise £6m in the states. We declined the offer because it was illegal.’

However, Arron Banks, pictured, who bankrolled the Leave.EU campaign claimed in his book, The Bad Boys of Brexit, he had 'hired' Cambridge Analytica to 'target voters' 

However, Arron Banks, pictured, who bankrolled the Leave.EU campaign claimed in his book, The Bad Boys of Brexit, he had ‘hired’ Cambridge Analytica to ‘target voters’ 

Asked about his online comments by the committee chairman Damian Collins, Mr Nix said they were ‘absolutely incorrect’.

‘Mr Banks is at liberty to say what he likes but I don’t have to agree with it. That is totally untrue,’ he said.

Mr Nix told the committee – which is inquiring into ‘fake news’ – that Cambridge Analytica had been linked with Leave.EU as a result of a statement issued ‘erroneously’ by a ‘slightly over zealous PR’ saying they would be working together on the referendum.

He said: ‘Unfortunately and ironically this was an example of fake news that got disseminated virally. By the time it had penetrated the internet it became a matter of fact even though there was no fact behind it.’

Mr Nix was repeatedly challenged by MPs over the claims in Mr Banks’s book, The Bad Boys Of Brexit, and about the appearance of a Cambridge Analytica employee at a Leave.EU press conference, but insisted they had never worked together.

‘We did not work for Leave.EU. We have not undertaken any paid nor unpaid work for them,’ he said.

He said that he was unaware Leave.EU had included Cambridge Analytica in its unsuccessful bid to the Electoral Commission to be designated the lead the Leave campaign in the referendum.

‘I can only assume that they felt by associating themselves and aligning themselves with Cambridge Analytica that would give them extra credibility and leverage in trying to compete in a bid where they were clearly the underdogs,’ he said. 

Cambridge Analytica is also credited with targeting US social media users with specific adverts promoting Donald Trump's candidacy as president during the 2016 election 

Cambridge Analytica is also credited with targeting US social media users with specific adverts promoting Donald Trump’s candidacy as president during the 2016 election 

Commissioner Elizabeth Denham told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We are investigating the circumstances in which Facebook data may have been illegally acquired and used. It’s part of our ongoing investigation into the use of data analytics for political purposes.’

According to The New York Times and The Guardian, 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. 

Facebook said it suspended Cambridge Analytica over allegations that it kept the improperly obtained user data after telling Facebook it had been deleted. It has also suspended Wylie’s access to the network. 

In a blog post, Facebook explained that Cambridge Analytica had years ago received user data from a Facebook app that purported to be a psychological research tool, though the firm was not authorized to have the information. Roughly 270,000 people downloaded and shared personal details with the app.

Cambridge Analytica later certified in 2015 that it had destroyed the information it had received, according to Facebook, although the social network said it received reports ‘several days ago’ that not all the data was deleted. Facebook says it is investigating. 

Cambridge Analytica is probably best known for its political work during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Although, it was also involved in the Bexit campaign, according to Wylie. 

The company claims to build psychological profiles based on personal details. 

Wylie has passed on his information about Cambridge Analytica’s alleged involvement in the Brexit referendum to the National Crime Agency’s cybercrime unit and the Information Commissioner’s Office. 

A spokesperson for Cambridge Analytica told MailOnline: ‘Cambridge Analytica fully complies with Facebook’s terms of service and is currently in touch with Facebook following its recent statement that it had suspended the company from its platform, in order to resolve this matter as quickly as possible.

‘Cambridge Analytica’s Commercial and Political divisions use social media platforms for outward marketing, delivering data-led and creative content to targeted audiences. They do not use or hold data from Facebook profiles.

‘In 2014, we contracted a company led by a seemingly reputable academic at an internationally-renowned institution to undertake a large scale research project in the United States.

‘This company, Global Science Research (GSR), was contractually committed by us to only obtain data in accordance with the UK Data Protection Act and to seek the informed consent of each respondent. GSR was also contractually the Data Controller (as per Section 1(1) of the Data Protection Act) for any collected data. GSR obtained Facebook data via an API provided by Facebook.

‘When it subsequently became clear that the data had not been obtained by GSR in line with Facebook’s terms of service, Cambridge Analytica deleted all data received from GSR.

‘We worked with Facebook over this period to ensure that they were satisfied that we had not knowingly breached any of Facebook’s terms of service and also provided a signed statement to confirm that all Facebook data and their derivatives had been deleted.

‘No data from GSR was used by Cambridge Analytica as part of the services it provided to the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign.

‘Cambridge Analytica only receives and uses data that has been obtained legally and fairly. Our robust data protection policies comply with US, international, European Union, and national regulations.’

MailOnline has approached Facebook for a comment.  

How Cambridge Analytica used Facebook data to manipulate voters

A British data firm linked to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has been suspended by Facebook amid allegations it harvested personal details from more than 50 million users.

Cambridge Analytica is alleged to have been passed personal data from Facebook apps without the consent of the individuals.

The Information Commissioner will also be carrying out an investigation into ‘circumstances in which Facebook data may have been illegally acquired and used’.

Whistleblower Christopher Wylie, pictured, was central to Cambridge Analytica's work in using Facebook to target voters and help manipulate them

Whistleblower Christopher Wylie, pictured, was central to Cambridge Analytica’s work in using Facebook to target voters and help manipulate them

Facebook’s vice president and deputy general counsel Paul Grewal announced the suspension in a blog on the site.

He said that in 2015 Facebook learned University of Cambridge professor Dr Aleksandr Kogan passed on data to a third party.

Dr Kogan had launched a Facebook app called thisisyourdigitallife, which offered personality predictions and was downloaded by 270,000 people.

Facebook claimed he handed over information on app users – which included details such as their likes and location – to Cambridge Analytica and others.

Despite assurances at the time that the data had been destroyed, the social media company was informed in recent days that this had not happened, prompting the suspension of the firm on suspicion it had flouted privacy rules.

Cambridge Analytica played a key role in mapping out the behaviour of voters in the run-up to the 2016 US election and was also used during the EU referendum campaign earlier that year.

Whistleblower Chris Wylie, a former research director at Cambridge Analytica, told Channel 4 News a so-called data grab had been carried out on more than 50 million profiles in 2014.

Dr Kogan is also alleged to have been involved in this, using his company called Global Science Research (GSR) to accrue information.

It offered users a small amount of money to complete a survey on the condition they consented to share personal details through Facebook.

This, it is claimed, allowed researchers to build personality and psychological profiles on millions of users.

Mr Wylie told the broadcaster: ‘Imagine I go and ask you: I say, “Hey, if I give you a dollar, two dollars, could you fill up this survey for me, just do it on this app”, and you say, “Fine”.

‘I don’t just capture what your responses are, I capture all of the information about you from Facebook, but also this app then crawls through your social network and captures all that data also.

‘By you filling out my survey, I capture 300 records on average.

‘And so that means that, all of a sudden, I only need to engage 50,000, 70,000, 100,000 people to get a really big data set really quickly, and it’s scaled really quickly.

‘We were able to get upwards of 50 million-plus Facebook records in the span of a couple of months.’

He added that ‘almost none’ of the individuals knew about how their data was used.

Cambridge Analytica could then tailor specific political adverts to small groups of people, already knowing what their likes and interests were, it is alleged.

The firm said in response to the claims that it was ‘quite obvious’ the former employee ‘had a grudge to bear’ and dismissed his accusations as ‘pure fantasy’.

The Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, said she would investigate the circumstances ‘in which Facebook data may have been illegally acquired and used’.

It will form part of an ongoing inquiry into the ‘use of data analytics for political purposes’.

She added in a statement: ‘It is important that the public are fully aware of how information is used and shared in modern political campaigns and the potential impact on their privacy.

‘We are continuing to invoke all of our powers and are pursuing a number of live lines of inquiry. Any criminal and civil enforcement actions arising from the investigation will be pursued vigorously.’ 

 



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