Cambridge Analytica operated in the ‘Wild West’ and may have harvested the data of millions more Facebook users than the 87million identified, a whistleblower today said.
Brittany Kaiser, a former director of Cambridge Analytica, said citizens’ data was ‘scraped, resold and modelled willy-nilly’.
She said the firm posted quizzes – one named the ‘Sex Compass’ about a person’s sexual preferences and another about music – used to secretly get data.
Ms Kaiser also accused Arron Banks – a founder of the Leave.EU campaign – of potentially breaking the law by sharing personal data of Britons who signed up to his insurance firm with the Brexit campaign group.
She made the revelations as she gave evidence to the Commons culture select committee – which is investigating fake news – today.
Brittany Kaiser, a former director of Cambridge Analytica, said she believes the data harvesting scandal went much further than the 87million people Mark Zuckerberg has identified
In a written statement to MPs she said: ‘It’s important also to emphasise that during most of my time at Cambridge Analytica, the culture and assumptions of the firm and the wider data brokerage and ad tech industries within which it operated were a bit “Wild West”, with citizens’ data being scraped, resold and modelled willy-nilly.
‘I have gained further understanding and perspective on these issues in recent weeks.
What are the claims against Arron Banks’ misuse of personal data in the Brexit referendum campaign?
A Cambridge Analytica whistleblower said Multimillionaire Leave.EU founder Arron Banks may have broken the law during the EU referendum campaign (file pic)
The multi-millionaire insurance tycoon and political donor Arron Banks has been dragged into the Cambridge Analytica (CA) scandal.
Mr Banks was the founder of Leave.EU and has bee a major donor for Ukip over the years.
CA whistleblower Brittany Kaiser accused Mr Banks of potentially breaking the law by using the data of Britons who had signed up to his insurance firm for the Brexit campaign.
She said the misuse of data between Leave.EU, Ukip and GoSkippy/Eldon Insurance was rife during the referendum campaign.
This raises serious questions about whether the Data Protection Act was breached, she told MPs.
Ms Kaiser told the Culture Select Committee: ‘I have evidence from my own eyes of possible breaches of the Data Protection Act concerning the usage of commercial and personal data of individuals in the Eldon insurance database and possibly the Ukip database being used for the Leave.EU campaign
‘When I visited the Eldon insurance and Leave.EU headquarters – which was in the same building and same staff – when a senior data specialist and myself spent time with their phone bank I was told by the people that they were calling out of the insurance database.’
Caroline Lucas, co leader of the Green party and a member of the anti Brexit group Best for Britain, called for an inquiry into the referendum campaign.
She said: ‘There is an increasingly dark cloud of suspicion hanging over the actions of the Leave campaign – and the blurred lines between campaigns and organisations that really should have been separate.
‘Indeed the potential wrongdoing we’re seeing here appears so widespread that it calls into question the fairness of the referendum, and makes the case for a people’s vote on the EU deal even stronger.’
‘I do believe I have evidence of CA obtaining, retaining and using these datasets, seemingly in contravention of legal obligations.’
She also said the quizzes used to secretly harvest someone’s data extended beyond the questionnaire developed by Aleksandr Kogan.
She said: ‘I am aware in a general sense of a wide range of surveys which were done by CA or its partners, usually with a Facebook login – for example, the ‘sex compass’ quiz.
‘I do not know the specifics of these surveys or how the data was acquired or processed.
‘But I believe it is almost certain that the number of Facebook users whose data was compromised through routes similar to that used by Kogan is much greater than 87 million; and that both Cambridge Analytica and other unconnected companies and campaigns were involved in these activities.’
Giving live evidence to the committee, she said that the company’s psychology and data teams would devise eye-catching ways to get people to fill in quizzes.
She said: ‘I would see questionnaires – there was one called the sex preference to find out what your personal preferences are personally, and there was another one on your music personalty…
‘These quizzes were designed specifically to harvest data using Facebook as the tool.
‘So I know of at least those two examples- the music and sex compass – that were quizzes separate from Kogan’s quiz.
‘So it can be inferred there were additional ones whose data may have been compromised.’
Ms Kaiser also said she believes Mr Banks – a backer of Leave.EU and former donor to Ukip – may have broken the law in the Brexit referendum campaign.
She said he gave Leave-EU access to the personal details of Britons who had signed up to his Eldon insurance firm to use in the referendum campaign.
This misuse of the personal data of Britons was ‘rife’ she has major concerns about the ‘legality’ of what went on behind closed doors in the referendum campaign, Ms Kaiser told MPs.
She said: ‘I have evidence from my own eyes of possible breaches of the Data Protection Act concerning the usage of commercial and personal data of individuals in the Eldon insurance database and possibly the Ukip database being used for the Leave.EU campaign
‘When I visited the Eldon insurance and Leave.EU headquarters – which was in the same building and same staff – when a senior data specialist and myself spent time with their phone bank I was told by the people that they were calling out of the insurance database.’
She said Mr Banks decided not to give a contract to Cambridge Analtytica, but later copied their propaganda methods by setting up Big Data Dolphins, in Mississippi.
She said CA used Ukip’s membership and survey data to build a model to find ‘individuals most likely to vote yes in the EU referendum’.
The whistleblower (pictured giving evidence to MPs today) said the firm posted quizzes – one named the ‘Sex Compass’ about a person’s sexual preferences and another about music – which would have harvested data
She added: ‘We never had a contract with Leave.EU, the contract was with the UK Independence Party for the analysis of this data but it was meant to benefit Leave.EU.’
Ms Kaiser, who left CA in March after four years with the election consultants and data firm, said: ‘In hindsight, I now think that there is reason to believe that misuse of data was rife amongst the businesses and campaigns of Arron Banks.
‘If the personal data of UK citizens who just wanted to buy car insurance was used by GoSkippy and Eldon Insurance for political purposes, as may have been the case, people clearly did not opt in for their data to be used in this way by Leave.EU.
‘I have similar concerns about whether Ukip members consented to the use of their data.’
Cambridge Analytica pitched to give Leave.EU ‘weapons grade communications techniques’ against the UK population , she said.