The Massachusetts Public Prosecutor's Office has initiated investigations into data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica, which had supported Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The Massachusetts General Prosecutor, Maura Healey, tweeted: "The people of Massachusetts are expecting answers from Facebook and Cambridge Analytica promptly. We start with investigation. " The British newspaper Observer and New York Times had previously reported that data analysis company had evaluated private information from more than 50 million Facebook users and possibly violated data protection law.

Cambridge Analytica received data according to reports from a Russian-American scientist. He had programmed an app that offered users a personality evaluation based on ir Facebook data. 270,000 people have downloaded app according to Facebook – and agreed that scientist may use ir data. However, app also apparently collected data from Friends of app users.

Controversial method

According to newspaper reports, scientist passed record to Cambridge Analytica. Facebook saw it as a violation of its rules and demanded that data be deleted in 2015. Now you have received hints that not all data may have been deleted, Facebook shared with you. For this reason, Cambridge Analytica had been suspended by Facebook.

In US Congress, demand for more stringent conditions for Facebook was loud. It had become clear that Internet services could not regulate mselves, wrote Senator Amy Klobuchar on Twitter. "You said, ' trust us. ' Mark Zuckerberg must testify before Senate Judiciary Committee, "said Democrat on Facebook chief. Their party colleague Mark Warner compared situation in online advertising industry with Wild West. It is clear that "this market will continue to be susceptible to fraud and lack of transparency if it remains unregulated".

After election of Donald Trump, Cambridge Analytica had indicated to US president in Swiss magazine that he had created a 220 million of US citizens. These personality profiles were used for targeted addressing of voters on Facebook. According to magazine, company decided to use this model to decide US election. The company itself also communicated that it played a decisive role in electoral campaign.

This conclusion was strongly criticised, however, actual effect of method is controversial. Even at time online it was criticized that claims were not to prove. Later, Cambridge Analytica executives said that company did not create any personality profiles for Trump's election campaign.

Date Of Update: 19 March 2018, 12:03