Facebook: Cambridge Analytica saved user data until 2017

According to a report, the analysis firm kept the Facebook user data up to the last spring. Only then will they be deleted.

Facebook: Cambridge Analytica saved user data until 2017

The now insolvent data analysis company Cambridge Analytica has apparently not deleted information it collects about affected Facebook users despite multiple requests. The British Guardian reports this by referring to internal e-mails and statements of employees who are not named. Thus, information was stored hidden on company's servers. You could only retrieve m if you knew place, it was said.

In March, it became known that Cambridge Analytica had unauthorized access to data from millions of Facebook profiles. Facebook had asked company since December 2015 time and again to delete information. According to Guardian, raw data was removed, but not derived – and for so-called microtargeting – important analyses and prediction models. This, newspaper writes, did not delete Cambridge Analytica until April 2017, 16 months after first admonition by Facebook and long after US election campaign. Only n did company confirm that it would keep "no derivative data" anymore.

Data misuse-How to better protect your data on Facebook The IT firm Cambridge Analytica is at heart of a new Facebook scandal. Our video gives you three tips on how to better protect your data on social network. © Photo: Claudia Bracholdt

According to estimates from Facebook, up to 87 million users could be affected worldwide. The incident triggered disclosure of information by developer of a survey app more than four years ago. The latter handed over data to company Cambridge Analytica, which she later provided, among or things, to election campaign team of US president Donald Trump. The latter, however, denies Cambridge Analytica.

As a result of scandal, Cambridge Analytica and British umbrella company, SCL Group, applied for bankruptcy last Wednesday and set up operations. The reports about company had sold virtually all customers, it was said in explanatory memorandum. The financial situation is "precarious". At same time, leading employees and financiers are already working for a new company.

Facebook has also announced consequences and wants to better protect data of its users. Last Tuesday, social network shared need to give users an easier way to delete some collected information, such as list of visited sites or links that were clicked. Because of scandal, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said before US Congress.

Date Of Update: 08 May 2018, 12:03
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