Cambridge Analytica Did Not Influence The Brexit Referendum
Just after the UK's national referendum on EU membership in June 2016, allegations arose claiming that Cambridge Analytica had influenced the UK’s voting by unlawful use of data.
Following a three years investigation the UK Information Commission (ICO) has now said that Cambridge Analytica was not involved in the EU Referendum 2016 vote "beyond some initial enquiries made... in the early stages" around on minor political party.
Cambridge Analytica was accused of amassing the data of millions of Facebook users without their consent and using it in political campaigns, including the 2016 US Presidential campaign and 2016 Brexit referendum.
Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner, said that her team had found no evidence Cambridge Analytica had been involved with any Russian intervention in the UK’s voting process.
She goes on the to conclude that the company’s data protection practices were lax “with little thought for effective security measures” and its activities raised broader concerns about the influence of technology in politics.
Cambridge Analytica had repeatedly claimed in its marketing material to have “5,000+ data points per individual on 230 million adult Americans”, suggesting it had incredible power to micro-target individuals with suggestive political messaging using a giant psychographic database.
The ICO seized materials from the now defunct firm's headquarters during a high-profile search in 2018. The investigation led to the firm's collapse and its boss, Alexander Nix, being banned from being a director for seven years by the Insolvency Service. The regulator said it had seen evidence that Cambridge Analytica and its parent company SCL Elections had been drawing up plans to relocate its data offshore to avoid regulatory scrutiny, but was unable to do so before it ceased trading.
On the wider issue of the integrity of the 2016 referendum, the regulator said it had not identified any "significant breaches" of the privacy and electronic marketing regulations or data protection legislation by either Remain or Leave groups "which met the threshold for formal regulatory action".
Ms Denham said while the question of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 vote was outside the remit of the inquiry, the regulator had not found "any additional evidence" of Russian involvement in its analysis of material contained in computer servers seized from Cambridge Analytica and SCL Elections.
The ICO said its probe had led to an improvement in how political parties handle personal data. It said an audit of parties' compliance with the rules had been completed and would be published shortly and its guidance for parties on political campaigning would also be updated.
However, the investigation concluded that “based on what we found it appears that this may have been an exaggeration” and much of the company’s activities followed “well recognised processes using commonly available technology”.
Cambridge Analytica’s downfall led to a global debate on the use of data targeting in politics and a reckoning for major technology companies who were pilloried by governments around the world, prompting the introduction of restrictions on political advertising on major social media platforms.
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