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Academic Behind Cambridge Analytica Data Mining Sues Facebook for Defamation

WASHINGTON — The academic who helped Cambridge Analytica vacuum up private information from tens of millions of Facebook profiles sued the social media giant on Friday, arguing that the company defamed him when it claimed he had lied about how the data was going to be used.

Since the full scope of Cambridge Analytica’s data mining was revealed last year, Facebook has repeatedly tried to shift blame for the privacy breach onto the academic, Aleksandr Kogan. Facebook executives — including the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg — have said Mr. Kogan told Facebook that the data was for academic purposes when it was being collected for use in political campaigns.

Mr. Kogan, 32, a former psychology professor, used a quiz app to collect the data, and has insisted that the fine print accompanying his app said the information could be used commercially. That was an outright violation of Facebook’s rules at the time, but the company does not appear to have regularly checked that apps were complying.

“Alex did not lie, Alex was not a fraud, Alex did not deceive them, this was not a scam,” said Steve Cohen, a lawyer for Mr. Kogan. “Facebook knew exactly what this app was doing, or should have known. Facebook desperately needed a scapegoat, and Alex was their scapegoat.”

Mr. Cohen said Mr. Kogan was not asking for any specific amount of money. “We’re going to leave that to a jury,” he said.

In a statement, Liz Bourgeois, a spokeswoman for Facebook, described the action as a “frivolous lawsuit” from someone who “violated our policies and put people’s data at risk.”

Cambridge Analytica was founded by Robert Mercer, a wealthy Republican donor, and Stephen K. Bannon, who would serve as an adviser to President Trump. The consulting firm rose to prominence in 2016 for its work with the Trump election campaign.

The company claimed it had used Facebook data and other information to develop analytical tools that could identify the personalities of American voters and influence their behavior. Those techniques have been widely questioned.

Cambridge hired Mr. Kogan as a contractor in June 2014 — the same month the company was founded — and collected the data throughout the summer by asking Facebook users to take a lengthy personality questionnaire. The quiz harvested data not only from everyone who took it, but also from all their friends.

Facebook, which has since tightened its privacy protections, allowed app developers broad access to its users’ data at the time. Many were unaware their data was exposed, and Facebook was plunged into the worst crisis of its 14-year history after the scope of Cambridge Analytica’s data harvesting was revealed by The New York Times and The Observer of London.

The company has since said that as many as 87 million users were affected, and it is facing investigations by federal prosecutors and regulators as a result. At least one of those investigations is being run by prosecutors from the Northern District of California, and appears to be partly focused on Facebook’s claims that it was misled by Cambridge.

Federal prosecutors in New York are conducting what appears to be a separate criminal investigation into data deals Facebook struck with some of the world’s largest technology companies, including Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix. And the Federal Trade Commission, which spent the past year investigating whether Facebook violated its 2011 agreement about data privacy, is now weighing a multibillion-dollar fine against Facebook. That would be the largest such penalty ever imposed by the trade regulator.

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The 13 Richest Tech Billionaires In The World Right Now

The latest calculations of who the richest people in the world are out, and to no one's surprise, tech billionaires have a large presence in the ranking. Many had very good years – Jeff Bezos surpassed Bill Gates to become the richest person in the world. Of course, he also has a looming divorce from his wife Mackenzie and a texting scandal with his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez. Mark Zuckerberg fared better personally but professionally his net worth took a hit with the Facebook privacy scandal and the whole Cambridge Analytical mess.

These are the 13 richest tech billionaires in the world right now:

#13. Azim Premji

Net worth: $14 billion

Azim Premji is often called the "Bill Gates of India." He founded the enormous IT company, Wipro.

#12. Elon Musk

Net worth: $19 billion

Elon Musk had a tumultuous year thanks to some Tweets that aroused the interest of the SEC. Tesla's stock was as volatile this past year as Musk's behavior on Twitter.

#11. Masayoshi Son

Net worth: $22 billion

Masayoshi Son is the found and CEO of Softbank which has significant investments in high profile tech companies including Uber and WeWork.

Phillip Faraone/Getty Images

#10. Michael Dell

Net worth: $23 billion

Michael Dell famously founded Dell Technologies from his garage. These days, most of his wealth is tied up in his private investment firm MSD Capital.

#9. Steve Ballmer. Net worth: $40 billion

Steve Ballmer stepped down from the CEO gig at Microsoft in 2014, but still looms large on the list of the richest in tech and in the world. He and his wife donated $295 million to philanthropy in 2018.

#7. (tie) Jack Ma

Net worth: $44 billion

Alibaba founder Jack Ma is the richest man in China. Alibaba is the largest e-commerce website in China.

#7. (tie) Ma Huateng

Net worth: $44 billion

Ma Huateng is the founder and chairman of Tencent. The tech giant is the company behind China's most popular instant messaging app, WeChat.

#6. Mark Zuckerberg

Net worth: $50 billion

Mark Zuckerberg has lost around $9 billion since last year and fell in the rankings as a result. He does remain the world's youngest self-made billionaire, as Kylie Jenner is not a billionaire.

#5. Larry Ellison

Net worth: $51 billion

Larry Ellison is the founder and CTO of Oracle. He was recently appointed to Tesla's board of directors with the hope that he could control Elon Musk's behavior.

#4. Sergey Brin

Net worth: $52 billion

Sergey Brin is the co-founder of Google and president of parent company Alphabet.

#3. Larry Page

Net worth: $53 billion

Larry Page is the other Google co-founder and has a net worth that is $1 billion more than Sergey Brin.

#2. Bill Gates

Net worth: $96 billion

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is still a member of the board of directors of his company. However, he has sold or given away most of his stock and has just 1% of the shares.

#1. Jeff Bezos

Net worth: $136 billion

Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon, owner of the Washington Post, and the richest person in the world. He donated $2 billion to charity in 2018.

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Facebook, Cambridge Analytica give reply to CBI on alleged data theft case

By- Ashoke Raj | Updated: Mar 13, 2019 19:45 IST

New Delhi [India], Mar 13 (ANI): Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have replied on the ongoing alleged data theft case and more details have been sought, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sources said on Wednesday.The CBI registered a preliminary enquiry in August 2018 against Cambridge Analytica for alleged data theft. The investigative agency had sought more information from Facebook and Cambridge Analytica for further investigation.In July last year, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said that the CBI would probe the Cambridge analytical data breach case.While addressing Rajya Sabha, Prasad said that the central investigation agency would investigate whether the British company violated laws to manipulate the electoral process during the 2014 General election.In 2018, Cambridge Analytica had filed for bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York. It illegally accessed data from millions of Facebook accounts, whistleblower Christopher Wylie had disclosed earlier.Facebook confirmed the charge in April and informed that the data of a total of 87 million users was used without authorisation by the data firm.Known for its connection with US President Donald Trump's 2016 Presidential campaign, Cambridge Analytica was also alleged to have influenced the 2014 general elections in India as well. (ANI)