Facebook suspended Cambridge Analytica and its parent, SCL Group, on March 16, 2018, after learning that data collected through a personality-quiz app had been transferred to the firms and that some of it might not have been deleted as promised. The suspension followed Cambridge Analytica’s work in the 2016 U.S. campaign environment, including services for political clients; it was not, by itself, a finding that the Trump campaign directly received every affected user’s data.
Why did Facebook suspend Cambridge Analytica?
Facebook said app developer Aleksandr Kogan had obtained information through an app that people chose to install and transferred it to Cambridge Analytica and others. Facebook said the companies had certified that the data was deleted, but it later received reports that not all of it had been. It suspended Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL Group), including Cambridge Analytica, for what it described as a violation of platform policies and users’ trust. Facebook’s March 16, 2018 statement explains its decision.
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The next day, Facebook’s vice president and deputy general counsel Paul Grewal wrote, “The claim that this is a data breach is completely false.” That was Facebook’s response at the time: it stressed that people had signed up for the app and that its systems had not been infiltrated. It should be distinguished from the later regulatory accounts of what the app collected and how it was used.
How did the app collect data from Facebook users?
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) later described Kogan’s GSRApp, also known as “thisisyourdigitallife,” as a personality-survey app. According to the FTC, it collected profile information from people who used it and from their Facebook friends. The agency said the app told users that names and other identifying information would not be collected, but it gathered Facebook user IDs and other details. Friends whose information was collected had not themselves used the app. The FTC’s July 2019 account describes this collection and the agency’s case.
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The friends’ data collection helps explain why the number of affected people far exceeded the number of app users. In its administrative complaint, the FTC alleged that roughly 250,000 to 270,000 U.S. residents used the app, while information was collected from about 50 million to 65 million of their Facebook friends, including at least 30 million identifiable U.S. consumers. These are ranges alleged in the complaint, not an independently audited count. The FTC administrative complaint sets out those estimates.
What did Cambridge Analytica do with the information?
The FTC said the information was used to generate personality scores, which were matched to U.S. voter records for voter profiling and targeted advertising services. That account comes from the agency’s later complaint and proceedings; it is separate from Facebook’s initial explanation of why it suspended the firms.
The episode raised questions about what people understood when they agreed to use an app—and what could happen to information about their friends, who had not taken that step. As Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie put it in a February 2018 Campaign Magazine interview cited by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office: “You aren’t necessarily aware that when you tell me what music you listen to or what TV shows you watch, you are telling me some of your deepest and most personal attributes.”
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What did regulators do afterward?
FTC proceedings involving Cambridge Analytica
The FTC filed an administrative complaint against Cambridge Analytica in July 2019 and announced settlements with former CEO Alexander Nix and app developer Aleksandr Kogan. Cambridge Analytica had filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and did not settle the FTC complaint. In December 2019, the FTC issued an opinion finding deceptive practices and ordered deletion of data collected through the app and associated work product. The FTC’s case announcement describes the complaint and settlements.
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In July 2019, the FTC imposed a $5 billion penalty on Facebook and required new privacy restrictions. That settlement resolved separate allegations that Facebook had violated a 2012 privacy order; it was not a penalty imposed solely for Cambridge Analytica’s actions. The FTC’s Facebook settlement announcement explains the order and its basis.
UK Information Commissioner’s Office investigation
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) says its investigation began in May 2017 and examined the use of online data in political campaigns across platforms, data brokers, analytics firms, academic institutions and political parties. Its retrospective identifies Wylie as the former Cambridge Analytica employee and whistleblower who first shared information about the company’s misuse of data. The ICO’s account of the investigation describes its scope and the scandal’s public impact.
Quick Recap
What the suspension does—and does not—establish
- Facebook’s March 2018 action was a platform suspension based on its account of data transfer and incomplete deletion, not a court finding about every data recipient.
- The FTC’s later account describes collection from app users and their friends, including friends who had not used the app, and identifies voter profiling and targeted advertising as uses.
- The cited agency accounts establish the app-based collection and profiling pathway; they do not establish that this data alone determined the outcome of the 2016 U.S. election.
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