Cambridge Analytica Shuts Down, Citing Bad Press

From PC Mag: Cambridge Analytica, the UK political consultancy that collected data on millions of Facebook users without their consent, is shutting down.

On Wednesday, Cambridge Analytica said it had no choice but to cease operations, citing bad press. It's also preparing to file for bankruptcy.

"The siege of media coverage has driven away virtually all of the company's customers and suppliers," it said in a statement. "As a result, it has been determined that it is no longer viable to continue operating the business."

The controversy dates back several years, when researcher Aleksandr Kogan created a personality test app taken by some 270,000 Facebook users. He then sold their data to Cambridge Analytica in violation of Facebook's terms of service. Facebook's developer rules at the time, however, meant that Kogan's app scraped the data of the 270,000 users and their friends, affecting as many as 87 million Facebook users.

Facebook closed that loophole in 2014. But Cambridge Analytica used the data for political targeting on GOP campaigns like that of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

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