Cambridge Analytica whistleblowing reorders Facebook politics

Sources

1. 01.

   Cadwalladr, C. & Graham-Harrison, E. (2018). Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach. The Observer. The 17 March 2018 report built on Christopher Wylie's account; the trigger for the events that follow.

   www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-electionopen_in_new
2. 02.

   Information Commissioner's Office. Investigation into the Use of Data Analytics in Political Campaigns: A Report to Parliament. (2018). Published 6 November 2018. The ICO's own copy has been removed from ico.org.uk in a site reorganisation — both of its former media paths still return HTTP 404 — and this is a verbatim third-party mirror of the report to Parliament, whose text was read. Source for the ICO's findings on Cambridge Analytica and SCL Elections Ltd, which the report treats together ('Cambridge Analytica (CA) is a trading name of SCLE Elections Ltd'), and for the maximum £500,000 monetary penalty issued to Facebook under the pre-GDPR law.

   www.statewatch.org/media/documents/news/2018/nov/uk-ico-report-investigation-into-use-of-data-political-campaigns-6-11-18.pdfopen_in_new
3. 03.

   House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Disinformation and 'fake news': Final Report (HC 1791, Session 2017-19). (2019). Ordered to be printed 14 February 2019; published 18 February 2019. Source for the parliamentary findings on data targeting and platform governance. This citation previously pointed at 179101.htm, which is the report's front matter — committee membership, powers and publication statement — and carries none of the findings attributed to it; it is now the full report, whose text was read (roughly 47,000 words, 69 mentions of Cambridge Analytica). publications.parliament.uk returns HTTP 403 to automated clients, so the payload was read from the recorded capture.

   publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/1791/1791.pdfopen_in_newinventory_2archived copy
4. 04.

   U.S. Federal Trade Commission. In the Matter of Cambridge Analytica, LLC — Administrative Complaint, FTC Docket No. 9383. (2019). Filed 24 July 2019. ftc.gov serves this PDF to some automated clients and returns HTTP 403 to others, so a verified capture is recorded alongside it. States the FTC's allegations on the GSRApp: it 'harvested Facebook user profile data from approximately 250,000-270,000 Facebook users who directly interacted with the app, as well as 50-65 million of the "friends" in those users' social networks'.

   www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/cases/182_3107_cambridge_analytica_administrative_complaint_7-24-19.pdfopen_in_newinventory_2archived copy
5. 05.

   U.S. Federal Trade Commission. FTC Imposes $5 Billion Penalty and Sweeping New Privacy Restrictions on Facebook. (2019). Released 24 July 2019. Source for the record $5 billion penalty and the 20-year settlement order. The same release announces separate FTC actions against Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix and Aleksandr Kogan, none of which carried a monetary penalty; this is the only FTC monetary sanction against Facebook arising from this matter. ftc.gov returns HTTP 403 to some automated clients, so a verified capture is recorded.

   www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2019/07/ftc-imposes-5-billion-penalty-sweeping-new-privacy-restrictions-facebookopen_in_newinventory_2archived copy