Christopher Wylie spoke out to the media, emphasizing Steve Bannon’s critical role in the company and how the Breitbart mogul was “his boss.” Bannon was apparently deeply involved in the Cambridge Analytica operations, approving nearly $1 million in funding to acquire data – including numerous Facebook profiles – back in 2014.
The Danger of Data
Christopher Wylie told of the plan to harvest the Facebook profile of millions of users and create personal political ads based off of their private information, but the company lacked the data they needed to do so until a partnership was created with a company called Global Science Research – owned by Cambridge academic Aleksandr Kogan and specifically focused on the harvesting and processing of Facebook data.
The information leaked by Christopher Wylie showed that Cambridge Analytica spent $7 million in order to acquire Facebook data, with $1 million of that funding going to Global Science Research.
In an interview with the Guardian, Christopher Wylie had stated that “It’s insane. The company has created psychological profiles of 230 million Americans. And now they want to work with the Pentagon? It’s like Nixon on steroids.”
The US House Intelligence Committee Democrats have since reached out to Christopher Wylie and asked him to give an interview as part of their ongoing investigation into the alleged Russian interference in the election, with special attention paid to the potential ties with the Trump campaign.
While many were aware of the fact that companies like Facebook and analytics firms were profiting off of data, not as many were aware of the massive implications that smart and targeted micro-advertising could have.
With many Americans unhappy with the results of the election, the fact that the win could have potentially been swayed by firms like Cambridge Analytica is especially frustrating. Christopher Wylie and his whistleblowing is already leading to some new legislation being introduced in the EU. Whether that spreads to countries like the US that were most affected by this recent breach remains to be seen.
This article was republished with permission from Value Walk.