British Prime Minister Theresa May says allegations that Facebook users' data was improperly used by political campaigns are "very concerning."
May says she expects Facebook and data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica to "comply fully" with British authorities investigating how personal information was obtained and used.
May told lawmakers in the House of Commons that "people need to have confidence in how their personal data is used."
Authorities in Britain and the United States are investigating the alleged improper use of data harvested from tens of millions of Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica, which worked on U.S. President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, details of which have been described in the past week by Canadian Christopher Wylie, who worked for Cambridge.
Britain's information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, has said she is pursuing a warrant to search Cambridge Analytica's servers. She has also asked Facebook to cease its own audit of Cambridge Analytica's data use.
Denham said the prime allegation against Cambridge Analytica is that it acquired personal data in an unauthorized way, adding that the data provisions act requires services like Facebook to have strong safeguards against misuse of data.
May said that "as far as I'm aware" the British government has no contracts with Cambridge Analytica or its parent company, SCL.
The offices of Cambridge Analytica in London are shown. A Cambridge psychologist employed by the company said Wednesday he's being made the scapegoat as the consultancy has come under fire in the past week. (Andy Rain/EPA-EFE)
A British government spokesperson soon after clarified that the Conservative Party once held discussions with Cambridge representatives, but nothing further was pursued.
"An approach was made and the party decided not to take that forward," the spokesperson said. He said the approach pre-dated May's time as leader, but did not have further details immediately available.
Meanwhile, an academic who developed an app used by Cambridge Analytica to harvest the data said Wednesday he had no idea his material would be used in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and that he's being scapegoated in the affair.
'I just didn't ask enough questions'
Alexandr Kogan, a psychology professor at Cambridge University, told the BBC that both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have tried to place the blame on him for violating the social media platform's terms of service, when he had been assured that everything he did was appropriate.
Kogan told the BBC that Cambridge Analytica approached him about the app and, in retrospect, he should have asked the company more questions about how the data would be used.
"My view is that I'm being basically used as a scapegoat by both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica," he said. "Honestly we thought we were acting perfectly appropriately, we thought we were doing something that was really normal."
The CEO of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, has been suspended after an investigation from Britain's Channel 4 News showed footage of him boasting of various unsavoury services to an undercover reporter.
Nix said the firm handled "all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting" and said Cambridge Analytica used emails with a "self-destruct timer" to make its role more difficult to trace.
"There's no evidence, there's no paper trail, there's nothing," he said.
In a statement, Cambridge Analytica's board said Nix's comments "do not represent the values or operations of the firm and his suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view this violation."
Waiting to hear from Zuckerberg
Facebook is also drawing continued criticism for its alleged inaction to protect users' privacy. On Tuesday, the chairman of the U.K. parliamentary media committee, Damian Collins, said his group has repeatedly asked Facebook how it uses data. He said Facebook officials "have been misleading to the committee."
The committee summoned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify. Facebook sidestepped questions on whether Zuckerberg would appear, saying instead that it's currently focused on conducting its own reviews.
Officials on both sides of the Atlantic would like to hear from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on his knowledge of Cambridge's harvesting of user data. (Steven Senne/Associated Press)
Facebook officials were briefing multiple congressional committees on Tuesday and Wednesday, but leading Democrats in the U.S. Senate were calling on Zuckerberg to testify. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called Facebook's latest privacy scandal a "danger signal." She wants Zuckerberg's assurances that Facebook is prepared to take the lead on security measures that protect people's privacy — or Congress may step in.
Kogan developed a personality survey called "This Is Your Digital Life." He said around 200,000 people were recruited to do the survey. Cambridge Analytica allegedly used the material to reach out to many others beyond those in the survey by pulling in data from "friends" of those recruited. He said 30 million profiles were garnered, some 20 million fewer than has been widely reported.
"One of the great mistakes I did here was I just didn't ask enough questions," he said. "I had never done a commercial project; I didn't really have any reason to doubt their sincerity. That's certainly something I strongly regret now."
He said the firm paid some $800,000 for the work, but it went to participants in the survey.
"My motivation was to get a dataset I could do research on; I have never profited from this in any way personally," he said.
Facebook and Cambridge Analytica face legal questions9:54
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