Cambridge Analytica London offices searched by investigators who leave with van of evidence amid Facebook data breach row
Inspectors for the Information Commissioner's Office searched Cambridge Analytica's central London offices for nearly seven hours on Friday night, leaving with a van full of evidence
INSPECTORS for the Information Commissioner's Office spent nearly seven hours searching Cambridge Analytica's offices in central London overnight and left with a van load of evidence.
A group of 18 officials stormed the organisation's London offices on New Oxford Street within minutes of a High Court judge signing off on the swoop, arriving at 8pm on Friday night.
Some of the team were spotted leaving at around 2.50am on Saturday morning and a van, thought to contain evidence left via a rear exit.
The firm is being probed amid claims it misused Facebook data to influence the US election. Cambridge Analytica and Facebook deny any wrongdoing.
Their lawyers said the firm "does not have" the data as it was deleted following a request from Facebook - but the ICO does not believe this is the case and wants to inspect its servers to be sure.
The electioneering firm had offered to hand over evidence to Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham - but the gesture was derided as "a poor second best" by ICO lawyers.
The ruling comes a day after investor Fan Yuan filed a lawsuit on behalf of people who bought Facebook stock between February 3 last year and March 19 this year.
What is Cambridge Analytica, what’s the Facebook data scandal?
Here's what we know about the British firm caught up in the massive information breach:
What is Cambridge Analytica?
It is a London-based company, set up 2013, that helps business and political groups "change audience behaviour".
They harvest data on normal Brits and Americans that spin doctors can use to create better propaganda.
Why are they all over the news?
This weekend, The Guardian revealed Cambridge Analytics had bought data from 50 million Facebook users that was obtained without their permission.
This data was reportedly used to help get US President Donald Trump elected, and also to boost the Brexit campaign in the UK.
The alleged breach came to light thanks to a Cambridge Analytica whistleblower called Christopher Wylie.
How was the Facebook data obtained?
A Cambridge psychology professor called Aleksandr Kogan built a personality quiz called "thisisyourdigitallife" in 2015 that asked Facebook users to provide information about themselves.
Only 270,000 Facebook users actually signed up - but the app also harvested data of all their friends, without their permission.
Facebook reportedly knew about the data harvesting in 2015, and asked companies holding the data to delete it – but had no way of making sure that they actually did delete it.
Through his company, Global Science Research, Kogan shared the info obtained from the app with Cambridge Analytica.
Did their Facebook data influence Brexit?
The co-founder of the Leave.EU campaign Arron Banks has repeatedly insisted Cambridge Analytica helped with pro-Brexit campaigns during the run-up to the 2016 referendum.
But its founder Alexander Nix denies this, and said the companies only had exploratory meetings, telling MPs: "We didn't get hitched. We dated each other.”
Whistleblower Wylie says he's given information about Cambridge Analytica's involvement with Brexit to the National Crime Agency's cybercrime unit and the Information Commissioner's Office, which is now investigaing.
It claims Facebook made “false and misleading statements” about the business.
This week Cambridge Analytica's chief executive Alexander Nix has been suspended while Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been called on to give evidence to MPs.
Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner, told Channel 4 News: "We need to get in there. We need to take a look at the databases, we need to look at the servers and understand how data was processed or deleted by Cambridge Analytica."
The ICO is responsible for regulating compliance with the Data Protection Act and Freedom of Information Act.
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Meanwhile, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton tweeted: “It is time. #deletefacebook.”
Zuckerberg broke his silence yesterday by posting a lengthy statement which read: "We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you.
"The good news is that the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago. But we also made mistakes, there's more to do, and we need to step up and do it."
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