London - Investigators from Britain's
data watchdog searched the London offices of Cambridge
Analytica, the data analytics firm at the centre of a storm over
allegations it improperly harvested Facebook data to
target US voters.
About 20 officials, wearing black jackets with "ICO
Enforcement" on them, arrived at the firm's central London
offices on Friday evening soon after a High Court judge granted
a search warrant sought by the Information Commissioner's Office
(ICO).
The officials concluded the search around 0300 GMT on
Saturday. "We will now need to assess and consider the evidence
before deciding the next steps and coming to any conclusions,"
an ICO spokesperson said in a statement.
The officials, who were let into the building by security
guards, were seen checking books and papers through the windows
of the second-floor offices on London’s busy New Oxford Street,
a Reuters witness said.
Elizabeth Denham, head of the ICO, sought the warrant after
a whistleblower said Cambridge Analytica had gathered private
information of 50 million Facebook users to support Donald
Trump's 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
Britain is investigating whether Facebook, the world's
largest social media network, did enough to protect data.
U.S. lawmakers on Friday asked Facebook Chief Executive Mark
Zuckerberg to come to Congress to explain to explain how the
data got into Cambridge Analytica's hands, adding to pressure on
the firm, which is under fire from investors and advertisers.
Separately on Friday, Britain's Guardian newspaper said a
former Cambridge Analytica political consultant had accused the
company's management of misleading the British public about work
it did for a pro-Brexit group before the vote to leave the
European Union.
Brittany Kaiser, a business development director at the
company from 2014 until earlier this year, told the Guardian
that Cambridge Analytica carried out data-crunching and analysis
work for Leave.EU, while publicly denying it was doing so.
Arron Banks, a major donor to Leave.EU, told the newspaper
that Leave.EU did not receive any data or work from Cambridge
Analytica although the UK Independence Party, which also
campaigned for Brexit, gave the firm some of its data which the
firm analysed.
"But it was not used in the Brexit campaign. Cambridge
Analytica tried to make me pay for that work but I refused. It
had nothing to do with us," Banks was quoted as saying.
Efforts by the ICO to investigate Cambridge Analytica had
hit a snag on Thursday after a judge adjourned its application
to search the British consultancy group's office by 24 hours.
U.S. and European lawmakers have demanded an explanation of
how the British consulting firm gained access to the data in
2014 and why Facebook failed to inform its users, raising
broader industry questions about consumer privacy.
Facebook's Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that his company
made mistakes in mishandling data and promised tougher steps to
restrict developers access to data.