A High Court judge granted Britain's data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (IOC), permission to search Cambridge Analytica's offices Friday night after reports surfaced the data analytics firm obtained 50 million Facebook users' information without permission and failed to delete the data once exposed.
Enforcement officials raided Cambridge Analytica almost immediately.
"This is just one part of a larger investigation into the use of personal data for political purposes and we will now need time to collect and consider the evidence," [the IOC] said.
(...)
There are claims the information it unlawfully obtained was given to Mr Trump's campaign strategists to provide an insight into the thoughts of American voters, ultimately influencing the election.
The data watchdog's investigation includes the acquisition and use of the data by Cambridge Analytica, its parent company SCL and academic Dr Aleksandr Kogan.
Less than an hour after the warrant was granted, a group of 18 people, some wearing ICO enforcement jackets, entered the building from New Oxford Street, led by a woman holding a piece of paper which appeared to be a warrant.
The enforcement officers were seen on the second floor – where Cambridge Analytica is thought to have its offices.
It is understood they are searching for correspondence and communications between SCL and GSR, as well as data obtained from Facebook via Kogan.
News of the raid came as the acting CEO of Cambridge Analytica, Dr Alexander Tayler, appointed after the suspension of Alexander Nix, issued an apology about the way some data had been collected by an affiliate company.
Cambridge Analytica says it has commissioned its own "independent third-party audit.”
Tayler also stated that the company ... believed the data it used was obtained “in line with Facebook’s terms of service and data protection laws.”
“Please can I be absolutely clear: we did not use any [Global Science Research] data in the work we did in the 2016 US presidential election,” he added. Tayler also called Christopher Wylie, the whistleblower who told The New York Times about the personal data the firm was using, a “part-time contractor who left in July 2014 and has no direct knowledge of our work or practices since that date.”
The ICO, headed by an information commissioner appointed by the British Crown, has the power to levy fines against companies that misuse customers' personal data and information, among other authorities.
In 2013, the office levied a fine of 250,000 pounds against tech giant Sony after the company was the target of a data breach that exposed names, payment information and other personal information of Sony Playstation users. The ICO found that Sony had obtained an improper amount of data from customers, and had not secured its systems properly.
Elizabeth Denham, the UK's information commissioner, sought a warrant for Cambridge Analytica's systems on Monday evening after the company didn't respond to her demand for its records and data earlier this month.
(...)
The digital forensics firm Stroz Friedberg, which is leading Facebook's investigation into the data breach, was also at Cambridge Analytica's offices on Monday night, before the ICO.
Facebook said on Monday that it was conducting "a comprehensive internal and external review" to "determine the accuracy of the claims that the Facebook data in question still exists." It agreed to stand down, however, as the ICO said its search "would potentially compromise a regulatory investigation."
British data regulator granted search warrant to raid Cambridge Analytica offices and seize its servers (Business Insider)
Top British privacy watchdog gets warrant to search Cambridge Analytica offices (The Hill)
Data row firm Cambridge Analytica's offices raided after court order (Sky News)
Investigators raid offices of Cambridge Analytica after search warrant granted (The Guardian)
Cambridge Analytica Says It's Undergoing a Third-Party Audit (Daily Beast)