Investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission have joined the Department of Justice in an inquiry into Facebook’s sharing with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica data about millions of Americans.
Investigators are seeking to better understand why Facebook didn’t disclose in 2015 that Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed personal data on Facebook users.
According to a report by the Washington Post, Cambridge Analytica teamed with Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan to build and deploy a “quiz app” to gather data on individuals who took the survey — as well as their friends.
The inquiry is “focused on what Facebook knew years ago and what it failed to tell ‘users or investors,’ as well as whether there were ‘discrepancies in more recent accounts’ like executives’ testimony before Congress,” according to Gizmodo.
