Cambridge Analytica shuts down after Facebook user data scandal

Cambridge Analytica, the embattled London-based data analytics firm that famously did work with the Donald Trump presidential campaign, has shut down.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the company’s closure is effective today.

As Ars reported previously, it was revealed last month that a 2014 survey app that required Facebook login credentials allowed the survey creator and his team access to their friends’ public profile data. In the end, this system captured data on 87 million Facebook users. This data trove wound up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica, a British data analytics firm, which worked for the Donald Trump presidential campaign.

The Cambridge Analytica dustup has resulted in Facebook now being on the defensive: it has trotted out one change after another, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself recently testified over the course of 10 hours to a joint Senate committee hearing.

The UK parliament is now demanding that he answer its questions, too.

According to the Journal: “Nigel Oakes, the founder of SCL Group, Cambridge Analytica’s British affiliate, confirmed that both companies were closing down.”

The company’s former CEO, Alexander Nix, was suspended from the company in March 2018, shortly after the revelations broke.

Cambridge Analytica did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.

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