Tag: Cambridge University

An academic who created an app which harvested data from 50 million users says he has been made "a scapegoat" for Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. Dr Aleksandr Kogan completed work for Cambridge Analytica in 2014, but said he had no idea the data would be used to benefit Donald Trump's campaign. The psychology academic said he wanted the data so he could model human behaviour through social media. Facebook says Dr Kogan violated the site's policies. The Cambridge University researcher developed a personality survey called This is Your Digital Life. About 270,000 users' data was collected, but the app also collected some public data from users' friends. Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie said as a result the data of about 50 million users was harvested for ...