“In 2015, we learned that a psychology professor at the University of Cambridge, Aleksandr Kogan, lied to us and violated our platform policies by passing data from an app that was using Facebook Login to SCL/Cambridge Alytica,” said Paul Grewal, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Facebook. SCL/Cambridge Alytica is a firm that does political, government and military work around the globe, Grewal said. Like all app developers, Kogan requested and gained access to information from people after they chose to download his app. His app, “thisisyourdigitallife,” offered a persolity prediction, and billed itself on Facebook as “a research app used by psychologists”. Approximately 270,000 people downloaded the app. “By passing information on to a third party, including SCL/Cambridge Alytica and Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, he violated our platform policies,” Facebook said. When Facebook learned of this violation in 2015, it removed the app. “We will take legal action if necessary to hold them responsible and accountable for any unlawful behaviour,” Facebook said. (IANS)
