The London offices of Cambridge Analytica was raided by investigators

Facebook data breach

According to the BBC, the UK’s Information Commissioner raided the London office of Cambridge Analytica, a data consulting company, on Friday after local High Court judges issued a search warrant. Last week, Cambridge Analytica became the focus. At that time, the whistleblower who worked at the company told the Guardian and the New York Times that the company collected personal data of 50 million Facebook users.

 

British Information Specialist Elizabeth Denham first requested access to Cambridge Analytica’s records and data on March 7. Denham stated in a statement that when the company did not reply before the deadline, she asked for a search warrant. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection oversight agency, hopes to obtain records to investigate how the company used data for political purposes last May.

On Monday night, when the ICO asked them to leave, Facebook’s auditors were searching at the Cambridge Analytica office. “Facebook announced that it will stand down its search of Cambridge Analytica’s premises at our request,” Denham said in a statement late Monday.” Such a search would potentially compromise a regulatory investigation.”

Cambridge Analytica did not immediately respond to requests for comment.