REUTERS/Hannah Mckay
Cambridge Analytica announced that the company is undergoing an “independent third-party audit” in a statement released Friday. Acting CEO Dr. Alexander Tayler also stated that the company—which is under scrutiny for allegedly misusing the personal Facebook data of 50 million users—believed the data it used was obtained “in line with Facebook’s terms of service and data protection laws.” “Please can I be absolutely clear: we did not use any [Global Science Research] data in the work we did in the 2016 US presidential election,” he added. Tayler also called Christopher Wylie, the whistleblower who told The New York Times about the personal data the firm was using, a “part-time contractor who left in July 2014 and has no direct knowledge of our work or practices since that date.” Meanwhile, a High Court judge on Friday granted a warrant allowing authorities to search Cambridge Analytica’s London offices, according to BBC News.