Nicholas Confessore as well as Matthew Rosenberg
As a start-up called Cambridge Analytica sought to harvest the Facebook information of tens of millions of Americans inward summertime 2014, the companionship received assist from at to the lowest degree i employee at Palantir Technologies, a pinnacle Silicon Valley contractor to American spy agencies as well as the Pentagon. It was a Palantir employee inward London, working closely amongst the information scientists edifice Cambridge’s psychological profiling technology, who suggested the scientists create their ain app — a mobile-phone-based personality quiz — to gain access to Facebook users’ friend networks, according to documents obtained past times The New York Times.
Cambridge ultimately took a similar approach. By early on summer, the companionship constitute a academy researcher to harvest information using a personality questionnaire as well as Facebook app. The researcher scraped individual information from over fifty 1000000 Facebook users — as well as Cambridge Analytica went into concern selling so-called psychometric profiles of American voters, setting itself on a collision course of teaching amongst regulators as well as lawmakers inward the States as well as Britain.
The revelations pulled Palantir — co-founded past times the wealthy libertarian Peter Thiel— into the furor surrounding Cambridge, which improperly obtained Facebook information to laid upwards analytical tools it deployed on behalf of Donald J. Trump as well as other Republican candidates inward 2016. Mr. Thiel, a supporter of President Trump, serves on the board at Facebook.
“There were senior Palantir employees that were also working on the Facebook data,” said Christopher Wylie, a information goodness as well as Cambridge Analytica co-founder, inward testimony earlier British lawmakers on Tuesday.
Cambridge Analytica has constitute itself confronting a deepening crisis since reports most the firm’s information harvesting were published this calendar month inward The New York Times, The Observer of London as well as The Guardian.
The connections betwixt Palantir as well as Cambridge Analytica were thrust into the spotlight past times Mr. Wylie’s testimony on Tuesday. Both companies are linked to tech-driven billionaires who backed Mr. Trump’s campaign: Cambridge is chiefly owned past times Robert Mercer, the figurer scientist as well as hedge fund magnate, spell Palantir was co-founded inward 2003 past times Mr. Thiel, who was an initial investor inward Facebook.
The Palantir employee, Alfredas Chmieliauskas, plant on concern evolution for the company, according to his LinkedIn page. In an initial statement, Palantir said it had “never had a human relationship amongst Cambridge Analytica, nor have got nosotros always worked on whatever Cambridge Analytica data.” Later on Tuesday, Palantir revised its account, maxim that Mr. Chmieliauskas was non acting on the company’s behalf when he advised Mr. Wylie on the Facebook data.
“We learned today that an employee, inward 2013-2014, engaged inward an solely personal capacity amongst people associated amongst Cambridge Analytica,” the companionship said. “We are looking into this as well as volition have got the appropriate action.”
The companionship said it was continuing to investigate but knew of no other employees who took component inward the effort. Mr. Wylie told lawmakers that multiple Palantir employees played a role.
Documents as well as interviews signal that starting inward 2013, Mr. Chmieliauskas began corresponding amongst Mr. Wylie as well as a colleague from his Gmail account. At the time, Mr. Wylie as well as the colleague worked for the British defense forcefulness as well as news contractor SCL Group, which formed Cambridge Analytica amongst Mr. Mercer the side past times side year. The iii shared Google documents to brainstorm ideas most using large information to create sophisticated behavioral profiles, a production code-named “Big Daddy.”
A old intern at SCL — Sophie Schmidt, the immature lady of Eric Schmidt, as well as then Google’s executive chairman — urged the companionship to link upwards amongst Palantir, according to Mr. Wylie’s testimony as well as a June 2013 electronic mail viewed past times The Times.
“Ever come upwards across Palantir. Amusingly Eric Schmidt’s immature lady was an intern amongst us as well as is trying to force us towards them?” i SCL employee wrote to a colleague inward the email.
Ms. Schmidt did non reply to requests for comment, nor did a spokesman for Cambridge Analytica.
In early on 2013, Alexander Nix, an SCL manager who became principal executive of Cambridge Analytica, as well as a Palantir executive discussed working together on election campaigns.
A Palantir spokeswoman acknowledged that the companies had briefly considered working together but said that Palantir declined a partnership, inward component because executives at that spot wanted to steer clear of election work. Emails reviewed past times The Times signal that Mr. Nix as well as Mr. Chmieliauskas sought to revive talks most a formal partnership through early on 2014, but Palantir executives i time again declined.
In his testimony, Mr. Wylie acknowledged that Palantir as well as Cambridge Analytica never signed a contract or entered into a formal concern relationship. But he said roughly Palantir employees helped engineer Cambridge’s psychographic models.
“There were Palantir staff who would come upwards into the component as well as operate on the data,” Mr. Wylie told lawmakers. “And nosotros would acquire as well as run into amongst Palantir staff at Palantir.” He did non render an exact issue for the employees or position them.
Palantir employees were impressed amongst Cambridge’s backing from Mr. Mercer, i of the world’s richest men, according to messages viewed past times The Times. And Cambridge Analytica viewed Palantir’s Silicon Valley ties every bit a valuable resources for launching as well as expanding its ain business.
In an interview this calendar month amongst The Times, Mr. Wylie said that Palantir employees were eager to acquire to a greater extent than most using Facebook information as well as psychographics. Those discussions continued through boundary 2014, according to Mr. Wylie.
Mr. Wylie said that he as well as Mr. Nix visited Palantir’s London component on Soho Square. One side was laid upwards similar a high-security office, Mr. Wylie said, amongst form rooms that could live on entered only amongst item codes. The other side, he said, was similar a tech start-up — “weird inspirational quotes as well as materials on the wall as well as gratis beer, as well as there’s a Ping-Pong table.”
Mr. Chmieliauskas continued to communicate amongst Mr. Wylie’s squad inward 2014, every bit the Cambridge employees were locked inward protracted negotiations amongst a researcher at Cambridge University, Michal Kosinski, to obtain Facebook information through an app Mr. Kosinski had built. The information was crucial to efficiently scale upwards Cambridge’s psychometrics products therefore they could live on used inward elections as well as for corporate clients.
“I had left plain idea,” Mr. Chmieliauskas wrote inward May 2014. “What most replicating the operate of the cambridge prof every bit a mobile app that connects to facebook?” Reproducing the app, Mr. Chmieliauskas wrote, “could live on a valuable leverage negotiating amongst the guy.”
Those negotiations failed. But Mr. Wylie struck gilded amongst roughly other Cambridge researcher, the Russian-American psychologist Aleksandr Kogan, who built his ain personality quiz app for Facebook. Over subsequent months, Dr. Kogan’s operate helped Cambridge educate psychological profiles of millions of American voters.
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