FTC Sues Cambridge Analytica, Settles with Former CEO and App Developer

The Federal Trade Commission filed an administrative complaint against data analytics company Cambridge Analytica, and filed settlements for public comment with Cambridge Analytica’s former chief executive and an app developer who worked with the company, alleging they employed deceptive tactics to harvest personal information from tens of millions of Facebook users for voter profiling and targeting. As part of a proposed settlement with the FTC, two of the defendants—app developer Aleksandr Kogan and former Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix—have agreed to administrative orders restricting how they conduct any business in the future, and requiring them to delete or destroy any personal information they collected. Cambridge Analytica has filed for bankruptcy and has not settled the FTC’s allegations.

The FTC alleges that Cambridge Analytica, Nix, and Kogan deceived consumers by falsely claiming they did not collect any personally identifiable information from Facebook users who were asked to answer survey questions and share some of their Facebook profile data. The FTC separately announced that Facebook will pay a record-breaking $5 billion penalty and submit to new restrictions that will hold the company accountable for the decisions it makes about its users’ privacy as part of a settlement resolving allegations that the company violated a 2012 FTC privacy order.