Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy that worked for the Trump campaign and had come under attack for its use of personal Facebook data in other elections, announced on Wednesday it would cease operations and declare bankruptcy in the United States and United Kingdom. The firm said it had lost clients because of revelations in March that it had improperly obtained the personal information of millions of Facebook users. "It is no longer viable to continue operating the business," Cambridge Analytica said in a statement. Cambridge Analytica defended its use of Facebook, saying it was "vilified for activities that are not only legal, but also widely accepted as a standard component of online advertising in both the political and commercial arenas." The decision by the firm comes as it continues to face potential investigations and sanctions from regulators around the world for charges.

Cambridge Analytica, the firm that used data from millions of Facebook users without their knowledge, said Wednesday that it is "immediately ceasing all operations." The firm worked for President Trump's 2016 campaign. SCL Elections Ltd., Cambridge Analytica's U.K.-based parent firm, said the company had begun the process of filing for bankruptcy for Cambridge Analytica and some of its U.S. affiliates, and was moving to apply for insolvency in the U.K. "Over the past several months," the company said in a statement, "Cambridge Analytica has been the subject of numerous unfounded accusations and, despite the Company's efforts to correct the record, has been vilified for activities that are not only legal, but also widely accepted as a standard component of online advertising in both the political and commercial arenas." It also said it had "unwavering confidence that its employees have acted ethically and lawfully" after an internal investigation but that a barrage of negative media coverage drove away "virtually all" of Cambridge Analytica's customers and suppliers. In March, Britain's Channel 4 exposed Cambridge Analytica's stealthy means of supporting clients.

Here's how a data firm helped Donald Trump get elected as president. Cambridge Analytica's chief executive officer Alexander Nix gives an interview during the 2017 Web Summit in Lisbon on November 9, 2017. Cambridge Analytica, the political ad marketing firm that worked for President Trump and was involved in the misappropriation of 87 million Facebook users' data is closing its offices. The specialist in political predictions announced that bankruptcy proceedings will begin in the U.S., as well as insolvency proceedings in the U.K, where the firm has an office and where its parent company The SCL Group is based. "Over the past several months, Cambridge Analytica has been the subject of numerous unfounded accusations and, despite the Company's efforts to correct the record, has been vilified for activities that are not only legal, but also widely accepted as a standard component of online advertising in both the political and commercial arenas," the company said in a statement Wednesday.

"The Company is immediately ceasing all operations" and has filed applications to begin insolvency proceedings in the UK, Cambridge Analytica said in a statement. The statement also pushed back against widespread allegations that the company had improperly obtained Facebook user data to craft targeted advertisements, saying it "has been the subject of numerous unfounded accusations and, despite the Company's efforts to correct the record, has been vilified for activities that are not only legal, but also widely accepted as a standard component of online advertising in both the political and commercial arenas". The company, which was retained by Donald Trump's presidential campaign, has come under tremendous pressure after it was revealed to have obtained data associated with up to 87m Facebook users. Seeking to contain a spiralling crisis, Facebook executives have repeatedly faulted Cambridge Analytica and researcher Aleksander Kogan for the data transfer. The company says Mr Kogan harvested data from a survey app and then passed it along to Cambridge Analytica, which did not destroy the data despite having claimed to do so.

Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy at the centre of the Facebook data-sharing scandal, is shutting down. The firm was accused of improperly obtaining personal information on behalf of political clients. According to Facebook, data about up to 87 million of its members was harvested by an app and then passed onto the political consultancy. The social network said its own probe into the matter would continue. "This doesn't change our commitment and determination to understand exactly what happened and make sure it doesn't happen again," said a spokesman.

The latest Fox News Poll finds that nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of current users say they care if Facebook shares their information with others, and a large 43 percent minority have thought about deleting their account in order to protect their privacy. Think about your interaction with Facebook as a relationship. Now, imagine being at dinner with someone new and they say they are recording the conversation, taking your fingerprints, tracking your movements and they are going to share all of that data with everyone--without your knowledge or consent. According to Matt Erickson, executive director at the Digital Privacy Alliance, that unpleasant scenario is what his colleagues are working against and what Europe's sweeping new privacy regulations taking effect on May 25 are meant to help prevent. During his recent Capitol Hill testimony, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company already has controls in place to comply with Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and told lawmakers they'd likely extend some of those protections to its 2.2 billion users globally.

MPs today warned Mark Zuckerberg they are ready to issue a formal summons to force him to give evidence on the Facebook data scandal. The Culture Committee has written to the billionaire insisting the 40million UK users of his site deserve'answers'. There was fury last week after it emerged Mr Zuckerberg has agreed to give evidence to the European Parliament - despite still snubbing the House of Commons inquiry. He has already appeared before the US senate, but sent a deputy to be grilled by the MPs. The Culture Committee has written to the billionaire insisting the 40million UK users of his site deserve'answers' Culture, Media and Sport Committee chairman Damian Collins stunned his colleagues by revealing the development while they grilled another executive sent in Mr Zuckerberg's place In a letter to Facebook UK's head of public policy Rebecca Stimson, committee chairman Damian Collins wrote: 'Following reports that he will be giving evidence to the European Parliament in May, we would like Mr Zuckerberg to come to London during his European trip. We would like the session here to take place by 24 May.

WhatsApp's CEO Jan Koum posted on Facebook that he's leaving the company he helped found. But sources told The Washington Post that he's splitting after clashing with the messaging service's parent company, Facebook, over its desire to use WhatsApp's user data and weaken its encryption. Koum sold WhatsApp to Facebook for $19 billion in 2014 but remained committed to ensuring user privacy, and encrypted all conversations on the service in 2016. But sources told The Washington Post that Koum decided to leave prior to the scandal breaking. He will also step down from Facebook's board of directors, which is notable given that he's the only founder of a company Facebook acquired to sit on its board. Facebook declined to comment, but pointed to Koum's brief post and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's comment below it: "Jan: I will miss working so closely with you.

When word got out that Twitter had sold data access to Aleksandr Kogan, the researcher at the heart of the Cambridge Analytica data sharing scandal, there was a looming question: did he pass that data to Cambridge Analytica? If you ask the company, the answer is an emphatic "no." In a statement, the firm said it never received Twitter information from Kogan or his company GSR, and that it had never worked with GSR on Twitter data of any kind. Unless there's a sudden revelation, you can rest easy. The data itself still appears to be relatively innocuous.

Twitter sold data to the Cambridge University researcher who harvested millions of Facebook users' private information without their consent. The social media site confirmed this week it sold public data to Dr Aleksandr Kogan, who created tools that allowed the political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica to psychologically profile and target voters using Facebook user data. Dr Kogan's firm GSR gathered a'random sample' of public tweets after it paid for one day of access in 2015, Twitter said - years before the recent scandal emerged. The academic insisted he had not violated Twitter's policies and the information had only been used to build'brand reports' and'survey extender tools'. However, concerns remain that GSR could theoretically have correlated Facebook and Twitter data to build up more complete digital profiles of users.