Harvested Facebook Data Didn't Prove Useful, App Developer Says

He later shared the information with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, which worked for President Donald Trump's 2016 electionl campaign. Cambridge Analytica has acknowledged it licensed data from Mr. Kogan but said it wasn't used in the U.S. presidential race Clients of Cambridge Analytica have said the company had trouble delivering on its claims that its personality-profiling would help politicians win votes. Mr. Kogan said the data turned out to be of zero value to the company, and his app was less effective at targeting consumers than Facebook's traditional advertising. "The idea that this data is accurate, I would say, is scientifically ridiculous," he told a committee of U.K. lawmakers investigating fake news. "The project, quite frankly, if the goal is microtargeting using Facebook ads, makes no sense. It's not what you would do."