Cambridge Analytica may have become the byword for a scandal, but it's not entirely clear that anyone knows exactly what that scandal is. It's more like toxic word association: "Facebook", "data", "harvested", "weaponised", "Trump" and, in this country, most controversially, "Brexit". It was a media firestorm that's yet to be extinguished, a year on from whistleblower Christopher Wylie's revelations in the Observer and the New York Times about how the company acquired the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users in order to target them in political campaigns. This week sees the release of The Great Hack, a Netflix documentary that is the first feature-length attempt to gather all the strands of the affair into some sort of narrative – though it is one contested even by those appearing in the film. "This is not about one company," Julian Wheatland, the ex-chief operating officer of Cambridge Analytica, claims at one point. "This technology is going on unabated and will continue to go on unabated.[…] There was always going to be a Cambridge Analytica. It just sucks to me that it's Cambridge Analytica."

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. The latest chapter in Facebook's data woes involves a quiz app that, until as recently as June, exposed the information of 120 million people who just wanted to know whether they were Cinderella or Elsa. According to De Ceukelaire, beginning as early as the end of 2016, NameTests collected Facebook users' data when they opted to take a quiz, such as "Which Disney Princess Are You?" The app then displayed that data--including names, birthdays, photos, and friends lists--in Javascript files easily accessible by third-party websites. De Ceukelaire writes, "Depending on what quizzes you took, the javascript could leak your Facebook ID, first name, last name, language, gender, date of birth, profile picture, cover photo, currency, devices you use, when your information was lasted updated, your posts and status, your photos and your friends." De Ceukelaire says he "would be surprised if nobody else found this earlier," since the flaw was "really easy to spot," but NameTests said it found no evidence of abuse.

The company decided to close its doors because it was losing clients and facing mounting legal fees in the Facebook investigation, according to people familiar with the matter. SCL Group and SCL Elections, which are affiliated with Cambridge Analytica, also are shutting down in the U.S. and the U.K. Cambridge Analytica and SCL Elections issued a joint statement on Wednesday confirming the companies' closures. "Over the past several months, Cambridge Analytica has been the subject of numerous unfounded accusations," the statement said. "The siege of media coverage has driven away virtually all of the company's customers and suppliers. As a result, it has been determined that it is no longer viable to continue operating the business."

Cambridge Analytica, the data firm at the centre of this year's Facebook privacy row, is closing and starting insolvency proceedings. The company has been plagued by scandal since the Observer reported that the personal data of about 50 million Americans and at least a million Britons had been harvested from Facebook and improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica denies any wrongdoing, but says that the negative media coverage has left it with no clients and mounting legal fees. "Despite Cambridge Analytica's unwavering confidence that its employees have acted ethically and lawfully, the siege of media coverage has driven away virtually all of the Company's customers and suppliers," said the company in a statement, which also revealed that SCL Elections Ltd, the UK entity affiliated with Cambridge Analytica, would also close and start insolvency proceedings. "As a result, it has been determined that it is no longer viable to continue operating the business, which left Cambridge Analytica with no realistic alternative to placing the company into administration."

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.

LONDON – Cambridge Analytica unleashed its counterattack against claims that it misused data from millions of Facebook accounts, saying Tuesday it is the victim of misunderstandings and inaccurate reporting that portrays the company as the evil villain in a James Bond movie. Clarence Mitchell, a high-profile publicist recently hired to represent the company, held Cambridge Analytica's first news conference since allegations surfaced that the Facebook data helped Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election. Christopher Wylie, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica's parent, also claims that the company has links to the successful campaign to take Britain out of the European Union. "The company has been portrayed in some quarters as almost some Bond villain," Mitchell said. "Cambridge Analytica is no Bond villain."

Secret surveillance software created by a former Israeli intelligence officer is harvesting Facebook photos. The firm behind it is taking profile images from the social network, YouTube and other sites to build a huge facial recognition database. Its creators say the software could lead to the identification of terror suspects, captured in promotional and other material posted online. News of the controversial service is causing alarm among privacy activists as Facebook scrambles to deal with its ongoing data scandal. Secret surveillance software created by a former Israeli intelligence officer is harvesting Facebook photos. It was revealed last month the company shared the private data of up to 87 million users with the political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica. Face-Int is now owned by analytics firm Verint, who acquired it in 2017 from creators Terrogence, a surveillance company founded by onetime Israeli secret agent Shai Arbel. Both companies have reportedly supplied the US government and its security agencies, including the NSA, with cutting edge spy technologies. The facial recognition database is said to contain the facial profiles of thousands of terror suspects'harvested from such online sources as YouTube, Facebook and open and closed forums all over the globe', according to Terrogence's website. Experts are concerned that the company's efforts extend beyond this remit, however, and into the political realm. 'It raises the stakes of face recognition - it intensifies the potential negative consequences,' Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, told Forbes.

A laptop showing the Facebook logo is held alongside a Cambridge Analytica sign at the entrance to the London offices of Cambridge Analytica. The company's acting CEO, Alexander Tayler, is stepping down, and is the second CEO out since the data sharing scandal broke. A laptop showing the Facebook logo is held alongside a Cambridge Analytica sign at the entrance to the London offices of Cambridge Analytica. The company's acting CEO, Alexander Tayler, is stepping down, and is the second CEO out since the data sharing scandal broke. The acting chief executive officer of Cambridge Analytica, the political data firm embroiled in controversy after improperly sharing data from some 87 million Facebook users, has stepped down.

Facebook has decided not to unveil its new home products range at the firm's developer conference in May. Mark Zuckerberg had planned to use the occasion to launch its smart speakers, which come equipped with a digital assistant and video chat. The decision comes in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which saw details from 50 million Facebook users leaked to political activists. Believed to have operated on behalf of the Trump 2016 presidential campaign, the information was used to target voters in the US based on psychological profiling. The scandal has led to many users debating whether to delete their profiles on the social network, with the hashtag #DeleteFacebook trending on Twitter.

More and more key players in the tech industry are voicing their concerns over the use of personal data following Facebook's massive Cambridge Analytica scandal. Executives from Apple Inc and IBM Corp have called for more oversight on how personal data is used following the consultancy firm's improper use of data, which affected more than 50 million Facebook users. Speaking at the three-day China Development Forum in Beijing, Apple chief Tim Cook said'well-crafted' regulation was required, while IBM Corp chief Virginia Rometty said users should have more agency over their own data. Executives from Apple Inc and IBM Corp have called for more oversight on how personal data is used following the Facebook Inc breach that saw roughly 50 million users' data misused by consultancy Cambridge Analytica. Facebook has come under intense scrutiny from users, lawmakers and investors following allegations from a whistleblower that it allowed British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica to improperly use data and build voter profiles that were later used to help elect U.S. President Donald Trump in 2016. U.S. lawmakers on Friday officially requested that Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg explain at a congressional hearing how user's data was released to the consultancy.