Attorney General Maura Healey has launched an investigation into Cambridge Analytica, following reports that the British consulting firm improperly obtained the data of 50 million Facebook users and used it during President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
“This is a serious investigation and we’re going to be thorough and aggressive about this,” Healey said during an interview with Boston Public Radio Friday. “To me, it really raises some serious questions that we have to grapple with, as a country, as a world, right now. We’re talking about a platform with billions — I mean, the scale of this is incredible — I mean, billions of users.”
Healey partnered with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a joint investigation, demanding that Facebook hand over information about how Cambridge Analytica used its data. Healey told WGBH News she’s working to determine if the company broke the law.
“I think all of us, when we go online, we have some understanding that ... when we’re on a social networking site that we’re giving up certain privacy with that,” Healey said. “We know that information is mined and used by different entities, however there’s a difference between that and a system that appears to have been wide open and quite vulnerable to exploitation.”
Healey is requesting all notifications Facebook users have received about data collection dating from 2013 to now, and any requests the social network made to Cambridge Analytica asking it to delete user data.
“At some point these companies have a responsibility to take reasonable steps to better protect user privacy,” Healey said. “We have a lot of questions, we need a lot of answers, but our office is going to continue to work with others in law enforcement here and abroad to get to the bottom of this.”
