A tiny data analytics firm in Canada’s far west has discovered itself at the center of the scandal surrounding Cambridge Analytica’s role in British and U.S. elections.
Aggregate IQ, is a small data analytics firm based in Victoria, British Columbia, is alleged by former Cambridge Analytica employee-turned-whistleblower Christopher Wylie to be the technology behind Cambridge Analytica’s work in availing social media data to help win elections. AggregateIQ firmly denies it’s owned or directed by Cambridge Analytica.
It was founded by two western Canadian political staffers, Jeff Silvester and Zackary Massingham. Silvester worked for a federal member of parliament from the Victoria area, while Massingham campaigned for Mike de Jong, a former provincial minister who earlier this year was running to lead British Columbia’s opposition Liberal party.
Wylie stated Aggregate IQ as essentially the software back-office for Cambridge Analytica. The technology it worked on was used in both the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union and by U.S. President Donald Trump’s team during the 2016 election, Wylie told the Guardian, which says it’s also seen documents proving the link.
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Last week, a cybersecurity researcher found a depository of AggregateIQ’s software on code-sharing website GitHub, Gizmodo reported. There appear to be links between AggregateIQ and Cambridge Analytica in those files, including references to Cambridge Analytica’s “Ripon” political campaign platform and text relating to Ted Cruz’s Republican presidential campaign, which was also a Cambridge Analytica customer.
U.S. politicians have called for investigations into Cambridge Analytica’s use of Facebook data from more than 50 million people without their knowledge. If the link between AggregateIQ and Cambridge Analytica is proven, the Canadian firm could get pulled into the U.S. investigation too.
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