Facebook Suspends Canadian Firm Over Alleged Links to Data Breach Scandal

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Facebook has said in a statement that it suspended AggregateIQ (AIQ), a Canadian data analytics firm, from its platform on suspicion of the company's involvement in the Cambridge Analytica (CA) data abuse scandal.

"In light of recent reports that AggregateIQ may be affiliated with SCL [CA’s parent company] and may, as a result, have improperly received FB user data, we have added them to the list of entities we have suspended from our platform while we investigate," the statement, obtained by the Global News broadcaster on Friday, read.

The broadcaster added that the Canadian Office of the Privacy Commissioner was currently conducting a probe into the company’s compliance with personal data protection legislation.

In March, it was made public that personal information of about 50 million Facebook users had been harvested by the Cambridge Analytica consultancy firm without their permission. While working for major political campaigns, the firm gathered data to develop a mechanism that would predict and influence the behavior of US voters. Earlier in the week, Facebook estimated the number of users affected at around 87 million, mostly located in the United States.

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Christopher Wylie, the whistleblower behind the data abuse scandal, said in the UK House of Commons in late March that the AIQ, allegedly affiliated with Cambridge Analytica, had been involved in the pro-Brexit campaign, as well as had been working on software that helped the Republican Party to widen its voter database.

Cambridge Analytica, in its turn, stated that Wylie had been a part-time contractor and left the company in July 2014, so he had no direct knowledge of the company's work since that.