7 Things to Know About the Trump-Facebook-Cambridge Analytica Scandal

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Voting machines are set up for people to cast their ballots during voting in the 2016 presidential election. | Reuters/David Becker

A data-mining company named Cambridge Analytica is at the heart of a new controversy over online privacy and election interference.

The London, England-based business is accused of having obtained personal data from approximately 50 million Facebook accounts and having used it to help the Trump campaign win the election.

According to reports, Facebook gave University of Cambridge Professor Aleksandr Kogan access to these accounts via a survey he created for the social media site.

From there, Kogan handed the data he had on Facebook profiles to Analytica, which then used the information to supposedly help the Trump campaign better target voters on the site.

As the controversy over the apparent breach of privacy and potential legal action is being considered, here are seven things to know about the scandal.