London; – A British technology and Data Mining firm which claimed that politicians in Guyana had also used their services to achieve a particular elections result, is now under investigation in the UK after investigators accused the company of using voters information illegally.
A warrant was issued by a UK Judge last night, empowering investigators to search and seize information and computers from at least ten of the company’s offices in London, – an exercise which has begun several hours ago.
UK investigators are contending that the firm, Cambridge Analytica, used a number of technological methodologies to illegally store harvested user information particularly from Facebook, and then use that data to help sway the results of an election, in favour of the political party that hired them.
According to sources close to the investigations, the entity’s main methods are centered around harvesting user data from their Facebook account, along with their political preferences, and then use that data to push content and other particulars aimed at causing a person to change their political views.
For British investigators, the company’s data harvesting and mind manipulation strategy to target would-be voters, has worked.
But on the other side of it, they are contending that what the company has done in several countries, was illegal, since it principally manipulates a person’s private data and targets their mindset using that data, in an effort to achieve a particular election result.
However, Cambridge Analytica, the UK based election data harvesting company at the center of the investigations, is claiming that they had not done anything wrong.
In addition to two other South American countries, the company has acknowledged on its website and to investigators that it was also hired to do work for a political grouping in Guyana.
Since that political party in Guyana was not yet revealed by the UK’s Commissioner of Information, who is handling the investigation, there is currently no proof that the company was actually able to influence the outcome of any elections in Guyana, or if it did, then which one or how many.