Accused of using data of 87 million social media users to change audience behavior during the Trump campaign, the company has in the recent months lost several clients and was already succumbing under the mounting legal fees resulting from the most famous scandal of 2K18. The company, founded by Alexander Nix, stated that it will begin parallel bankruptcy proceedings in the US.
In a statement Cambridge Analytica said “Over the past several months, Cambridge Analytica has been the subject of numerous unfounded accusations and, despite the company’s efforts to correct the record, has been vilified for activities that are not only legal, but also widely accepted as a standard component of online advertising in both the political and commercial arenas. For the employees, the company assured that despite its financial condition, Cambridge Analytica intends to fully meet its obligations to its employees, including with respect to notice periods, severance terms and redundancy entitlements. Effective from today, the employees were asked to return their keycards immediately turn in their computers. Cambridge Analytica came to show light in March when it was revealed that the personal data of millions of Americans was harvested from Facebook and passed on to the data firm. This data was collected from a personality app developed by Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan. However, the firm denied any wrong doing and said it has “unwavering confidence that its employees have acted ethically and lawfully” and blamed “the siege of media coverage” for driving away “virtually all of the Company’s customers and suppliers.”
