Cambridge Analytica ordered to turn over man's data or face prosecution

American professor has asked embattled consultancy to tell him what data it has on him, and how it was obtained

The nameplate of political consultancy, Cambridge Analytica, is seen in central London (Reuters)

UK authorities have ordered consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to hand over all the personal information it has on an American professor or face prosecution.

Coming in the wake of a roiling controversy over online privacy that has led Cambridge Analytica to cease operations, the case could spur criminal penalties and have broad privacy implications.

In January of 2017, more than a year before it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica had garnered information encompassing up to 87 million Facebook users, Professor David Carroll asked the consulting firm to explain what days it had gathered on him.

Dissatisfied with the company’s response, Mr Carroll appealed to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). He believed Cambridge Analytica had not shared the entirety of its data on him and that it had not explained how it accumulated the information it had.

After the company refused to cooperate, according to the ICO, regulators served an enforcement notice to Cambridge Analytica’s parent company SCL Elections Ltd. Failure to comply could result in an “unlimited” fine, the ICO said.

“The company has consistently refused to co-operate with our investigation into this case and has refused to answer our specific enquiries in relation to the complainant’s personal data – what they had, where they got it from and on what legal basis they held it”, information commissioner Elizabeth Denham said in a statement.

“The right to request personal data that an organisation holds about you is a cornerstone right in data protection law and it is important that Professor Carroll, and other members of the public, understand what personal data Cambridge Analytica held and how they analysed it”, Ms Denham added.

Mr Carroll told the Guardian that he hoped the order would “solve a lot of mysteries about what the company did with data and where it got it from”.

According to reports later corroborated by Facebook, the data was funnelled to Cambridge Analytica by a researcher named Aleksandr Kogan, who had drawn the personal information both of people who used a survey app and of their friends. Facebook has accused Cambridge Analytica of failing to destroy the information, a charge Cambridge denies.

Cambridge Analytica went on to work for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. While the company has said it did not used any disputed data to try and target appeals to voters, the connection - along with allegations, denied by the company, that it worked with pro-Brexit entities - have put a spotlight on the role of personal data in modern politics.

Last week Cambridge Analytica announced that it would file for bankruptcy, blaming a “siege of media coverage” that had driven away almost all of its customers. Ms Denham, the information commissioner, said that would not prevent the company from potentially facing criminal penalties.

“Whether or not the people behind the company decide to fold their operation, a continued refusal to engage with the ICO will potentially breach an Enforcement Notice and that then becomes a criminal matter”, she said.