DENVER- One of the largest data breaches in the history of Facebook may not only have helped the president win the election but also assisted Colorado Republicans two years earlier.
Data firm Cambridge Analytica secretly collected personal information from 50 million Facebook users. Executives for the group have been caught on camera boasting about how it helped President Donald Trump win in 2016. Late Tuesday, the group suspended its CEO.
The group claims to have helped Republican State Senate candidates win in Colorado’s 2014 midterms. A web page from their site in 2015 says Cambridge Analytica designed and wrote copy for political mailers targeting specific voters.
The expired web page says campaigns won in three out of five districts where Cambridge Analytica worked and that “these victories ultimately gave the GOP control over the Colorado State Senate.”
The group says it worked with State Sen. Bill Cadman and the Senate Majority Fund, a Colorado political committee.
The Senate Majority Fund sent 9NEWS the following statement:
“Campaigns on both sides have used microtargeting for at least two decades. In 2014 the SMF contracted with SCL for data, which we used to send some targeted mail pieces. However, we were extremely underwhelmed with their product and chose not to contract with them again. Similar to other entities across the country that hired Cambridge Analytica, we were not aware of how they acquired their data and if we knew that it blurred legal and ethical lines, we absolutely would not have hired them."
The Federal Trade Commission is now investigating Facebook and how the company allowed personal information, including birthdays, education and work history, to be shared with a group trying to influence elections.
