Cambridge Analytica: British Public Television Exposes Methods of Trump Campaign "Secret Sauce"

Carole Cadwalladr and Emma Graham-Harrison of the British newspaper The Guardian/Observer published an article last week with new information about Cambridge Analytica, the shadowy data firm that worked closely with the Trump campaign in 2016. Christopher Wylie, a data scientist formerly with the company, stated in an interview:

“We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles. And built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis the entire company was built on.”

In late 2015, Facebook found out that information from more than 50 million individuals, including private details and personality profiles, had been harvested without permission. The company did not alert users, and took limited steps to protect the data of users.

The article with the Christopher Wylie interview can be found here.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election

British public television station Channel 4 went undercover to glean information about how Cambridge Analytica, a company started in 2013 as an offshoot of SCL Group, uses data to influence elections throughout the world. The results of the investigation are shocking. Some of the revelations, by key members of the company:

“We’re used to operating through different vehicles, in the shadows, and I look forward to building a very long-term and secretive relationship with you." Alexander Nix, CEO, to a reporter he thought was a Sri Lankan businessman working for a prospective political candidate.

“We just put information into the bloodstream of the internet, and then, and then watch it grow, give it a little push every now and again… like a remote control. It has to happen without anyone thinking, ‘that’s propaganda’, because the moment you think ‘that’s propaganda,’ the next question is, ‘who’s put that out?’...So we have to be very subtle.” Mark Turnbull, managing director of Cambridge Analytica Political Global.

Since the exposé aired last week, Alexander Nix has been suspended by the company. However, a few days ago Nix set up a new data company with Rebekah Mercer called Emerdata, which is described in this article from Business Insider.

The chief security officer of Facebook, Alex Stamos, has also announced that he is leaving. 
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The Cambridge Analytica expose from Channel 4 can be seen here.
https://www.channel4.com/news/exposed-undercover-secrets-of-donald-trump-data-firm-cambridge-analytica

An interview with Theresa Hong, a key insider from the Trump campaign data operation who says she wrote Trump's Facebook posts, was interviewed last year by the BBC. She brags about the role Cambridge Analytica played in the campaign.

That interview can be seen here.
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-40852227/the-digital-guru-who-helped-donald-trump-to-the-presidency