Cambridge Analytica deceived Facebook users, rules FTC

Now defunct firm is now required to delete all the data it collected on Facebook users

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has officially ruled that British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica deceived Facebook users through its misleading data-gathering practices.

The FTC's ruling has come nearly 18 months after the scandal first broke.

Under the terms of the ruling, the now defunct Cambridge Analytica is required to delete all the data it collected on Facebook users. The order also prohibits the consulting company from making misrepresentations in future about how it protects the confidentiality and privacy of users' personal information.

The firm has also been barred from participating in the EU-US Privacy Shield framework and other similar regulatory organisations.

The FTC voted 5-0 to issue the final ruling against the consulting firm.

Earlier in July, the US regulator accused Cambridge Analytica, app developer Aleksandr Kogan, and CEO Alexander Nix, of collecting personal data of tens of thousands of Facebook users through GSRApp, a personality-testing app.

According to FTC, Kogan worked with Nix to enable his research app to collect data from Facebook and their friends. The app misled users by claiming that it would not collect their personal data. However, the data collected was used for voter profiling and targeting.

The scandal raised red flags over how technology firms protect the personal data of their users. It also led to a public scandal for social networking giant Facebook - eventually leading to congressional appearance by the company CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook was alleged to have violated a 2012 agreement with the FTC by allowing the inappropriate sharing data of millions of users with Cambridge Analytica.

In his congressional appearance, Zukerberg explained how his company would protect users from similar incidents in future. The company also agreed to pay the FTC $5 billion fine to settle the government probe into its privacy practices.

Facebook also reached a deal with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in October over the misuse of personal data by Cambridge Analytica.

In July, the FTC settled the case with Kogan and Nix, who agreed to delete any personal data they collected of Facebook users. They also agreed to administrative orders restricting how they conduct any business in the future.

However, neither Nix nor Kogan or any other representative of Cambridge Analytica, which filed for bankruptcy after the scandal was exposed, responded to the FTC's requests for information during the proceedings, the regulator said.