AggregateIQ
| Company type | Data mining, data analysis, data brokerage |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |
| Website | aggregateiq |
AggregateIQ (AIQ) previously known as SCL Canada is a Canadian political consultancy and technology company, based in Victoria, British Columbia.[1]
History
[edit]AIQ was founded in 2013 by Zack Massingham, a former university administrator and Jeff Silvester.[2] As of February 2017, AIQ employed 20 people and was based in downtown Victoria, British Columbia.[3]
AIQ has attracted controversy over its involvement in the Vote Leave and BeLeave campaigns in 2016 and the Cambridge Analytica scandal that broke out in 2018.
Two years after the Brexit vote in 2016, it was revealed that AggregateIQ had been paid £3.5 million by four pro-Brexit campaigning groups - Vote Leave, BeLeave, Veterans for Britain, and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party - to design software aimed at aggregating personal data and influencing voters through messaging on social media.[4] Under UK law, co-ordination between groups during an election is prohibited.[1] In May 2018, a Facebook executive testified before the House of Commons Select Committee for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport that Vote Leave and BeLeave were targeting exactly the same audiences on Facebook via AIQ.[5]
Prior to the Brexit campaign, AIQ had worked with John Bolton before he became Donald Trump's national security adviser, and with US senators Thom Tillis and Ted Cruz on their senatorial campaigns.[4] As part of Cambridge Analytica's work for the Cruz campaign, AIQ created Ripon, a customized campaign software platform that became the prototype used by pro-Brexit campaign groups, including VoteLeave and BeLeave.[1]
On 6 April 2018, Facebook suspended AggregateIQ from its platform due to concerns over its possible affiliation with SCL Group, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica.[6][4][7][8] Facebook stated, "In light of recent reports that AggregateIQ may be affiliated with SCL and may, as a result, have improperly received FB user data, we have added them to the list of entities we have suspended from our platform while we investigate."[4]
On 20 September 2018, AggregateIQ became the first company to be served a formal notice by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office for breaching the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. The company has launched an appeal against the notice.[9]
AIQ has also been reprimanded by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia, who stated in a report issued in November 2019 that the company had violated privacy laws in its handling of British voters' data during the Vote Leave campaign. The report noted, “When the company used and disclosed the personal information of Vote Leave supporters to Facebook... it went beyond the purposes for which Vote Leave had consent to use that information.”[10]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Jump up to: a b c Cameron, Dell (26 March 2018). "AggregateIQ Created Cambridge Analytica's Election Software, and Here's the Proof". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 25 April 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
- ^ DeRosa, Katie. "Victoria firm AggregateIQ denies link to data-miner at heart of Facebook controversy". Times Colonist. Archived from the original on 21 March 2019. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
- ^ Foster, Patrick; Evans, Martin (24 February 2017). "Exclusive: How a tiny Canadian IT company helped swing the Brexit vote for Leave". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 7 April 2018. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Cadwalladr, Carole (7 April 2018). "Facebook suspends data firm hired by Vote Leave over alleged Cambridge Analytica ties". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 April 2018. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
- ^ "Annex to letter from Rebecca Stimson, Facebook, to the Chair, dated 14 May: Letter from Gareth Lambe, Facebook, to Louise Edwards, Electoral Commission, 14 May 2018" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 June 2018. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
- ^ «Facebook обнаружил «связи» между канадской рекламной фирмой AggregateIQ и Cambridge Analytica» . Бизнес-инсайдер . Архивировано из оригинала 29 апреля 2018 года . Проверено 29 апреля 2018 г.
- ^ «Facebook приостанавливает работу канадской компании AggregateIQ из-за скандала с данными» . Рейтер . 7 апреля 2018 г. Архивировано из оригинала 7 апреля 2018 г. . Проверено 7 апреля 2018 г.
- ^ CNBC (7 апреля 2018 г.). «Facebook приостанавливает работу канадской компании AggregateIQ после того, как она, возможно, получила «неправомерный» доступ к пользовательским данным» . CNBC. Архивировано из оригинала 7 апреля 2018 года . Проверено 7 апреля 2018 г.
- ^ Баранюк, Крис (20 сентября 2018 г.). «Фирма, занимающаяся данными о голосовании за выход, получила первое в истории уведомление о GDPR» . Новости BBC онлайн . Архивировано из оригинала 21 сентября 2018 года . Проверено 21 сентября 2018 г.
- ^ Юнггрен, Дэвид. «Фирма, занимающаяся данными, нарушила канадские законы о конфиденциальности, участвуя в кампаниях по Брекситу и США — расследование» . www.reuters.com . Архивировано из оригинала 13 января 2020 года . Проверено 18 января 2020 г.