Cambridge Analytica Files for Bankruptcy After Misuse of Facebook Data

[ad_1]<br/><br><div><div class="css-xk4wzv emamhsk2"><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">The embattled political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica announced on Wednesday that it would cease most operations and file for bankruptcy amid growing legal and political scrutiny of its business practices and work for President Trump.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">The decision came less than two months after the firm and Facebook became embroiled in a data-harvesting scandal that compromised the information of up to 87 million people. The revelations about the misuse of data, by The New York Times, along with The Observer of London, plunged the social media giant into crisis and prompted regulators and lawmakers to begin investigations into Cambridge Analytica.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">In <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://ca-commercial.com/news/cambridge-analytica-and-scl-elections-commence-insolvency-proceedings-and-release-results-3" target="_blank" title="">a statement posted to its website</a>, Cambridge Analytica said it was filing for bankruptcy in both the United States and Britain.</p></div><aside class="css-15v9f0h emamhsk1"/></div><div><div class="css-xk4wzv emamhsk2"><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">“Over the past several months, Cambridge Analytica has been the subject of numerous unfounded accusations and, despite the Company’s efforts to correct the record, has been vilified for activities that are not only legal, but also widely accepted as a standard component of online advertising in both the political and commercial arenas,” the company’s statement said.</p></div><aside class="css-15v9f0h emamhsk1"/></div><div><div class="css-xk4wzv emamhsk2"><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">The company did not reply to requests for comment.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">The news was earlier reported by <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/cambridge-analytica-closing-operations-following-facebook-data-controversy-1525284140" target="_blank" title="">The Wall Street Journal</a> and <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://gizmodo.com/cambridge-analytica-just-shut-down-all-its-us-offices-1825698536" target="_blank" title="">Gizmodo</a>.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">The company, founded by Stephen K. Bannon and Robert Mercer, a wealthy Republican donor who has put at least $15 million into it, offered tools that it claimed could identify the personalities of American voters and influence their behavior. Its so-called psychographic modeling techniques, which were built in part with the data harvested from Facebook, underpinned Cambridge Analytica’s work for the Trump campaign in 2016.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">But Cambridge Analytica has come under growing scrutiny over the past year, first for its purported methods of profiling voters and more recently over improperly harvesting private data from Facebook users. The company had also been drawn into the special counsel investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 elections.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">Facebook has since announced a slew of changes to its policies for collecting and handling user data. Its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, also testified before Congress, where he faced criticism for failing to protect users’ data.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">The controversy dealt a major blow to Cambridge Analytica’s ambitions of expanding its commercial business in the United States., while bringing attention to the American government contracts sought by its British affiliate, the SCL Group, an intelligence contractor.</p></div><aside class="css-15v9f0h emamhsk1"/></div><div><div class="css-xk4wzv emamhsk2"><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">In recent months, executives at Cambridge Analytica and SCL, along with the wealthy Mercer family — the principal owners of Cambridge Analytica — <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/us/politics/mercer-family-cambridge-analytica.html" target="_blank" title="">moved to created a new firm</a>, Emerdata, based in the United Kingdom. One SCL executive has publicly described the new firm as a way of rolling up the two separate companies under one new banner.</p></div><aside class="css-15v9f0h emamhsk1"/></div><br/><br>[ad_2]<br/><br><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-shut-down.html?partner=rss&emc=rss">Source link </a>

Cambridge Analytica Files for Bankruptcy After Misuse of Facebook Data

[ad_1] The embattled political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica announced on Wednesday that it would cease most operations and file for b...

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Trump’s Former Doctor Says Office Was Raided and Files Seized

[ad_1]<br/><br><div><div class="css-xk4wzv emamhsk2"><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">WASHINGTON — President Trump’s longtime physician said <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-doc-says-trump-bodyguard-lawyer-raided-his-office-took-n870351" target="_blank" title="">in an interview published Tuesday</a> that after he told <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/us/politics/trump-prostate-drug-hair-harold-bornstein.html" target="_blank" title="">The New York Times</a> that Mr. Trump took a drug to promote hair growth, two Trump aides staged what he called “a raid” of his Manhattan office in February 2017 and removed all of Mr. Trump’s medical files.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">Dr. Harold N. Bornstein, who served as Mr. Trump’s personal doctor for 36 years, <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-doc-says-trump-bodyguard-lawyer-raided-his-office-took-n870351" target="_blank" title="">told NBC News</a> that the roughly half-hour encounter left him feeling “raped, frightened and sad.” He said that since the president’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, accompanied by a lawyer for the Trump Organization, Alan Garten, and a third man he did not recognize took the files, he has had no contact with Mr. Trump and been effectively removed from his orbit.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">In a brief phone call with The Times on Tuesday, Dr. Bornstein did not elaborate on what he told NBC except to say that his earlier interviews with a reporter for the newspaper had caused him “torture for more than a year.” He demanded an apology and a large donation in his name to Tufts University, <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://sites.tufts.edu/medicine/summer-2017/three-questions-with-dr-harold-n-bornstein/" target="_blank" title="">where he completed medical school</a>. The Times declined both requests.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">Dr. Bornstein had privately told several associates that he had been the target of a raid during which handwritten records and printed laboratory results were seized, but he had declined to answer questions publicly about the episode until this week.</p></div><aside class="css-15v9f0h emamhsk1"/></div><div><div class="css-xk4wzv emamhsk2"><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">He told NBC that he decided to speak out after seeing reports that Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, the president’s nominee to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, had been <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/26/us/politics/ronny-jackson-nomination-withdrawn.html" target="_blank" title="">accused of doling out medications and behaving inappropriately</a> while serving as the White House physician. Dr. Jackson withdrew from consideration for the post shortly afterward.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Tuesday that Dr. Jackson would return to the White House medical unit but not as Mr. Trump’s physician. She said Dr. Sean Conley, a Navy commander who has been the acting White House physician since Dr. Jackson’s nomination to the cabinet, would replace him.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">“This is like a celebration for me,” Dr. Bornstein said.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">Ms. Sanders dismissed Dr. Bornstein’s description of the visit by the three men as a raid. In a briefing with reporters, she said that the files had been removed by the White House medical unit as part of a standard transition procedure.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">“The White House medical unit took possession of the president’s medical records,” Ms. Sanders said. Asked whether the visit was a raid carried out by Mr. Schiller, she replied, “That is not my understanding.” She did not address why Mr. Schiller, who was not a part of the unit, had been present.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">Dr. Bornstein said that he was not given a standard release form conforming to Hipaa regulations to sign over Mr. Trump’s records before they were taken. But Ms. Sanders said that the White House medical unit supplied Dr. Bornstein with a letter requesting the records.</p></div><aside class="css-15v9f0h emamhsk1"/></div><div><div class="css-xk4wzv emamhsk2"><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">The Trump Organization, which at the time employed both Mr. Schiller and Mr. Garten, declined to comment.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">In his initial interviews with The New York Times in 2017, Dr. Bornstein made no secret of the fact that he had wanted to be the White House physician.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">During the presidential campaign, he wrote two letters vouching for Mr. Trump’s health. In December 2015, he said that Mr. Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency,” and in September 2016, he said that Mr. Trump was “in excellent physical health.” (As his frustrations appeared to mount on Tuesday, Dr. Bornstein told CNN that Mr. Trump <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/01/politics/harold-bornstein-trump-letter/index.html" target="_blank" title="">had dictated</a> the contents of the first letter.)</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">Dr. Bornstein quickly fell out of favor with Mr. Trump after the Times article, in which he gave a public accounting of Mr. Trump’s health and complained about the poor seats he was assigned at the president’s inauguration.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">In the Times interviews — for which he also asked for a donation in his name to Tufts, a request The Times also declined — Dr. Bornstein <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/us/politics/trump-prostate-drug-hair-harold-bornstein.html" target="_blank" title="">discussed Mr. Trump’s medical history</a> and bragged about having “every phone number for him and all the wives,” whom he also treated. He said Mr. Trump, rumored to be a germaphobe, “changes the paper on the table himself” after examinations.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">He also described the medications Mr. Trump was taking: antibiotics to control rosacea, a statin for elevated blood cholesterol and lipids, and finasteride, a prostate-related drug to promote hair growth.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">“He has all his hair,” said Dr. Bornstein, who also took the drug. He also slipped in a boast about his own shoulder-length coif: “I have all my hair.”</p></div><aside class="css-15v9f0h emamhsk1"/></div><div><div class="css-xk4wzv emamhsk2"><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">Among other claims he made to NBC about the confrontation in his office, Dr. Bornstein said Mr. Schiller and Mr. Garten instructed him to remove a photo of Mr. Trump from the wall. As his lopsided news media tour continued, Dr. Bornstein <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://twitter.com/JaxAlemany/status/991386021718908931" target="_blank" title="">also fielded a brief call</a> from CBS.</p><p class="css-1psrv1x e2kc3sl0">“Sweetheart, this is Watergate. Goodbye!” the doctor said to a producer for the network before hanging up.</p></div><aside class="css-15v9f0h emamhsk1"/></div><div><div class="ExtendedInformation-extendedInformation--3og6I ExtendedInformation-news--2QoWo"><p>Nate Schweber contributed reporting from New York, and Julie Hirschfeld<em> </em>Davis from Washington.</p> </div><div class="PrintInformation-printInformation--2_6hD PrintInformation-news--3j8HX">A version of this article appears in print on <!-- -->, on Page <!-- -->A<!-- -->14<!-- --> of the New York edition<!-- --> with the headline: <!-- -->Doctor Says Trump Aides Raided His Office for Files<span>. <a href="http://www.nytreprints.com/">Order Reprints</a> | <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/todayspaper/index.html">Today’s Paper</a> | <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/subscriptions/Multiproduct/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY">Subscribe</a></span></div></div><script async src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><br/><br>[ad_2]<br/><br><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/us/politics/trump-doctor-harold-bornstein.html?partner=rss&emc=rss">Source link </a>

Trump’s Former Doctor Says Office Was Raided and Files Seized

[ad_1] WASHINGTON — President Trump’s longtime physician said in an interview published Tuesday that after he told The New York Times that...

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