Liberals awarded $100,000 contract to man at centre of Facebook data controversy
OTTAWA — Federal Liberals have shared details about a $100,000 pilot project undertaken for their caucus research bureau by the Canadian data scientist who triggered an international uproar with allegations that Facebook users’ data was inappropriately harvested for political gain.
Christopher Wylie came forward in recent days with accusations that a voter-profiling company improperly collected private information from some 50 million Facebook users. The effort helped seal 2016 victories for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in the U.S. and in the U.K.’s Brexit referendum, he said.
Wylie has insisted in media interviews that he not only played a key role in developing the data-mining technique, he also helped establish the Cambridge Analytica firm he alleges was behind it.
Political parties depend heavily on access to quality data about voters when fine-tuning their pitches, but Wylie has insisted in interviews that the profiling approach he helped create went too far.