The Federal Trade Commission issued an opinion Friday that the disgraced data analytics company Cambridge Analytica had deceived customers in order to obtain the personally identifiable information of tens of millions of people via Facebook, which it used to target voters on behalf of political campaigns. The FTC alleged in a July complaint that the company engaged in deceitful data-gathering practices and lied about its participation in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, and the agency confirmed the allegations in the Friday opinion finding, though Cambridge Analytica had already agreed to settle. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2018 after news stories exposed its practices. The FTC’s decision was unanimous.
