© University of California Berkely
Aleksandr Kogan’s app harvested data not only from the installer, but also from all their Facebook friends.
Aleksandr Kogan collected direct messages sent to and from Facebook users who installed his This Is Your Digital Life app, the Guardian can reveal. It follows Facebook's admission that the company "may" have handed over the direct messages of some users to the Cambridge Analytica contractor without their express permission. The revelation is the most severe breach of privacy yet in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The social network admitted to the transfer of data in its warning to users whose friends had installed the This Is Your Digital Life app, which harvested data from not only the installer, but also all their friends on the site.
"A small number of people who logged into This Is Your Digital Life also shared their own news feed, timeline, posts and messages, which may have included posts and messages from you," the company told affected users.
The statement appears to echo previously unreported claims made by Christopher Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower. Wylie told the
Observer that he had seen a table, produced by Kogan, that included private messages. It remains unclear whether GSR, Kogan's company, or Cambridge Analytica ever used the messages to build any targeting models.
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