A Cambridge University academic who developed a personality app which harvested data from 50 million Facebook users says he has been made a “scapegoat” for the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Psychology professor Aleksandr Kogan, who worked with Cambridge Analytica (CA) in 2014, said he wanted the data so he could “model human behaviour through social media”.
Kogan’s app gathered the details of people who were paid to take a personality test, while also collecting data from their Facebook friends.
CA whistleblower Christopher Wylie claimed that this information was then used by Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign to target voters.
The company’s then chief executive Alexander Nix was caught on camera by undercover Channel 4 reporters boasting about the firm’s pivotal role in securing Trump’s election victory, claiming the firm ran “all” the elements of the billionaire’s campaign.
However, CA has denied claims of any wrongdoing.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4′s Today programme on Wednesday, Kogan said he wasn’t aware how CA used the data his app collected, claiming he had been unfairly blamed for the scandal.
“The events of the past week have been a total shell shock, and my view is that I’m being basically used as a scapegoat by both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica when... we thought we were doing something that was really normal,” he said.
“We were assured by Cambridge Analytica that everything was perfectly legal and within the terms of service.”