It was literally made potentially for Bannon, as described by Wiley, and those legal documents do indicate that. They didn’t do a good job of hiding this in the beginning, but now that we all of these revelations from Christopher Wiley and Channel 4 and the work of The Guardian and the Times, that Cambridge Analytica is kind of a fake company. There were other forensic clues too, like the email address that I got the disclosure form from.

And thanks to the EU’s new data protection laws - which kick in in May - his attempt to force transparency upon one of the world’s shadiest companies might actually work. So, Carroll decided to sue, for both his complete voter data file and every American’s. SCL Group’s roots place Cambridge Analytica’s activities under European jurisdiction, which means European data privacy standards likely apply.

While Cambridge Analytica’s status as a defacto offshoot of SCL Group is now well known, the connection wasn’t as clear in early 2017. government contractor, Strategic Communication Laboratories, now known as SCL Group. What’s more, Carroll saw something fishy: the file he requested was signed not by a head of Cambridge Analytica, but by a much higher authority at a U.K. He soon realized it was missing essentially all of the most important information. Last year, Carroll got his hands on his official Cambridge Analytica voter file from the 2016 U.S. David Carroll, an associate professor at Parsons School of Design, wants them to prove it: He is undertaking a case that may earn real data protection for users around the globe, including Americans, thanks to European laws. Cambridge Analytica claims to know you better than your closest friends.

David carroll professor privacy pro