The data analytics firm that worked with Donald Trump’s election team and the winning Brexit campaign harvested millions of Facebook profiles of US voters, in one of the tech giant’s biggest ever data breaches, and used them to build a powerful software program to predict and influence choices at the ballot box.
A whistleblower has revealed to the Observer how Cambridge Analytica – a company owned by the hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, and headed at the time by Trump’s key adviser Steve Bannon – used personal information taken without authorisation in early 2014 to build a system that could profile individual US voters, in order to target them with personalised political advertisements.
Christopher Wylie, who worked with a Cambridge University academic to obtain the data, told the Observer: “We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles. And built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis the entire company was built on.”
And it turns out Robert Mercer is from Albuquerque:
A powerful but previously obscure online data mining firm bankrolled by Albuquerque native Robert Mercer has been thrust into the media glare following revelations that it harvested Facebook user information to help propel Donald Trump into the White House in 2016.
Robert Mercer, a Sandia High School and UNM graduate turned New York hedge fund titan, reportedly plowed $15 million into Cambridge Analytica, which helped both the Trump campaign in the U.S. and the Brexit movement in the United Kingdom. The Journal profiled Mercer and his Albuquerque connections in November.
According to Forbes magazine, Mercer donated $24.6 million to the Republican Party in 2016. He has reportedly invested $10 million into Breitbart, the conservative news site. Financial journals place his net worth at from $900 million to more than a $1 billion.
Cambridge Analytica claims to use secret psychological methods to help mine online data that can be used to reach and influence potential voters. But now the firm’s aquisition and use of Facebook data in the 2016 election is drawing scrutiny from Congress, state and federal investigators and the British Parliament.
According to to a bombshell report in the New York Times on Saturday, Facebook initially downplayed knowledge of Cambridge Analytica’s work to influence the election, but on Friday suspended the company from its network.
...Mercer and his politically-connected daughter, Rebekah, initially backed the presidential candidacy of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in 2016. But they eventually supported Trump as the nominee.
If you think it all seems a bit much for a reportedly low-key guy who was once a member of the car club at Sandia High, you’re not alone. Deanna Cooper Koloc, who graduated from high school with Mercer, told the Journal last fall that she enjoyed catching up with her old classmate at their 50th reunion in Albuquerque three years ago.
“I was excited to see him at the reunion because he was one of the students I remembered well as part of a group I identified with, and I found him very pleasant and interesting to talk to,” Cooper Koloc recalled in a Journal interview last year. “We were both interested in hearing about mutual friends, and exchanged the sort of chitchat that always occurs at high school reunions. I’m glad I didn’t find out until later about his political leanings. I admire Bob for his accomplishments but vehemently oppose his politics.”
Mercer attended the reunion with Rebekah, who later introduced to Trump to Bannon. The father-daughter duo took an alumni tour of the Albuquerque school, attended the reunion dinner and reminisced with his old friends just like regular folks.
According to the 1964 edition of “The Crest” – the Sandia High yearbook – Mercer was active in extracurricular activities. The yearbook shows the bespectacled student as a member of the school’s chess, auto and Russian clubs.
An Albuquerque Journal article from the same year shows that Mercer – who later went on to become a pioneer in artificial intelligence and computer science – had a promising mathematical mind. He took top honors for New Mexico in the 1964 national high school math contest.Mercer attended the reunion with Rebekah, who later introduced to Trump to Bannon. The father-daughter duo took an alumni tour of the Albuquerque school, attended the reunion dinner and reminisced with his old friends just like regular folks.
According to the 1964 edition of “The Crest” – the Sandia High yearbook – Mercer was active in extracurricular activities. The yearbook shows the bespectacled student as a member of the school’s chess, auto and Russian clubs.
An Albuquerque Journal article from the same year shows that Mercer – who later went on to become a pioneer in artificial intelligence and computer science – had a promising mathematical mind. He took top honors for New Mexico in the 1964 national high school math contest.
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