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Facebook is investigating whether secretive firm Palantir had 'improper' access to user data

26-4-2018 < Blacklisted News 47 192 words
 

Facebook is looking into whether secretive firm Palantir had improper access to user data, following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a top executive said Thursday.


Mike Schroepfer, chief technology officer at the social network, appeared in front of U.K. lawmakers to answer questions about the company's role in the fiasco that saw 87 million Facebook profiles harvested for data before being sent over to British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.


He was asked whether concerns have been raised about "improper access" by Palantir to Facebook user data. The CTO confirmed that they had.


"I think we are looking at lots of different things now. Many people have raised that concern. ... It's something else we are looking into," Schroepfer said.


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Palantir has previously done work for the U.S. National Security Agency and is backed by the CIA's not-for-profit venture capital firm. It is known for being highly secretive and using data to power much of its work.


The company, which was co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel and is run by CEO Alex Karp, was dragged into the Facebook data scandal in March. Neither has been accused of wrongdoing.


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