The Federal Trade Commission has officially ruled that Cambridge Analytica deceived Facebook users through its data-gathering practices.
In July, the FTC accused the consulting company, as well as CEO Alexander Nix and app developer Aleksandr Kogan, of collecting data on tens of millions of Facebook users through a personality-testing app.
The FTC previously settled the case with Nix and Kogan, and today voted unanimously to formally call the company’s practices deceptive.
Cambridge Analytica has already filed for bankruptcy shortly after the scandal was first uncovered. As the FTC notes in its announcement today, the company never responded to the agency’s legal complaint or request for a court judgment.
Under the terms of the FTC’s order issued today, Cambridge Analytica is required to delete any data it collected on Facebook users, and to not make misrepresentations in the future about how it collects data.
