The Cambridge Analytica saga: a sign of things to come?

It’s hard to have missed the ground-breaking news story this week regarding Cambridge Analytica, which is now the subject of an investigation by the UK data protection authority, the ICO. The case is detailed but put simply by the Chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee: “Data has been taken from Facebook users without their consent and was then processed by a third party and used to support their campaigns”.

The scandal serves as a stark illustration of how a growing awareness of data protection issues has put a strong spotlight on existing practices. This in turn has highlighted the increasing importance of the protection of personal data, and even more so under the upcoming GDPR coming into force on 25 May, where organisations will be subject to more scrutiny than previously.

As the Cambridge Analytica story unfolds, we’ll be sharing the wider implications of the data breach and what companies can learn from this.

Blog by Millie Jackson and Will Richmond-Coggan