Cambridge Analytica hits back at Chris Wiley, says he wasn't aware of firm's work or practices
Wylie was not, as he claims, a founder of Cambridge Analytica, the firm, said in a statement.
By ET Bureau | Updated:
NEW DELHI: A day after his testimony to the UK parliament in which he named Congress as one of the clients of disgraced firm Cambridge Analytica, whistleblower Christopher Wylie on Wednesday listed what he claimed were some of SCL's past projects in India.
The works involved caste research, behavioral polling and psephological studies in more than seven assembly elections and one national election of 2009. Wylie said he was providing the information in response to “requests from Indian journalists”. Wylie' document has the name of Janata Dal United and stated how Cambridge Analytica had provided “electoral research and strategy” for the 2010 state election for a "desired outcome" for JDU.
The Nitish Kumar-led party and its ally BJP had swept the polls then. Cambridge Analytica, Wylie’s document said, has also worked in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal and Jharkhand among others.
Apart from providing details of caste research and strategies to individual candidates, the firm also helped parties to know about the satisfaction level of booth workers. A project in six states in 2007 was also aimed at understanding the inclination of people to get into jihadi groups, the document said.
Wylie said SCL Group, the parent organisation of Cambridge Analytica, has its India office headquartered in Indirapuram in Ghaziabad and regional offices in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Cuttack, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Patna and Pune. In 2012, SCL India had carried out a caste census in Uttar Pradesh on behalf of a national party, the document said, without specifying the name of the party.
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Wylie, a data analytics expert and former employee at Cambridge Analytica, had alleged that the political consultancy firm used personal information harvested from more than 50 million Facebook users to influence the US presidential elections. He criticised CA for running campaigns in "struggling democracies", which he called "an example of what modern-day colonialism looks like".
Wylie's document said the company has a database of over 600 districts and seven lakh villages, which was constantly updated. "Our micro-level information includes household-level demographics, specifically focusing on caste data, linked to online mapping applications," the document states. Cambridge Analytica has already denied allegations of wrongdoing in other nations. It has also rejected thestatements of Wylie.
