SCL Elections Contracts with Kogan to Launch Cambridge Analytica Data Operation

Timeline Eventconfirmed
political-targetingelectoral-manipulationscl-electionsdata-harvesting-contractfacebook-exploitation87-million-usersdigital-surveillance
Media Capture & ControlIntelligence PenetrationElectoral Manipulation
Actors:SCL Group, SCL Elections, Aleksandr Kogan, Global Science Research, Cambridge Analytica, Nigel Oakes, Alexander Nix
2014-06-01 · 1 min read

Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) Group enters into contract with Aleksandr Kogan's Global Science Research to acquire Facebook user data for Cambridge Analytica's political targeting operations. This partnership transforms Kogan's academic research into a commercial data harvesting operation serving political campaigns. SCL, a private intelligence company describing itself as a "global election management agency," seeks to weaponize social media data for electoral manipulation. The contract establishes the systematic pipeline from Facebook's platform to political operatives, demonstrating how academic research can be corrupted for partisan purposes. Approximately 270,000 users take Kogan's quiz, but the app harvests data from up to 87 million Facebook users through friend network access.

Sources

  1. History of Cambridge Analytica ControversyBipartisan Policy Center(2014-06-01)
  2. Cambridge Analytica WikipediaWikipedia(2014-06-01)
  3. Cambridge Analytica Administrative ComplaintFederal Trade Commission(2019-07-24)
  4. Cambridge Analytica: How Aleksandr Kogan and Cambridge Analytica Harvested Facebook Users' DataThe Guardian(2015-12-11)
  5. Facebook-Cambridge Analytica Data Harvesting ResearchUniversity of Nebraska Digital Commons(2018-03-17)