Lawmakers demand answers from Facebook after claim that analytics firm snatched user data for Trump campaign

Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic criticized Facebook on Sunday after a former employee of data firm Cambridge Analytica went public with claims that the company had harvested information from 50 million users of the social network.

The employee, Chris Wylie, told Britain’s Channel 4 that Cambridge used the data to build psychological profiles so voters could be targeted with ads and stories. Wylie added that the data was obtained from an app developed by an academic that vacuumed up data from Facebook users who agreed to fill out a survey, as well as their friends and contacts — a process of which most were unaware.

Facebook announced Friday that it had suspended Cambridge Analytica, best known for its work on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. On Sunday, Facebook announced that it was conducting a “comprehensive internal and external review” of Wylie’s allegations.

In Washington, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee told ABC News’ “This Week” that Cambridge Analytica’s work deserved further scrutiny by the panel.

“We need to find out what we can about the misappropriation of the privacy, the private information of tens of millions of Americans,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said.

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