Who blew the whistle on Cambridge Analytica’s harvesting of Facebook user data in 2018?

Christopher Wylie blew the whistle on Cambridge Analytica’s harvesting of Facebook user data in 2018.

Wylie, a Canadian data consultant, had worked with Cambridge Analytica and its parent company, SCL Group. He told journalists that data from millions of Facebook users had been obtained through an app developed by researcher Aleksandr Kogan. The information was then used to build psychological profiles for political targeting without the direct consent of most affected users.

Wylie’s disclosures to The Guardian and The New York Times in March 2018 triggered worldwide scrutiny of Facebook’s privacy practices and Cambridge Analytica’s political work. The controversy led to parliamentary hearings, regulatory investigations, and renewed debate about online profiling and election advertising.

He is sometimes confused with Frances Haugen, who disclosed Facebook documents in 2021. Haugen was a later Facebook whistleblower; Wylie was the former Cambridge Analytica employee who brought this data-harvesting scandal to public attention.