NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on reports that millions of Facebook users' data was used to target political ads (all times local):

1:55 p.m.

Two Facebook employees co-authored a 2015 study with embattled Cambridge researcher Aleksandr Kogan that used anonymized data that tallied 57 billion friendships around the world.

The study was hailed by Cambridge University as the first output of ongoing collaborations between Kogan's lab and Facebook. Facebook suspended Kogan last week for sharing data he gathered separately and passed on to data-mining company Cambridge Analytica, which is not affiliated with the university.

Facebook told The Guardian in a report Thursday that it provided the data in 2013 but that it contained no personally identifiable information. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The study also says Kogan used Amazon's Mechanical Turk to get U.S. respondents to download an app that gave him access to their Facebook data and the location of their friends.

Russian leaders are publicly celebrating Obama's reelection. They can't wait to see how flexible Obama will be now.
11:11 - 8 nov. 2012

I would accept “a clear election result,” but I reserve the right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result.

Zuckerberg has sold more Facebook stock in the last 3 months than any insider at any other company

In the two weeks before Facebook's latest struggles, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 1.14 million shares as part of regularly scheduled programs.
That was the most insider selling for any public company, going back as far as three months, according to Argus Research's Vickers Weekly Insider.
Zuckerberg had promised to sell tens of millions of shares to fund philanthropic efforts.
Analysts don't believe there was anything nefarious behind the insider selling, which are part of regularly scheduled plans.

Democrats on Tuesday scored their first victory since Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee announced last week they had concluded the interview phase of their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie – who informed multiple explosive reports over the weekend about how the London-based data firm, which was hired by the Trump campaign, misused Facebook data during the 2016 election – agreed to Democrats' requests that he testify before and provide documents to the committee.

Cambridge Analytica Parent Company Banned By Facebook Has Contract With State Department
SCL Group has been contracted by the State Department's Global Engagement Center to research terrorist recruitment and radicalization.
By Bethania Palma
20 March 2018
Gil C / Shutterstock.com

A psychometrics company that has been banned by Facebook for improperly acquiring and deploying user information in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election has a half-million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of State to research terrorist recruitment and radicalization, according to State Department officials.

According to a State Department spokesperson, the Global Engagement Center (GEC) contracted with the Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL) Group, the London-based parent company of Cambridge Analytica, to “conduct audience analysis and research to better understand ISIS recruitment and radicalization to violence.” As of 20 March 2018, the yearlong contract is winding down, even as Cambridge Analytica comes under scrutiny for tactics used to help secure a long-shot electoral victory for United States President Donald Trump.

According to public information and the spokesperson, the State Department contracted with SCL between February of 2017 and February 2018, paying $496,232 for a project involving more than a hundred “qualitative in-depth, in-person interviews with potential terrorist recruits, returned foreign terrorists, and terrorist recruiters.” The interviews were voluntary and took place primarily in the United Kingdom — the State Department “did not fund any work by SCL conducted in the United States or using personal data from social media platforms.”

On 16 March 2018, Facebook announced that SCL and Cambridge Analytica had gained access to American users’ data without their consent in 2015; they were subsequently banned from the platform amid a firestorm of controversy, and after Facebook officials learned that the data had not been deleted upon their request.

Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group came under fire after whistleblower Christopher Wylie revealed that former Breitbart and Trump campaign executive Steve Bannon used the firm as a “psychological warfare tool.” Britain’s Channel 4 revealed through a four-month investigation culminating in a series of short documentary videos that the firm engaged in practices like attempting to compromise political rivals using prostitutes, manipulating the behavior of voters in key geographical areas by using data mined from their Facebook profiles, and anonymously feeding toxic and misleading information into the “bloodstream” of the Internet without leaving any identifiable traces of branding.