The ?????? ???????? ??? ?? ??????whistleblower who exposed the massive Cambridge Analyticadata scandal has found himself an interesting new job.
Christopher Wylie, who blew the whistle on how Facebook user data was collected by his former employer to help Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election, has been hired by clothing retail giant H&M. The 29-year-old is helping H&M design products to appeal to its customer base by using data and artificial intelligence, according to AdAge.
H&M hired Wylie back in December. The fashion company hopes the whistleblower can leverage its data and help with inventory issues as well as making the company more profitable all-around.
The clothing company’s new hire makes sense. Wylie was employed as a fashion trends forecaster before taking a job with Cambridge Analytica. He has also previously divulged just how important the fashion industrywas to the political consulting firm’s work. According to Wylie, Cambridge Analytica used fashion-based data, such as the type of clothing people liked, to determine who to target for the Trump campaign.
SEE ALSO: Despite 'transparency' claims, Facebook stops watchdogs from monitoring adsWylie blew the whistleon British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica’s data collecting practices in 2018. The firm was harvesting millions of Facebook users’ personal data for years. The social network faced intense criticism and its executives were subject to Congressional hearingsover what’s considered to be Facebook’s largest data breach.
Back in 2014, Cambridge University professor Aleksandr Kogan created a Facebook personality test appcalled "thisisyourdigitallife.” The app not only collected personal data of any Facebook user who installed the app, but it also collected this data from everyone on their friends list as well. Later, Kogan provided this data to Cambridge Analytica, which used the information to aid its clients, like Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Cambridge Analytica closed shop over the scandal in May 2018. Facebook is still dealing with the aftermath of the scandal coming to light. Recently, DC attorney general Karl Racine filed a lawsuitagainst Facebook over Cambridge Analytica’s data collection.
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