SAO PAULO — Federal prosecutors in Latin America’s biggest country announced Thursday that they are investigating to determine if Cambridge Analytica illegally used the profiles of millions of Brazilian Facebook users. Prosecutors the investigation was prompted by reports that the London-based political consulting firm had access to the personal information of 50 million Facebook users in the United States and could create voter personality profiles. The Brazilian company said in a statement that it was never involved in the creation of such profiles and ended its relationship with Cambridge Analytica earlier this month. “We are investigating if Cambridge Analytica is illegally using the personal data of millions of Brazilians to construct psychographic profiles to determine political and religious beliefs, sexual orientation, skin colour, and political behaviour,” the prosecutors’ statement said. With 130 million Facebook users, Brazil comes behind India with 250 million and the United States with 230 million.

Source: National Post March 22, 2018 18:22 UTC