Editorial, London, 11 October 2020<\/p>\n
This newspaper\u2019s expos\u00e9 of the exploitation of private data has been vindicated<\/em><\/p>\n T<\/span><\/span>he 2018 Observer<\/em> investigation<\/a> into a hitherto obscure political consultancy sparked the most serious crisis yet to disrupt the world\u2019s secretive social media giants and shed terrifying light on how their collection of our data reshaped political campaigning.<\/p>\n Today, Cambridge Analytica is a household name. But renewed controversy about the activities of the now defunct<\/a> company demonstrates how our media and legislatures are still struggling to digest the full implications of the scandal.<\/p>\n Last week, Britain\u2019s information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, announced she had wrapped up a long investigation into the use of personal data in political campaigning in a letter to parliament<\/a> that warned of \u201csystemic vulnerabilities in our democratic systems\u201d. The letter confirmed that Cambridge Analytica had exploited Facebook data and said that, as investigators closed in on the company, it drew up plans to take its data offshore to avoid scrutiny.<\/p>\n The commissioner summed up how reporting on this topic, led by Pulitzer-nominated Carole Cadwalladr<\/a> in the Observer<\/em>, transformed the way that people around the world understood the value of their personal data and their relationships with social media giants. \u201cHow people\u2019s information was being used became a dinner table topic, prompting undercover news reports, a TV dramatisation and a Netflix documentary,\u201d said <\/a>Denham<\/a>.<\/p>\n