Cambridge Analytica whistleblower to testify before state Senate panel on privacy

ALBANY — A pair of prominent figures in the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal will offer testimony Friday as state lawmakers explore ways to better protect New Yorkers against the harvesting and sale of personal data by tech giants including Google, Amazon and Facebook.

Brittany Kaiser, whistleblower and former business development director of the now-defunct British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, and David Carroll, an associate professor at Parsons School of Design and a prominent data privacy advocate, will talk to lawmakers in Manhattan about their role in exposing Cambridge Analytica’s illicit harvesting of personal data from Facebook and other sources.

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“Unfortunately we’ve seen that if companies are left alone they are not making the ethical decision, so now it’s in the hands of lawmakers and regulators to make sure companies are protecting their consumers,” Kaiser told the Daily News.

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“Given how much information these data companies have about us, I am telling them now they have a duty of loyalty to the consumer and they have to balance it with their duty to their shareholders,” Thomas said. “They cannot always put profit over people. They have to look at what is best for the consumer.”

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