AggregateIQ denies whistleblower claims to ethics committee

OTTAWA — The heads of West Coast-based software developer AggregateIQ Data Services Ltd. denied a number of allegations over its involvement with SCL Group Inc.’s Cambridge Analytica before a House of Commons ethics committee on Tuesday. AggregateIQ has been closely linked to the actions of SCL Group Inc.’s Cambridge Analytica and the Leave campaign during the British referendum on European Union membership, commonly known as Brexit. AggregateIQ said they worked with SCL, but that relationship ended in 2016, according to testimony during the meeting. The actions of Cambridge Analytica and AIQ are under investigation by multiple privacy regulators around the world. According to March media reports by Gizmodo, AggregateIQ was confirmed to be the software developer for Cambridge Analytica. It developed campaign software called Ripon, which AggregateIQ chief operating officer Jeff Silvester said during his appearance is a database to better organize campaign worker outreach and improve political candidate marketing. Whistleblower Christopher Wylie has claimed to a U.K. investigation, according to reports by CBC/Radio-Canada, that software allegedly used psychological profiles to send targeted ads to prospective voters. At Tuesday’s committee meeting, AggregateIQ rejected the claim it enabled the data-powered profiling from users of Facebook Inc.’s platform that Cambridge Analytica has been criticized for. “We have never managed, had access to, or used any Facebook data allegedly improperly obtained by Cambridge Analytica or by anyone else,” AggregateIQ CEO Zack Massingham said in his opening statement. Another claim pushed back on by the leaders of AggregateIQ was that the company was originally created to be a Canadian version of SCL. “We are not and nor have we ever been a department or subsidiary of SCL or Cambridge Analytica,” Massingham told the committee. This contradicts online evidence cited by Guardian, as well as statements made by Wylie and the recent testimony of ex-Cambridge Analytica employee Brittany Kaiser to U.K. investigators. At Tuesday’s meeting, NDP MP Charlie Angus took the opportunity to explain to the witnesses they were protected by parliamentary privilege, meaning their statements could not be used against them in court. “I’m not sure why you expect us to believe that all these people are making stuff up about you, when you could just explain to us why you were set up with SCL,” said Angus. As well, the committee addressed charges which put AggregateIQ in the middle of a U.K. Electoral Commission investigation over payments made to the Canadian company which allegedly sidestepped British election funding laws. As revealed by another whistleblower, Shahmir Sanni, multiple leave campaigns allegedly sent money to the software developer, which, if it was part of a larger coordinated effort, would be a contravention of U.K. campaign laws. “We thought it a little odd ourselves,” said Silvester, who proceeded to explain they looked into it on the U.K.’s Electoral Commission website to make sure it was okay. In the middle of the committee meeting, Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith received text messages from the U.K. Conservative Party MP Damian Collins who leads the digital, culture, media and sport select committee, also investigating the connection between SCL and AggregateIQ. The texts contradicted Massingham and Silvester’s claims they had cooperated with the U.K.’s Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, who says they have ignored her missives. Silvester repeated they had replied to two letters by the Office of the Information Commissioner, one sent last year and another sent last month. Later in a scrum after the meeting, Erskine-Smith told The Wire Report it wasn’t very often that international text message came up in committee meetings, but it was an indication of a larger effort to collaborate with the other nations involved. “Our chair has communicated in writing to the chairs of our comparable committees in the U.K. and the U.S. to say we're all undertaking related investigations and let's coordinate and cooperate as much as possible,” said Erskine-Smith. — With reporting by Bryson Masse at bmasse@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

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AggregateIQ denies whistleblower claims to ethics committee

News | April 24, 2018

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