Probe finds no evidence that Cambridge Analytica tried to influence EU referendum 

An investigation into Cambridge Analytica has found no evidence that it misused data in an attempt to influence the 2016 EU referendum.

Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said she did not believe the firm and its associate company SCL had played a role in the vote.

In her conclusion to a three-year probe, she wrote: ‘From my review of the materials recovered by the investigation I have found no further evidence to change my earlier view that SCL/CA were not involved in the EU referendum campaign in the UK – beyond some initial enquiries made by SCL/CA in relation to UKIP data in the early stages of the referendum process.

‘This strand of work does not appear to have then been taken forward.’ 

On the data practices of organisations that were involved on both sides of the referendum, she added: ‘I identified no significant breaches of the privacy and electronic marketing regulations and data protection legislation that met the threshold for formal regulatory action.’

Cambridge Analytica collapsed after it was at the centre of a dispute over the harvesting and use of personal data – and whether it was used to influence the outcome of the US 2016 presidential election or the Brexit referendum.

Alexander Nix, the former chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, last month was banned from running limited companies in the UK for seven years.