AIQ built Ripon to utilise Facebook data: Cambridge Analytica whistleblower

Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie at a public hearing told the British Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media, and Sports Committee that a Canadian company AggregateIQ worked on software called Ripon which was used to identify Republican voters ahead of the 2016 US presidential election. 

"There's no tangible proof in the public domain that AIQ actually built Ripon, which is the software that utilised the algorithms from the Facebook data," Wylie told the committee.

Ripon, the town in which the Republican Party was founded in 1854, was the name allegedly given to a tool that let a campaign manage its voter database, target specific voters, conduct canvassing, manage fundraising and carry out surveys.

Wylie had earlier revealed how Facebook data was used by a British firm Cambridge Analytica in helping the Trump presidential campaign in 2016.

Meanwhile, a London law firm Bindmans said electoral offences were committed during the Brexit campaign in breach of UK vote rules.

"There is a prima facie case that the following electoral offences were committed by Vote Leave in the EU referendum campaign," Bindmans said.

Vote Leave ultimately declared campaign costs of just over £6.7 million - under the £7 million legal limit - of which nearly £2.7 million was spent on services by AIQ.