The London HQs of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica

[By James Hobbs in London] It is only a five-minute walk between the Cambridge Analytica HQ in New Oxford Street (above) and the newly opened Facebook offices in Rathbone Square (below). Following reports that Cambridge Analytica harvested the data of 50 million Facebook users without their permission to build a system that could target US voters in the presidential election, and had links to Leave groups in the UK’s EU referendum, the press had descended.

There is a handily placed cafe across the street from the Cambridge Analytica HQ: from it there’s a good view (buses permitting) of the media scrum waiting for a warrant to be served so the premises could be searched by data watchdogs. I drew from the cafe window alongside two weary trainee journalists – out of place among the tourists and the shoppers – who had been sent to watch and wait.

By the time I got to draw the Facebook offices a few days later, the warrant had been granted, and Cambridge Analytica’s offices had been searched. There is a pristine newness about the Facebook complex, and the surrounding retails units are still being fitted out. While the company’s share price fell, there was no media presence here and nothing to suggest it was anything other than business as usual.

I’ve always had an uneasy relationship with Facebook, and although I have deleted my account before, I’m currently still on it. Interacting through Facebook involves sharing your data with what is, in effect, an advertising company, and that will always involve give and take. Except with the arrival of Trump and Brexit, it seems to me that there has been too much take.