Data security

Facebook seeks to suppress documents showing what it knew about Cambridge Analytica

Facebook is attempting to suppress documents which US investigators claim would show how much it knew about Cambridge Analytica before its harvesting of data was first publicly reported.

The social network has asked a judge to keep secret an email chain in which employees discussed how Cambridge Analytica was getting data from its service and whether it was breaking its policies.

Facebook has long maintained that it only found out about the transfer of user data to Cambridge Analytica from another company, which was the source of the scandal, when it was detailed by the Guardian in December 2015.

But the city of Washington DC claims that the email chain, unearthed as part of a consumer protection...