Psychologist who developed Cambridge Analytica application believed that system was legal

The psychologist who developed the application that was used by Cambridge Analytica to obtain data from millions of Facebook users who were used for election purposes said he believed it was legal.

Aleksandr Kogan, a professor of psychology at Cambridge University, told the BBC that what he did was "perfectly legal and adjusted to the terms of service." 

"My opinion is that I'm being used basically as a scapegoat," Kogan, who is accused of using illegal personal data

The researcher developed the application "This is Your Digital Life".

The method was used to gather data from 270,000 Facebook users, but also to get the data of the "friends" of the people who used the application in the social network.

According to a former Cambridge Analytica employee, the company got data from 50 million people who were eventually used to creating a program to predict and influence voters' votes.

"Honestly, I thought we were acting appropriately, I believed we were doing something normal," said the psychologist, born in Moldova and raised in Russia until the age of seven, when his family moved to the United States, along with biographical data cited by Varsity, a Cambridge newspaper.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal, whose directors believed they had the power to change electoral tendencies, including planning scandals with prostitutes and bribes to ruin the reputation of candidates, dragged Facebook, whose data protection of users came to be questioned.

Cambridge Analytica worked for the victorious campaign - against all prognoses - of the American president Donald Trump and, according to the leaders of the British pro-Brexit movement, also for them, although the consultancy denies the performance in the referendum of the United Kingdom. 

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was invited to give explanations to the British Parliament, the European Parliament and the US Congress.

The social network has banned Cambridge Analytica and Aleksandr Kogan from using the platform.