An engineer who used to work for the now-defunct data management firm Cambridge Analytica reportedly said he and his former colleagues have received interest from several chief technology officers working for large data-focused businesses.
The allegedly high level of interest is despite the fact the company in question shut down following vehement accusations it misused data provided by Facebook. It’s currently facing several pending and ongoing legal battles.
The anonymous employee, who was interviewed by Business Insider, claimed he has himself been presented with more than 30 job inquiries. The source told BI that while the employment appeals are partially due to a deficit of available talent in the data industry, it’s also because those recruiters perceive the debacle with Facebook as hyperbolized, even “fake.”
“I know people think that we are the devil itself but it’s not true, the work we did at Cambridge Analytica and SCL [Strategic Communication Laboratories] was legal and the stuff on the press is mostly lies from my point of view,” he said, according to BI.
Of course, not everyone who worked at Cambridge Analytica had such a glowing review of his former place of employment. Christopher Wylie, the former director of research at the U.K.-based company, was the one who helped expose the relationship it had with Facebook, asserting that he ultimately helped make a “psychological warfare” tool that turned people’s personal traits and online tendencies into profit and electoral targeting. (RELATED: Tim Cook On Mark Zuckerberg: ‘I Wouldn’t Be In This Situation’)
The unnamed engineer said the media’s general opinion of the situation has so far repelled him from working at a similar company, like one that works with vast troves of data.
“This Cambridge Analytica story made me realize that common people don’t understand how these companies operate,” he said, according to BI. “I don’t want to be in this position again, when the press disagrees with the next company I go work for.”
Public backlash over the situation was (and still is) ample. It sparked multiple hearings both in the U.S.’s respective congressional chambers and abroad, leading to a frenzy of criticism and media attention.
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