Consultant listed as head of offshoot of the UK firm accused of unauthorised data harvesting says he ‘never was’ a director

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Australian offshoot of Cambridge Analytica deregistered its business name on Monday night, amid worldwide reporting of revelations the UK-based company had unauthorised access to tens of millions of Facebook profiles harvested through users of an app and the friends of their users.

Allan Lorraine, who is listed on the company website as head of the company, told Guardian Australia he “never was” a director for it and had completely forgotten about it until reports about Cambridge Analytica emerged this week.

Cambridge Analytica has worked with election campaigns all over the world, helped Donald Trump win the US presidential election, and is the subject of multiple investigations in the UK and US.

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Liberal MPs, including the now social services minister, Dan Tehan, met with company representatives in April last year, but the federal Labor and Liberal parties have both said they do not use Cambridge Analytica.

The Australian Cambridge Analytica business name was registered with the corporate regulator in 2015, and has no branded online presence. However, it shares a street address with SCL Group in Australia – an offshoot of the overseas Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, SCL Group. That address is also the home of Allan Lorraine, the head of SCL Group Australia as listed on its website.

Lorraine confirmed to Guardian Australia the two entities were the same and said he had deregistered the Cambridge Analytica business name on Monday. He said he registered the name “in anticipation of doing business with them” but without the UK Cambridge Analytica’s permission. He said he didn’t know why the SCL Group webpage was still up.

The SCL Group Australia webpage, which sits on the global SCL Group’s domain, lists a Maroubra PO box address in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, but has no phone number or business address.

The listed email address appears to no longer operate. It has three staff listed, including Lorraine.

The site says Lorraine, former owner of a small automotive consultation business, joined the global company in 2015.

Lorraine said he had “nothing to do with [Cambridge Analytica]”. “I don’t even know what they’re doing at the moment.”

He said he had not spoken to Cambridge Analytica or SCL Group recently except to send an email on Monday, which remained unanswered.

After calls from journalists, Lorraine deregistered the Cambridge Analytica business name on Monday night, he said.

The other two employees listed on the site had worked with him in his consulting business, Lorraine said.

A Rockdale accountant listed for Cambridge Analytica confirmed the business name had been deregistered but said it was not connected to the overseas company, and was owned by an Australian holding.

When told the Australian Cambridge Analytica shared a business address with SCL Group Australia – the offshoot of the UK Cambridge Analytica’s parent company – he said it was the first he’d heard of it.

In a video secretly recorded by Channel 4 News, Cambridge Analytica’s chief data officer, Dr Alex Tayler, and the managing director of the firm’s global political arm, Mark Turnbull, confirmed the company had set up in Australia.

“If you’re collecting data on people and you’re profiling them, that gives you more insight that you can use to know how to segment the population, give them messaging about issues they care about, and language and imagery they’re likely to engage with,” Tayler said.

“We use that in America and we use that in Africa, that’s what we do as a company.”

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Turnbull added: “We’ve done it in Mexico, we’ve done it in Malaysia, and now we’re moving to Brazil … Australia, China.”

Cambridge Analytica has since rejected the Channel 4 News report as “highly misleading”.

In another clip Turnbull said the company could operate under a different name if a client did not want to have a visible association with Cambridge Analytica.

Cambridge Analytica did not respond to a request for comment before publication.

The Australian information and privacy commissioner announced on Tuesday it was investigating if any Australian Facebook users were caught up in the unauthorised access by Cambridge Analytica. The consumer watchdog may also investigate any involvement in Australian elects as part of its inquiry into digital platforms.