Channel 4 says the video shows the company claimed to use "a web of shadowy front companies", ex-MI5 and MI6 spies, students and others who can obtain data and dirt, and produce behaviour-changing material to feed "the bloodstream of the internet" in pursuit of winning elections, as well as people who can "ghost in and ghost out" of a country without being detected. Loading The broadcast offered no evidence that such methods were used during the Trump campaign beyond the apparent disclosures. The firm was paid at least $US6 million ($7.7 million) for is work on the Trump campaign. But the report sparked a fresh round of questions over a company already embroiled in controversy about its use of personal information from 50 million Facebook users - the vast majority of whom had no idea their names, likes and work histories had been collected for political purposes. Cambridge Analytica uses data obtained from Facebook to take election campaigns "to the next level". Credit:AP

The New York Times reported the company used a combination of data obtained from Facebook and a "personality quiz" and app which some 270,000 users filled in under the pretext of academic research. The company on Monday disputed the report and others published over the weekend about its use of massive troves of Facebook data. "Cambridge Analytica strongly denies the claims recently made by The New York Times, the Guardian and Channel 4 News," it said on Twitter. Cambridge Analytica elaborated in a statement quoted by Channel 4 News, saying, "We entirely refute any allegation that Cambridge Analytica or any of its affiliates use entrapment, bribes, or so-called 'honey-traps' for any purpose whatsoever . . . We routinely undertake conversations with prospective clients to try to tease out any unethical or illegal intentions." According to the video, Nix appears to suggest the company could "send some girls around to the candidate's house". He later added that he favoured Ukrainian women in particular: "They are very beautiful; I find that works very well." Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix at the company's New York office. Credit:Joshua Bright/Washington Post

The Channel 4 News team reportedly told the company officials they were meeting with a "fixer for a wealthy client hoping to get candidates elected in Sri Lanka." In one clip, Mark Turnbull stresses the firm is not "in the business of fake news, we're not in the business of lying, making stuff up, and we're not in the business of entrapment. So we wouldn't send a pretty girl out to seduce a politician and then film them in their bedroom." In a later conversation featuring Nix, however, the chief executive appears to float the idea that they could entrap candidates with potential bribes, "instantly having video evidence of corruption, putting it on the internet". Nix later added: "Please don't pay too much attention to what I'm saying, because I'm just giving you examples of what can be done, and what has been done." US President Donald Trump congratulates Steve Bannon, his then chief strategist, last year. Bannon is a former backer and vice-president of Cambridge Analytica. Credit:New York Times

In a number of the exchanges, Turnbull stresses the ability of Cambridge Analytica to play on people's "hopes and fears". "You didn't know that was a fear until you saw something that just evoked that reaction from you," Turnbull appeared to say, "and our job is to get, is to drop the bucket further down the well than anybody else, to understand what are those really, deep-seated underlying fears, concerns." In other clips, Turnbull describes links to former spies while also promising to be discreet, using "a different entity, with a different name, so that no record exists with our name attached to this at all". He also mentions the use of Israeli companies or individuals for such discreet work. Following the expose, Elizabeth Denham, Britain's Information Commissioner, told Channel 4 News that she was "shocked" and "deeply concerned". Her office has been conducting a widespread probe, which started last year, into data analytics and political profiling.

She said that on Tuesday morning, London time, she would be applying for a warrant to access Cambridge Analytica's databases and servers to "understand how data was processed or deleted by Cambridge Analytica – there are a lot of conflicting stories about the data". When asked if she was concerned about Facebook getting "ahead" of her office by sending in its own team on Monday night to Cambridge Analytica's London offices, she said: "I think it's very important that we apply for the warrant and that we do the search on behalf of the public." But without a warrant, her office was unable to send in its own team. Washington Post, Fairfax Media