British authorities left the London offices of disgraced data firm Cambridge Analytica early Saturday after spending seven hours searching for evidence as part of an investigation launched in the wake of recent revelations involving the company’s involvement in political matters including the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The U.K. High Court authorized a search warrant Friday evening for Cambridge Analytica headquarters, and roughly 20 members of Britain’s data watchdog raided the office about an hour later, Reuters reported.
“The warrant to inspect the premises of Cambridge Analytica was executed at 20.00 on 23 March 2018. Our investigators left the premises at about 03.00,” the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said early Saturday.
“We will now need to assess and consider the evidence before deciding the next steps and coming to any conclusions,” an ICO spokesperson said in a statement.
The search was “part of a larger investigation by the ICO into the use of personal data and analytics by political campaigns, parties, social media companies and other commercial actors,” the spokesperson said.
