Head of Cambridge Analytica filmed discussing use of bribes and sex workers to entrap politicians

The data analysis firm at the centre of a privacy scandal came under more pressure on Monday when Channel 4 broadcast footage of Cambridge Analytica’s chief executive discussing using bribes, former spies and Ukrainian women to entrap politicians.

It emerged as the Information Commissioner said she was seeking a warrant to search its computers and servers as part of investigation into the use of personal data of Facebook users.

The controversy wiped billions of dollars off Facebook’s value as its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, faced questions on both sides of the Atlantic about how a private company was able to gather personal information of 50 million users.

Trouble for Cambridge Analytica deepened with an undercover investigation by Channel 4 that showed its chief executive, Alexander Nix, discussing ways he could help a client.

Asked about what “deep digging” could be done, Mr Nix told a reporter posing as a fixer for a wealthy client hoping to get candidates elected in Sri Lanka: "Oh, we do a lot more than that.

What you need to know about the privacy row engulfing Facebook and Cambridge Analytica

"I mean deep digging is interesting but you know equally effective can be just to go and speak to the incumbents and to offer them a deal that's too good to be true, and make sure that that's video recorded, you know, these sorts of tactics are very effective instantly having video evidence of corruption, putting it on the internet, these sorts of things."

Mr Nix said they could "send some girls around to the candidate's house", adding that Ukrainian girls "are very beautiful, I find that works very well", Channel 4 reported.

Cambridge Analytica, which provided services to Donald Trump's election campaign, denied any wrongdoing and said the report was "edited and scripted to grossly misrepresent" the way conducted business.

The firm said it routinely undertook conversations with prospective clients to "tease out any unethical or illegal intentions" and the executives "humoured" the reporter's questions.

But Mr Nix said: "In playing along with this line of conversation, and partly to spare our 'client' from embarrassment, we entertained a series of ludicrous hypothetical scenarios.

"I am aware how this looks, but it is simply not the case. I must emphatically state that Cambridge Analytica does not condone or engage in entrapment, bribes or so-called 'honeytraps', and nor does it use untrue material for any purpose.”

The New York Times and the Observer newspaper revealed at the weekend that Cambridge Analytica had obtained private data on more than 50 million Facebook users to support Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign.

The 'secret sauce' in Donald Trump's election campaign

The profile data was harvested by Aleksandr Kogan, a Cambridge University academic, using an app which paid users to take a quiz. It gathered data on 270,000 participants, but also had permission to gather data such as "likes" and interests of their Facebook friends without their permission.

The Information Commissioner’s Office is already conducting a broad probe into the use of personal data in British political campaigns, which Elizabeth Denham said concerned at least 30 different organisations and political parties.

She told the BBC she had demanded access to Cambridge Analytica's servers by 18:00 GMT but said the firm had not met the deadline.

"I'm not accepting their response so therefore I'll be applying to the court for a warrant," she said.

"We need to get in there, we need to look at the databases, we need to look at the servers and understand how data was processed or deleted by Cambridge Analytica."

Facebook by numbers

Data from the US Federal Election Commission show that Cambridge Analytica earned $5.9 million in 2016 from the campaign to elect Donald Trump for president. At the time its algorithms and data mining capacity were hailed as a secret weapon.

But on Monday shares in Facebook plunged – wiping more than $36n (£26bn) off the company’s value – as investors reacted to news of the data leak.

A spokesman for Theresa May, the prime minister, called on both companies to co-operate with the investigation: "The allegations are clearly very concerning.

"It is essential that people can have confidence that their personal data will be protected and used in an appropriate way.”