New York professor files claim to force Cambridge Analytica's UK office to disclose how they obtained and used his data through their 'harvesting'

• e-mail

David Carroll, a professor at the New School's Parsons School of Design, filed his request on Friday to have Cambridge Analytica UK hand over their data on him

A professor from New York has filed a claim in a British court against a data company that worked for Donald Trump during his presidential campaign, which could potentially provide insight into how online propaganda was used on the American people.

David Carroll, a professor at the New School's Parsons School of Design, filed his request on Friday to have Cambridge Analytica hand over all the data they have on him.

Last year, Carroll used a British data protection law to obtain data the UK branch of the company had on him. 

He claims the file that Cambridge has on him was unsettling and raised numerous concerns. The data ranked Carroll's views on a scale of one to 10, looking to determine where he stood on relevant issues including 'traditional social and moral values.'

'If you just go by the topics, they are ranked in a way that demographics alone can't explain,' Carroll explained to CNN about how the company wouldn't disclose how they got to those conclusions.

A registered Democrat, the company scored him nine out of 10 on a 'traditional social and moral values importance rank.' But he feels like the rank could have caused him to be fed information that 'negatively affected my sentiment about [Clinton's] candidacy'

'Just by using my age and gender and zip code, they can't get such an accurate list. There has to be more.' 

He wants all of the data and the source of the data. 

In December, the company stated that Carroll's claims 'are unfounded, and unfortunately, he is wasting other people's money with this spurious legal action,' Mother Jones reported. 

'Cambridge Analytica abides by all relevant data protection laws and, just as importantly, the company's core values of integrity, respect and honesty. Data privacy is a fundamental right and one that Cambridge Analytica takes very seriously.'

The request at the British courts also includes Cambridge Analytica's parent company, Strategic Communication Laboratories.

Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix claimed that Americans are required to have that information shared with them

'In particular, I am concerned that I may have been targeted with messages that criticized Secretary Hillary Clinton with falsified or exaggerated information,' he said in a written statement to the court, adding that then 'negatively affected my sentiment about her candidacy and consequently discouraged me from engaging with the Clinton campaign as a formal or informal volunteer.'  

His lawyer, Ravi Naik, added on Friday: 'Our client has every confidence that the court will order disclosure so that he and the American electorate can begin to understand how their data was used in the 2016 election. The recent wider revelations about Cambridge Analytica/SCL show how crucial it is for our client to have a full understanding of what these companies were doing.'

British law allows for persons to submit 'subject access' requests that must be acknowledged by the company in 40 days. 

The organization in question has to provide a copy of the data, the source of the data and if that information was given elsewhere. 

Facebook announced, on Friday, that both Cambridge Analytica and Strategic Communication Laboratories were suspended after reports brought into question how the two handled the social media platform's data

'It was pretty experimental at the beginning,' Carroll explained, ' I was studying the practice of ad targeting from the primaries and through the campaign because it was interesting to me from an academic perspective.'  

The professor was surprised to find that the company responded to his own request, a few weeks after he sent it on January 2017. 

Carroll touts himself as a registered Democrat and added that the company did correctly infer what some of his views was. 

He says the company scored him nine out of 10 on a 'traditional social and moral values importance rank.' But he's determined to find how that rank was deduced. 

A company spokesperson for Cambridge denied violating terms for Facebook and added that they are in talks with the social media site to rectify the problem. They added that there was no data obtained from Global Science Research that was given to Trump's campaign

Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix explained, earlier this month, that there was no legislation in the United States that offered support for what Carroll and many Americans would like to know. 

But that sentiment was soon shattered when UK's data commissioner concluded that Americans could obtain information pertaining to themselves if the data was processed in United Kingdom. 

Facebook announced, on Friday, that both Cambridge Analytica and Strategic Communication Laboratories were suspended after reports brought into question how the two handled the social media platform's data. 

A company spokesperson for Cambridge denied violating terms for Facebook and added that they are in talks with the social media site to rectify the problem. 

They added that there was no date obtained from Global Science Research that was given to Trump's campaign.