Data privacy scandal: Cambridge Analytica files for bankruptcy

The firm in the petition listed assets in the range of $100,000 to $500,000 and liabilities in the range of $1 million to $10 million

UK based marketing analytics firm, which has been at the heart of the massive Facebook data privacy scandal filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Friday.

The firm voluntarily submitted a petition to declare bankruptcy at the US Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York.

The firm in the petition listed assets in the range of $100,000 to $500,000 and liabilities in the range of $1 million to $10 million.

Earlier on May 3, the firm had announced that it was ceasing all its operations and filing for insolvency in the United States and Britain. The firm's decision followed weeks of intense pressure on the company after allegations emerged that it might have hijacked private data up to 87 million Facebook users.

An affiliate of the British firm Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), Cambridge Analytica has offices in London, New York, Washington D.C., as well as Brazil and Malaysia.

It first became embroiled in a massive data breach scandal in March when Canadian whistleblower Christopher Wylie, a former analyst of the firm revealed that it had created psychological profiles of millions of Facebook users via a personality prediction app.

The startling revelations instantly reverberated around the world, wiping billions from the social media giant's market value and drawing scrutiny from politicians and regulators from both the US and the UK.

To make things worse for Cambridge Analytica, its CEO Alexander Nix was suspended within days after he was filmed by undercover reporters bragging about ways to win political campaigns using tactics like blackmailing and honey trapping.

As the crisis intensified, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was forced to apologise to its billions of users. He eventually appeared before the US Congress for two-day grilling lawmakers. Since then Facebook has vowed to overhaul the way it shares its users' data.

A second whistleblower from the firm also emerged earlier this month, when he revealed that Britons' personal data have been misused by a pro-Brexit campaign ahead of the 2016 referendum in which Britain had voted to leave the European Union.

However, Cambridge Analytica has denied the allegations of exploiting President Trump's election campaign, claiming that it had deleted the data obtained in breach of the social network's terms of service.