Facebook has suspended Crimson Hexagon, as it investigates if the analytics firm violated any of the social network’s policies, including whether it harvested user data to build surveillance tools. The social network said it does not yet have any evidence that the Boston-based company obtained Facebook or Instagram data improperly. A spokesman said that Crimson Hexagon was “fully cooperating with Facebook”. The Facebook suspension came after The Wall Street Journal reported that Crimson Hexagon had contracts with a Russian non-profit organisation, allegedly with ties to the Kremlin, and many US government agencies. The report said the company used public data, which can include posts shared on the public setting, pages or basic profile information. Any use of data for surveillance is against Facebook’s rules. Facebook has suspended several data analytics firms since the Cambridge Analytica scandal in March 2018.

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Financial Times