https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-cambridge-analytica-aleksandr-kogan-faces-questions/

Dr Kogan is a key player in the revelations surrounding Facebook and data consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica. A researcher at the University of Cambridge, Kogan created a Facebook app in 2013 that harvested anonymous user data from the millions of Facebook users. Later he created another quiz app that collected user data with names, and sold the data on to controversial company Cambridge Analytica.

Kogan and others from the academic world are sometimes allowed access to Facebook data for the purposes of research -- often in collaboration with the university itself. There are strict rules governing what they can do with that data to prevent misuse, although Kogan said he had assumed his actions were acceptable. "I think that the core idea we had," he told 60 Minutes, "that everybody knows and nobody cares, was wrong. For that, I am sincerely sorry."