The company's inquiry confirmed that the firm had violated Facebook's privacy rules, according to the SEC. When journalists began circling back the following November, though, Facebook's PR team allegedly referred them to information that was false. READ: Senators want to put a price tag on your data "For example, beginning in February 2017, the communications group pointed reporters to Cambridge's public statement that it 'does not use data from Facebook' and 'does not obtain data from Facebook profiles or Facebook likes,'" the SEC report alleges. "This was misleading because it suggested that Facebook was unaware that Cambridge had improperly obtained Facebook user data." The following month, SEC officials continue, the tech giant's communications shop told at least two outlets that "[o]ur investigation to date has not uncovered anything that suggests wrongdoing." The Intercept published the statement in its coverage of the scandal.