Photo: The Canadian Press

A cell phone user thumbs through the privacy settings on a Facebook account.

Federal Liberals are sharing details about a pilot project undertaken for their caucus research bureau by the Canadian data scientist at the centre of an international uproar over allegations that Facebook users' data was inappropriately harvested for political gain.

Christopher Wylie came forward in recent days with accusations that a voter-profiling company improperly collected private information from some 50 million Facebook users in order to help seal 2016 victories for Donald Trump's presidential campaign in the U.S. and in the U.K.'s Brexit referendum.

Wylie has said in media interviews that he not only played a key role in developing the data-mining technique, he also helped establish the Cambridge Analytica firm he alleges was behind it.

After The Canadian Press revealed Wylie was contracted by the Liberals in early 2016, the party is releasing more information today about the short-lived agreement — and they insist that after seeing a sample of his services, they decided not to move forward.

The Liberals say Wylie's company, Eunoia Technologies, conducted preliminary work for the caucus research bureau at a cost of $100,000 in a contract done in accordance with House of Commons procurement rules.

The bureau's managing director says Wylie's firm was contracted for several purposes, such as setting up social-media monitoring tools and the creation of samples of Canadians to help the party better understand the public's opinions on government policies and other issues of national importance.

The Liberals insist that at no point did Wylie's firm have access to any data from the research bureau.