Facebook, Cambridge Analytica get second notice on data breach
Cambridge Analytica had earlier this month categorically denied using any data of Indians from Facebook.
New Delhi: India on Wednesday shot-off second notice to both UK-based political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica and Facebook seeking more details on the data breach issue.
In the fresh notice, government has asked the social media giant to list out security architecture proposed to be created by the company “so that data concerning Indians are not pilfered or manipulated again for extraneous purposes including to influence the elections.”
It has asked Facebook about steps it plans to clamp down on any unauthorised use of data or manipulation, and fixed a deadline of May 10 for responses.
Last month government had issued a notices to both FB and Cambridge Analytica seeking to know whether personal data of Indian voters was compromised to influence elections in the country.
In its reply to the notice issued by the IT ministry, Cambridge Analytica had earlier this month categorically denied using any data of Indians from Facebook.
However, contrary to stand taken by Cambridge Analytica, Facebook had said that around 5.62 lakh people in India could have been impacted by the data breach undertaken allegedly by the political consultancy.
Facebook data breach has snowballed into a major controversy in India with main political parties BJP and Congress accusing each other of engaging services of Cambridge Analytica to influence elections in the country. Facebook has over 20 crore users in the country.
Facebook had said that globally personal information of up to 87 million users, mostly in the US, may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.