Cambridge Analytica Data Leak Scandal: Modi Government Orders CBI Probe

New Delhi, July 26: The Narendra Modi government on Thursday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal. While speaking on fake news and data leak in Parliament today, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government has sought response from Facebook and Cambridge Analytica on data breach scandal.

Cambridge Analytica was accused of illegally accessing data from millions of Facebook accounts, whistleblower Christopher Wylie disclosed earlier this year. Facebook had confirmed the charge in April and informed that the data of a total of 87 million users was used without authorisation by the data firm.

In May this year, the analytics firm filed for voluntary bankruptcy. However, the Indian government said it will continue with its enquiry into the data leak issue, irrespective of the British firm announcing the closure of business.

The government had in a notice to Cambridge Analytica asked what kind of data was collected in India and the research instruments used to capture such data. It had also asked whether the company harvested any data through third party apps and whether or not mining of such data was done with user consent.

Quizzing the British firm on the non-disclosure pacts signed by the company with its associates and clients for Indian assignments, the government had also asked it to share the templates that were used in signing such agreements.

While Facebook had previously admitted that nearly 5.62 lakh people in India were “potentially affected” by the data breach incident, Cambridge Analytica had claimed that it does not have any Facebook data on Indian citizens.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 26, 2018 05:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).