Cambridge Analytica used the data of 5.62 lakh Indian Facebook users to influence elections in the country. It has been more than two years after it launched a preliminary enquiry (PE) to probe alleged illegal personal data harvesting of Indians from the social networking platform.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against Cambridge Analytica and Global Research Limited, UK for alleged illegal harvesting of data of Facebook users in India. The agency had launched a PE against Cambridge Analytica and social media giant Facebook in September 2018.
CBI had received responses to its queries from both the companies but it had sought more details from them on some specific questions. The agency, last September, had sought details of data collection exercise adopted by them.
CBI had initiated a preliminary enquiry against Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research last year over the alleged user data theft. It is alleged that Cambridge Analytica received data from Global Science Research which employed "illegal means" of personal data harvesting of Indians using Facebook, they said.
Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad had informed Parliament in July 2018 that there will be a CBI probe into the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data theft case.The CBI's preliminary enquiry revealed criminal offences committed by Cambridge Analytica and GSRL, leading it to book the two firms for criminal conspiracy and cyber crime.
It was in August, 2018 that the agency had received the letter from Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology seeking an independent probe against data mining and analysis firm Cambridge Analytica.The company is at the heart of the case involving alleged breach of Facebook user data seeking information about its clients in India and whether it had harvested their user profiles.
The app was authorised to collect specific user data for academic and research purposes according to Facebook's policy. The app, however, also collected additional unauthorised data of users illegally, the CBI has found. This data, including demographic information, pages liked, and contents on private chats, was collected without the knowledge and consent of the app users.
Facebook has conveyed that 335 users in India had installed this app. The platform has estimated that the data of approximately 5.62 lakh additional users, who were part of the friends' network of the initial 335, had also been harvested illegally by the app.
However, the sources said, the data, including demographic information, pages liked, and contents on private chats, was collected without the knowledge and consent of the app users in the country.
