New Delhi: The government will soon finalize the action to be taken in the Facebook data breach case. Information technology (IT) and law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday met top officials of the IT ministry to discuss the matter, a person in the know said.
The move comes after Facebook and Cambridge Analytica (CA) submitted responses to the questions sent to them by the IT ministry.
“The government has taken serious note of the points made by Facebook and CA and will soon decide on the next line of action,” the person said. After receiving Facebook’s response on Thursday, the government waited for London-based analytics firm CA’s response to take a decision on the matter.
In its response to the Indian government, the British firm claimed it did not hold data of Indian users obtained illegally from Facebook, an Economic Times report said on Saturday.
Queries to CA were sent on 23 March and the government warned of legal action if it did not hear back by 31 March. The company had sought a week’s extension of the deadline.
Facebook said CA’s acquisition of Facebook data via the app developed by Aleksandr Kogan and his firm Global Science Research Ltd happened without its authorization and was an explicit violation of its platform policies.