NEW DELHI: The troubles for social media giant
Facebook and its tainted British vendor
Cambridge Analytica are far from over in India.
The government on Wednesday served a second set of notice to the two companies over the recent data breach after finding “discrepancies” between the earlier responses given by the two companies. The companies have been asked to file their replies to the fresh queries by May 10.
Flagging the “cryptic and evasive” reply given by Cambridge Analytica to its first notice, the government sought additional details from the company. “...It is self-evident that apart from being very cryptic, the unstated intention was to conceal more than reveal,”said the latest notice to Cambridge Analytica.
The notice said that in view of Facebook’s submission and subsequent apology over data leaks and harvesting, the onus now lies with Cambridge Analytica.
While Facebook had 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.
In its fresh notice to Cambridge Analytica now, the government has asked that what kind of data was collected in India and the research instruments it had used to capture such data. It also asked whether the company has harvested any data through third-party app and whether or not mining of such data was done with user consent.
A senior IT ministry official aware of the development said that the government wants to send out a “strong signal” to international bodies operating in IT and
data platform that any manipulation of data of Indians, in violation of law and
privacy norms, will be viewed “seriously”.
The government has also asked Cambridge Analytica whether data collected by the company “under the garb of research” have been used for any election-related work.
The notice to Facebook takes note of the candid admission by the US company of unauthorised use of its user data by Cambridge Analytica, and asks it to list out security architecture proposed to be created “so that data concerning Indians are not pilfered or manipulated again for extraneous purposes including to influence the elections”.
The government also asked Facebook about the steps it plans to initiate to clamp down on any unauthorised use of data or manipulation.
