Indian Govt. sends another set of Notice to Facebook and Cambridge Analytica over data breach

The problems for social media great Facebook and its tarnished British vendor Cambridge Analytica are far from over in India. The government has served another set of notice to the 2 companies over the recent data violation after finding “ inconsistency” between the earlier replies given by the 2 companies. In addition, the companies have been asked to file their responses to the latest questions by May 10. The government has sought additional details from the company after flagging the reply given by Cambridge Analytica to the first notice as “ cryptic and evasive” . “ ...It is self-evident that apart from being very cryptic, the untold intention was to conceal more than reveal” , said the fresh notice to Cambridge Analytica. The notice said that in view of Facebook's submission and apology thereafter over data breach and harvesting, the responsibility now lies with Cambridge Analytica. While Facebook had admitted that almost 5.62 lakh Indians were “ potentially affected” by the data breach, Cambridge Analytica had claimed that it does not have any Facebook data on Indians. In its latest notice to Cambridge Analytica, 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 inquired if the company has collected any data through a 3^rd-party application and whether or not a collection of such data was done with user permission. An IT ministry official aware of the development said that the government wants to send out a “ strong signal” to international organizations operating in IT and data platform that any manipulation of data of Indians, in violation of the law and privacy guidelines, will be seen “ seriously” . Further, the government has also inquired Cambridge Analytica if 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 unauthorized use of its user data by Cambridge Analytica, and asks it to point out security architecture proposed to be created “ so that data concerning Indians are not sneaked or manipulated again for irrelevant purposes including to influence the elections” . The government has also asked Facebook about the steps it plans to take to prevent any unauthorized use of data or even manipulation of such data.