Data leak: India to continue probe despite Cambridge Analytica closure

May 03, 2018 21:57

The Indian government will continue with its enquiry into the Cambridge Analytica data leak issue, irrespective of the British firm announcing closure of business, senior information technology ministry officials said today.

The United Kingdom-based data analytics and political consulting firm has been under fire in various countries for allegedly harvesting data from almost 87 million Facebook users and leveraging them for political campaigns.

The Indian government too has shot-off notices to both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, confronting them with questions on data breach issue. The last date for the two companies to respond is May 10.

Yesterday, however, Cambridge Analytica announced its closure in a statement on its website and claimed it had been "vilified" for activities that are legal and considered a standard component of online advertising.

Indian officials familiar with the questioning and notices sent in the data leak matter said the ongoing probe will continue as the liability of the company existed prior to the closure announcement.

They, however, declined to divulge further details in the matter, saying that both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have time till May 10 to send written responses to official questioning.

In fresh notice sent to Cambridge Analytica last month, the government asked what kind of data was collected in India and the research instruments used to capture such data. It 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 also asked it to share the templates that were used in signing such agreements.

The latest notice by the government had also flagged the "cryptic and evasive" reply given by Cambridge Analytica to the first notice.

On the other hand, the notice to Facebook had taken note of the US social networking company's candid admission of unauthorised use of its user data by Cambridge Analytica. -- PTI

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