On Wednesday, the Ministry sent a letter to Facebook to explain the data breach and furnish a response by April 7, it said in a statement
The government has asked social networking giant Facebook provide details about the alleged data breach relating to Cambridge Analytica’s use of Facebook profiles to influence elections.
On March 23, the Ministry of Electronics and Technology issued a letter to Cambridge Analytica with regard to reports in the media about questionable practices attributed to the data analytics company in their efforts to influence elections.
On Wednesday, the Ministry sent a letter to Facebook to explain the data breach and furnish a response by April 7, it said in a statement.
MeitY has specifically asked for a response to the following questions:
IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has also raised the issue, calling upon Congress party president Rahul Gandhi to “to apologise to the nation for data theft and trying to manipulate voters”.
Firms like Cambridge Analytica buy or obtain data from various sources, take this vast amount of unconnected data, match it with voter profiles and databases, identify the voting preferences of every single voter within an area, and target those who can be “turned” into a successful vote for their client.
The firm has been in the eye of a storm since the past couple of weeks after one of its former employees, Christopher Wylie made public details of how Cambridge Analytica has influenced elections in countries across the world.
India has also been caught in the cross hairs after politicians sparred over whether the Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party also employed the data analytics firm. Deposing in front of the UK Parliament yesterday, Wylie said he believed Congress was a client of Cambridge Analytica.
