CBI to probe Cambridge Analytica data breach, determine if firm violated Indian laws, says Ravi Shankar Prasad

The central government has ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to initiate a probe into data mining and analysis firm Cambridge Analytica on Thursday. According to The Financial Post, CBI will investigate whether personal data from Indian voters and Facebook users was compromised by the political consultancy firm.

Cambridge Analytica data breach case will be investigated by CBI: Ravi Shankar Prasad, IT Minister in Rajya Sabha pic.twitter.com/lmLLdl5VIP

— ANI (@ANI) July 26, 2018

The minister of electronics and information technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad said in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that the CBI will determine whether the British company violated Indian laws. The Economic Times reported that Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy) had written to the CBI on Wednesday evening, demanding a probe against the company. The issue broke out before the Parliament on Thursday. Responding on the issue of “action on the misuse of social media and fake news”, the government said that it has “entrusted the issue to be investigated by the CBI for possible violation of Information Technology Act, 2000 and IPC”. According to Prasad, a notice was sent to Facebook in March, and it promised to upgrade its internal processes regarding the hacking of personal data. “They also promised to take various other steps to ensure that such things don’t recur,” he said. Cambridge Analytica declared bankruptcy in 2018 following allegations that it used personal information harvested from 87 million Facebook accounts helping Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election. With inputs from The Associated Press