New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed a case against Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research Ltd for “illegal harvesting of personal data from Facebook users in India.” The development came after a preliminary enquiry into the matter which showed that Global Science Research had created an app “this is your digital life” which was authorised by Facebook to collect specific datasets of its users for research and academic purposes in 2014, officials said. Also Read - Neither Badminton Nor Tennis, Amol Gupte Reveals What Trolled Saina Poster Really Stands For
Citing the FIR an official stated,”The enquiry prima facie established that Global Science Research Ltd, UK dishonestly and fraudulently accessed data of app users of “this is your digital life” and their Facebook friends.” Also Read - Twitter Starts Rolling Out Spaces on Android in India, Know All About The Audio Chat Tool
Charges Against Cambridge Analytica
In 2018, the central probe agency had initiated an investigation against Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research for alleged illegal personal data harvesting of Indians from Facebook. The Mark Zuckerberg-owned company had had claimed that the data of about 87 million Facebook users might have been misused by British data analytics company Cambridge Analytica.
Besides, Facebook had said that the data of more than five lakh Indian users had also been compromised in the scandal. The breach occurred after 335 Indian Facebook users downloaded an app owned by a company, which later sold the information to Cambridge Analytica.
About Cambridge Analytica
Started in 2013, Cambridge Analytica is a British political consulting firm. It was involved in influencing hundreds of elections globally and that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
