New Delhi: After fresh media reports of Facebook sharing user data without permission, again, the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology sought a detailed explanation from the tech giant on Thursday.
“Recently there are media reports claiming that Facebook has agreements which are allowing phone and other device manufacturers’ access to its users’ personal information, including that of their friends without taking their explicit consent. The government of India is deeply concerned about reports of such lapses violations,” said ministry of electronics and information in a statement.
“In response to earlier notices about breaches of personal data relating to the Cambridge Analytica episode, Facebook had apologised and given strong assurances to the Government of India that they would take sincere efforts to protect the privacy of users’ data on the platform. Therefore, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology has sought an explanation from Facebook seeking a detailed factual report on the issue,” added the ministry.
This comes after the parliamentary standing committee on information and technology, which met in May, discussed citizens' data security and privacy issues in the backdrop of the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook users' data breach.
Media reports said that Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba and National Cyber Security chief Dr Gulshan Rai, along with other cyber security and intelligence officers, were present at the meeting, and were understood to have explained that the Indian government can enforce the law of the land to seek Facebook's accountability for its operations in the country.
It was learnt that members of the parliamentary panel headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur were of the view that a Facebook representative's appearance could be sought before the committee to record the evidence and explanation on citizens' data security and breach of privacy. It has been alleged that 87 million Facebook users’ data was leaked to Cambridge Analytica worldwide, which mined the data to assist political and other clients.
A whistleblower, Christopher Wylie, had earlier revealed that the Indian arm of the data consultancy firm had carried out activities in India, and in association with the SCL Group (Cambridge Analytica's parent company), collated a database of over 600 districts and seven lakh villages.
The details released by Wylie further said the group worked for Assembly elections in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh besides the 2009 Lok Sabha elections as well.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal had triggered a massive political storm in the country, with allegations flying thick and fast over the penetration of data consultancy firms and whether these services were used to influence election outcomes by Indian political parties.
Facebook collects information and content provided by the users and also about the people, pages, accounts, hashtags and groups that a user is connected to. The social media platform also collects contact information that users choose to upload, sync or import from a device, such as an address book or call log or SMS log history.
Following the controversy, the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In) had issued an advisory on safeguarding personally identifiable information on social networking sites.
It had said the users should not share official data or personal secrets on social media messaging platforms and never share details like voter preferences, PIN, passwords, credit card details, banking details, passport details, Aadhaar card details, and other information meant for personal safety and security.
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