London-based political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which is at the centre of the Facebook data breach storm has reportedly asked for additional time to respond to the Indian government notice on its involvement in India. The government had issued a show cause notice to the firm last week seeking details on whether Cambridge Analytica had been engaged in any assignment to utilize data of Indians from the reported breach. The firm was given until March 31 to respond. PTI has reported that Cambridge Analytica has now sought an additional time of one week to send its response to the notice. The government questioned Cambridge Analytica on whether it had been "engaged in any assignment to utilise data of Indians" pertaining to the recent breach, and also the entities that had used its services. Details were also sought on the methods used by the company to acquire such data and whether consent was taken from users. An official statement issued last week had said: "Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India, has issued a notice... to Cambridge Analytica, wherein the serious breach of propriety and misuse of data intended to profile and influence voting behaviour has been highlighted". "Was there any profiling done on the basis of such data?," the Ministry had asked the company, following reports that political parties had used the data analytics firm during elections. A similar notice had been sent to Facebook seeking details of whether the personal data of Indian voters and users has been…
