The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has started a preliminary inquiry against Cambridge Analytica, which has been suspected of harvesting and breaching the data of millions of Indians without their consent, reports Mint. The CBI will try to find out whether Cambridge Analytica, via Facebook, received data from Global Science Research, another UK based data analysis company, illegally and if it was harvested and misused. GSR had created an app to be used on Facebook which would harvest data which was then provided to Cambridge Analytica. Earlier this year, Facebook told the Indian government that about 562,455 Indians may have been "potentially affected" in the Cambridge Analytica case. The Trump-linked firm had then said that they have no Facebook data on India's 200 million Facebook users. In a reply to a Lok Sabha question (pdf), Minister of Electronics and IT, RS Prasad said that in a second notice, Facebook informed the government that Cambridge Analytica had violated Facebook’s policy. "Cambridge Analytica have not responded to the second notice. Since the reply given by Cambridge Analytica was not adequately convincing, and that there was divergence in the replies given by Facebook & Cambridge Analytica, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been asked to investigate this matter with regard to possible misuse by Cambridge Analytica." said the minister. The India government has served notices to both Cambridge Analytica and Facebook after the social media giant revealed that Indians may have been exposed to the breach. Facebook has been served three notices by the centre as…
