Data on more than 87 million Facebook users was reportedly shared with UK based analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, much more than the 50 million previously estimated.
Data on more than 87 million Facebook users was reportedly shared with UK based analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, much more than the 50 million previously estimated.
The company also mentioned that the data of approximately 562,455 subscribers in India may have been shared with Cambridge Analytica. It is believed that there are only 335 Indian Facebook users who are responsible for it.
In conversation with The Print, a Facebook India spokesperson stated that a quiz app named ‘thisisyourdigitallife’ was installed by 335 Facebook users living in India between November 2013 and December 2015. This app reportedly poached data of these users, and data of their friends and friends, which resulted in scrapping data of almost 5,62,120 users in India.
Facebook eventually suspended the app from its platform in December 2015. At the moment, Facebook has not unveiled the names of the 335 users in India. The report points out that this app was pushed on to Facebook users by a company called Global Science Research, run by Dr Aleksandr Kogan, a psychology researcher at the University of Cambridge.
The government has issued a notice to social networking giant Facebook, seeking its response over the user data breach and details of the measures it has put in place to ensure safety and prevent misuse of personal data.
The Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity) said that a notice seeking details relating to breach of data from Facebook had been sent to Cambridge Analytica particularly with regard to reports in the media about questionable practices attributed to the UK-based firm in their efforts to influence elections.
The ministry has asked social media major to submit a reply whether the company or its related or downstream agencies utilizing Facebook's data have previously been engaged by any entities "to manipulate the Indian electoral process".
The letter sent to Facebook said that at present, it has largest footprint in India in terms of its user base and sought its reply on proactive measures being taken by the company to ensure safety, security and privacy of such large user data and to prevent its misuse by any third party. "Facebook has been called upon to give their response by April 7, 2018," the statement said.
Other major countries affected by this breach include The United States (70,632,350), Philippines, (1,175,870), Indonesia (1,096,666), United Kingdom (1,079,031) and Mexico (789,880). The social media giant was recently slammed over a major data breach scandal by Cambridge Analytica, a British firm linked to Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
The company is now making changes to protect the user's personal information. Following these changes, the Facebook will no longer allow the developers to access the users' lists or their wall posts of an event scheduled on the platform. In case the developers wish to access the data regarding an event posted on the Facebook, they will first need to get the permission from group's administrator.
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