The UK-based Cambridge Analytica has been accused of misusing data of millions of Facebook users to profile and influence voting behaviour
Social networking giant on Thursday said over 5.6 lakh people in India were potentially affected by the data breach involving Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook said only 335 people in India installed the personality quiz app 'thisismydigitallife' and a total of 5,62,120 additional people in India were potentially affected by the data breach, as friends of people who installed the app. This is in response to the notice from the Indian government.
"We are investigating the specific number of people whose information was accessed by the app, including those in India. The numbers we have now are that only 335 people in India installed the app, which is 0.1% of the app's total worldwide installs," a Facebook spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
"We further understand that 5,62,120 additional people in India were potentially affected, as friends of people who installed the App. This yields a total of 5,62,455 potentially affected people in India, which is 0.6% of the global number of potentially affected people." Facebook has 200 million users in India.
The UK-based Cambridge Analytica has been accused of misusing data of millions of Facebook users to profile and influence voting behaviour.
Last month, the Ministry of Electronics and IT had issued a notice to Facebook, asking if the personal data of Indian users had been compromised by Cambridge Analytica or any other entities. It had also sought details on whether the data had been used to manipulate the Indian electoral process. Facebook was given time till April 7, 2018, to respond. A similar notice was issued to Cambridge Analytica which sought additional time to respond to the notice.
A senior official from the Ministry of IT and Electronics told DNA Money that the government will wait for a response from Cambridge Analytica before finalising next round of action on this issue.
"Protecting people's information is at the heart of everything we do, and we require the same from people who operate apps on Facebook. Cambridge Analytica's acquisition of Facebook data through the app developed by Dr. Aleksandr Kogan and his company Global Science Research Limited ("GSR") happened without our authorization and was an explicit violation of our platform policies. At no time did Facebook agree to Cambridge Analytica's use of any Facebook user data that may have been collected by this app, including with respect to users located in India," Facebook said.
According to Facebook, globally, data of about 87 million people – majority of whom are in the US -- may have been improperly accessed by Cambridge Analytica.
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