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EC to review ties with Facebook following Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal
March 23, 2018
The Election Commission of India (ECI) will review its ties with Facebook following data breach allegations, sources revealed.
Now that Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg has apologised to Facebook users for Cambridge Analytica’s access to their data, sources confirmed that an expert panel from social media and legal field will be set by the Election Commission and seek a detail report within two days.
After receiving the report EC will discuss on that.
OP Rawat, Chief Election Commissioner, told the Indian Express that within a week the matter of EC’s partnership with Facebook to encourage enrollment of young voters will be discussion at a Commission meeting. He also said that the EC is concerned over allegations of data being used to influence voters by building psychological profiles of voters.
On March 17, it was discovered that political consultancy Cambridge Analytica had harvested private information of over 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge or consent. The revelation of this scandal also created problems for Facebook as it revealed how easy it is for Facebook to freely hand out personal details of their users.
The data was allegedly obtained using a personality quiz wherein 3,20,000 Facebook users who took the quiz unknowingly granted access to not just their profiles, but also 160(each) of their friends’.
Apologising regarding this, Zuckerberg said “We let the community down and I feel really bad and I’m really sorry about that”. He has also promised that Facebook will inform all the 50 million users about Cambridge Analytica’s usage of their data through an app developed by a researcher.
Meanwhile, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has accused Congress of hiring Cambridge Analytica to win elections. Prasad also said that he can summon Mark Zuckerberg to India if the data breach has been found to compromise Indians as well.
“If Facebook is found to be involved in data breach of Indians, we will take very strict action against them including the summoning of Mark Zuckerberg to India,” Prasad said.
