Indian CBI files case against UK’s Cambridge Analytica for illegally harvesting personal data

India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today registered a case against UK-based political consulting company Cambridge Analytica for alleged "illegal harvesting of personal data of 5.62 lakh Facebook users in India."

The CBI also named Global Science Research (GSRL), another firm based out of the UK, in the same case.

It is alleged that Cambridge Analytica received data from Global Science Research which employed "illegal means" of personal data harvesting of Indians using Facebook which has more than 20 crore users in India.

In March 2018, several international media platforms had cited former Cambridge Analytica employees, associates, and documents to state that the company had harvested private information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission.

Facebook had said that the data of around 87 million people – mostly in the United States – might have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

In 2018, The Indian IT ministry had shot off letters to Facebook and Cambridge Analytica seeking clarification on the issue after the data breach came to light.

The CBI had in September 2018 initiated a preliminary inquiry against Cambridge Analytica and Facebook over the allegations.