CBI files case against UK-based firms for alleged illegal use of Facebook users’ data

January 22, 2021

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a case against two United Kingdom-based firms on allegations of the illegal and non-consensual use of data of Facebook users. M/S Global Science Research Limited (GSRL) UK represented by Aleksandr Kogan and M/S Cambridge Analytica, UK represented by Alexander Nix have been accused of criminal conspiracy, dishonestly receiving digital info, failure to protect data and negligence in maintaining reasonable security practices under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology (IT) Act.
Collected data included likes and comments on Facebook, contents of private messages and demographic information; which was possibly used to influence elections in India.
A preliminary enquiry was conducted based on a complaint filed by Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology in July 2018, which had claimed the illegal harvest of personal data.
The enquiry revealed that an app ‘thisisyourdigitallife’ was created, which was authorized to collect specific data of its users on Facebook as per their platform policy. It was claimed that the app illegally harvested additional data of Facebook users and their friends.
It was also alleged that 335 Indians had installed the app and data of over 5.62 lakh Facebook friends of these users was harvested by the app without their consent.

The complaint claims that GSRL entered into a conspiracy with Cambridge Analytica in 2014 and gave rights to use this illegally harvested data for commercial purposes.
Upon enquiring from 6 of 335 users who had installed ‘thisisyourdigitallife’ app in India, the CBI found that they were unaware of their data being collected and were misled by the app. Further probe in the case is underway.