Data Theft

Yesterday BJP govt alleged that Congress Party had been  in touch with  controversial data firm Cambridge Analytica(CA). BJP spokeperson Ravi Shankar Prasad asked the Congress to explain its link to CA, which is accused of attempting to manipulate polls from the US to Kenya. He also targeted Face Book’s (FB) Mark Zuckerberg and said, that Mark should better note that our govt’s observations on the link between FB and CA, he added that we do not have any problem with FB, but if any data theft of Indians is done through the collusion of FB system , that will not be tolerated. Ravi Shankar further asked Congress what is the role of CA in social media profile of Rahul Gandhi.

Now let us see what is Cambridge Analytica (CA)- this company was formed in 2013, is an offshoot of SCL group, initially its job was to  focus on US elections of 2016 and it received a backing of $15 million from Rovert Mercer, a Republican Party Donor.

CA helps political campaigns to reach potential voters online. CA combines data from multiple sources, including online information and polling to build profiles of voters. Company then uses computer programs to predict voter behaviour, which then could be influenced through specialised ads aimed at the voters.

Facebook made a statement on 16 Mar, that CA received users data from Aleksandr Kogan, who created an app called “thisisyourdigitallife” that offered personality predictions to users while calling itself a research tool for psychologists. The app asked users to log in using their Facebook account, then it asked access to users Facebook profile, locations, what they liked on the service and most important their friends data as well. Facebook spoke person further adds that Kogan then sent this information to CA without users permission, something that is against the social network rules.

As per FB,although Kogan gained access to this info in a legitimate way and through proper channels, Kogan did not subsequently abide by the rule. After this FB removed Kogan’s app from the site.

Now let us see USA elections of 2016- The Trump Campaign hired CA to run data operations during 2016 elections, Steve Bannon , who finally became Trump’s Chief Strategists, was reported was VP of CA. The company CA helped the campaign by identify the voters to target with ads, and gave advice on how best to focus its approach. It also helped in speech writing etc..

Now does this mean Donald Trump won the US election unfairly? This a broader question.

Based on the above info, BJP made allegations against Congress yesterday, implying that Congress  is involving CA in their campaign for 2019 General elections and do the similar process as done in US elections. All these charges are denied by the Congress.

In the mean time Congress has made allegations that BJP has used a company called OBI, who has a link with Cambridge Analytica, for the last 2014 election campaign target 272+.

Now even if Congress has thought of using CA for next general elections, they might be doing at their own risk because US law makers  have urged FB  boss Mark Zulerberg to testify before US Congress, about how he is going to protect the users data. CEO of CA has been suspended, and CA said it would proceed to carry put a full and independent investigations following the reports.

India’s IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad yesterday gave a statement ” Our govt fully  support freedom of speech and expression, we fully support exchange of idea o social media. But any attempt by social media, including FB, of trying to influence our election process through undesirable means will not be tolerated. It need arises , stringent action will be taken.This issue concerns national interest and security, and we will take it very seriously if by collusive methods the data assets of Indians are stolen.”

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), an independent govt body , to protect and ensure that companies abide by their own privacy policy, is looking whether FB violated a 2011 consent decree after media reports allege that it handed data of millions of users to a political party.

Considering the usage of digital media for every use now days, it will be very difficult for any monitoring body to judge , whether data was leaked intentionally for commercial/ monetary benefits.

What you say my friends.

Waiting for your feed backs/comments/reviews.