Heena Sharma Blog

  The CBI has booked UK-based Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research Ltd for illegally harvesting data of Facebook users in India for commercial purposes, officials said on Friday. The action came after a preliminary enquiry into the matter which showed that Global Science Research had created an app "thisisyourdigitallife" which was authorised by Facebook to collect specific datasets of its users for research and academic purposes in 2014, they said. The company then entered into a criminal conspiracy with Cambridge Analytica, allowing it to use the data harvested by it for commercial purposes, the officials said. Facebook had collected certificates from both the firms in 2016-17 that data collected by them using "thisisyourdigitallife" was accounted for and destroyed. However, the CBI enquiry did not find any evidence of any such destruction, according to the officials. Read More

A recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) order holding US-based Cambridge Analytica guilty of “deceptive practices to harvest personal information from tens of millions of Facebook users for voter profiling and targeting” has shed new light on the business of psychological profiling aimed at predicting voter behavior. The Commission’s order spells in great detail the technicalities, business and potential impact of voter-profiling on election results. How did the Cambridge Analytica model work? The now-bankrupt firm’s chief Alexander Nix primarily relied on new research that was done in the University of Cambridge that used Facebook profile information to predict an individual’s personality according to the OCEAN scale. The OCEAN scale is also known as the five big personality traits measure an individual’s personality on five counts - openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Researchers had developed an algorithm that used an individual’s F...

In yet another data breach, Facebook on Wednesday revealed that at least 100 app developers may have accessed Facebook users' data for months, confirming that at least 11 partners "accessed group members' information in the last 60 days". The social networking giant found that the apps -- primarily social media management and video streaming apps -- retained access to group member information, like names and profile pictures in connection with group activity, from the Groups API (application programming interface). "Although we've seen no evidence of abuse, we will ask them to delete any member data they may have retained and we will conduct audits to confirm that it has been deleted," the company said in a statement. "We've removed or restricted a number of our developer APIs, such as the Groups API, which provides an interface between Facebook and apps that can integrate with a group," it added. Facebook is facing scrutiny a...

Justdial , a company that provides local search for different services in India over voice calls and internet, suffered a data breach last week that compromised the personal details of 100 million users, according to independent cyber-security researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia. An Economic Times report on Thursday quoted Rajaharia as saying that the company has not been able to fix the breach. He told ET that the breach did not affect a newer, revamped version of the website. In a Facebook post, the cybersecurity expert claimed that the attack put at risk data of users who called JustDial's customer care number '88888 88888'. Inc42 quoted a senior JustDial executive on Monday as saying that the company is investigating the alledged loopholes in its database and that the company's systems are foolproof. Rajaharia said on Wednesday that user data "including name, email, mobile number, gender, dob, address, photo, company, occupation & other details ar...

With great power comes great responsibility. The quote made popular by the iconic comic series 'Spider-Man' sums up the challenges that social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook are facing in India. They have been accused of being a carrier of hate messages and fake news that incited mob violence. And, now they stare at the prospects of stricter government rules, greater accountability and regulatory scrutiny. These platforms, for some of whom India is the biggest consumer base outside of their home country, can see very much clear the writing on the wall -- follow the rules of engagement if you want to be in the world's fastest growing economy. The year 2018 will go down in history as the one where social networking platforms not only made country-specific changes -- be it labelling forwarded messages, limiting the number of people a user can send a message to at one go and launching public awareness campaign against fake news. They also agreed...

Facebook has reported that they are not aware of any misuse of information Current Affairs News : The CBI has initiated a preliminary enquiry against Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research for alleged illegal personal data harvesting of Indians from Facebook, officials said on Wednesday. It is alleged that Cambridge Analytica received data from Global Science Research which employed "illegal means" of personal data harvesting of Indians using Facebook, they said. After receiving a reference in this regard from the Centre, the CBI has initiated the preliminary enquiry which is normally a first step to decide whether the allegations deserve a full-blown investigation through an FIR or not, they said. Data mining and analysis firm Cambridge Analytica earlier faced allegations that it used personal information harvested from 87 million Facebook accounts to help Donald Trump win the 2016 US presidential election. Article Source >> BS ...