Govt orders CBI probe into Cambridge Analytica scandal

New Delhi, July 26: Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said that Cambridge Analytica data breach case will be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Prasad said in Parliament that Cambridge Analytica has denied to the Indian government that data from Indians was breached, but that contradicted information received from Facebook.

Prasad said a notice also was sent to Facebook in March, and it promised to improve its internal processes regarding hacking of personal data. "They also promised to take various other steps to ensure that such things don't recur," he said.

Cambridge Analytica declared bankruptcy this year following allegations that it used personal information harvested from 87 million Facebook accounts to help Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology says Facebook's largest user base is in India. Digital law experts say Indian regulations provide particularly weak safeguards against data breaches.

The Bharatiya Janata Party had questioned links between the Congress and Cambridge Analytica, alleging that the opposition party was a client of the firm.

However, the Congress had vehemently denied the allegations.