Data breach hit 5.62 L users in India: Facebook

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Social media giant Facebook on Thursday admitted that around 5.62 lakh people in India were "potentially affected" by its global data breach involving Cambridge Analytica.

In its response to the Indian government notice on the data breach, the Facebook said that UK-based data mining firm Cambridge Analytica used its data without consent.

"Only 335 people in India were directly affected by the installation of an app and another 562,120 people were potentially affected as friends of those users," Facebook said in its response. Facebook has over 20 crore users in India.

Earlier, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had issued a notice to Facebook and Cambridge Analytica seeking details on the data breach.

A senior official in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said the government will wait for the response from Cambridge Analytica before deciding on the action to be taken. The company response also included details of the change in privacy policies which are being implemented by the company, said the official.

It is learnt that Cambridge Analytica sought more time to reply to the government notice.

"Cambridge Analytica's acquisition of Facebook data through the app developed by Dr Aleksandr Kogan and his company Global Science Research Ltd (GSR) happened without our authorisation and was an explicit violation of our Platform policies," a Facebook spokesperson said.