'CBI probe won't hamper plan to make India a data hub'

The CBI probe into Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research in connection with the reported data harvesting of Indians, will not hamper the government's plan to make India a data hub, Ravi Shankar Prasad, IT and law minister, said on Tuesday.

Though the Centre is keen to promote India as a big hub for data analysis, the government will not tolerate any attempt by companies to misuse data to influence the democratic process, he told reporters in New Delhi.

The Minister was reacting to a question on the CBI letter to Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research in connection with the illegal personal data harvesting of Indians from the social networking platform.

Earlier the central probing agency had sought the details from these companies on data collection exercise followed by them.

The minister said though the Facebook has already apologised, promising corrective action in the aftermath of the reported data breach episode, Cambridge Analytica had not sent follow-up responses after its initial reply on the issue. Now the CBI will probe, he said.

Earlier, US-based social networking giant Facebook and British firm Cambridge Analytica faced wrath from users following a data leak scandal which hit about 87 million users.