Bengaluru: The Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday said that the government is committed to safeguard confidential and privacy data and would act against any breach by unauthorized usage of data for abusive purpose or to influence elections. The statement comes amid the recent controversy over Cambridge Analytica and Facebook over the data breach issue.

He made this statement while he was addressing the audience at an interactive event “Bengaluru IT Global Hub Road Ahead”, organized under the management of BJP’s Karnataka unit. Mr Prasad also warned that the government will take a strong action against anybody abusing data for collateral purposes.

“The Narendra Modi government is very clear. Any unauthorised use of data without the consent of the owner for abuse and collateral purposes or influencing the elections will not be tolerated. We are very clear about it,” he said.

He said five important points are associated with – with respect to (data) availability, utility, innovation, anonymity and privacy.

“In a particular area if people are getting infected, because of data we can have a good policy for that. But it should be an anonymous data. If innovation is to be done, data availability is important. Let there be privacy in terms of your health condition, your official preferences, relationships which are matrimonial in nature and family matters. But the issue of privacy is overblown by those who talk of Right to Information and also talk of privacy,” he added.

He said government had already issued show cause notices to the companies, viz,. Cambridge Analytica and Facebook on the data breach issue.

Mr Prasad on March 29 informed that the government had given notices to Facebook and Cambridge Analytica on the data breach issue and would very soon decide on the action that needs to be taken after receiving their responses.

The IT Ministry of India had on March 28 issued a notice to Facebook asking it to give a response over the user data breach along with the steps that it has taken to ensure that the data is safe and prevent misuse of personal data.

It inquired about five questions for Facebook, which includes whether personal data of Indian voters and users has been compromised by Cambridge Analytica or any other downstream entity in any manner and issued the networking giant a deadline of April 7 to send a detailed response.

Another similar notice was also sent to Cambridge Analytica over the media reports of about the questionable practices attributed to the UK-based firm in their constant efforts to influence elections by harvesting data of Facebook users.

When a question was posed over the misuse of digital platform, Mr Prasad emphasized that he advocated free media and free speech. “But if anyone abuses social media to encourage extremism,terrorism and communalism, that becomes a matter of concern,” he said.

The minister said that a committee, headed by retired judge Sri Krishna, has been directed to submit a report on data protection law which would come out soon.

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