Indonesia Gives Facebook One Week Ultimatum To Respond To The Data Abuse Allegation

In the wake of the Facebook scandal, Facebook reported that over one million Facebook users in Indonesia might have had their data harvested by the British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica. Following this report, the Indonesia government has given Facebook Inc. a week to provide answers about the data misuse.

About 115 million Indonesians use the social network, and during the revelations, Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that 1, 096, 666 users’ data may have been shared without authorisation. Although a Facebook official apologised to the members of parliament in Indonesia, the country’s communication ministry has requested for documents on any misuse of data.

The Communication ministry released a statement that it sent a letter to Facebook Inc. headquarters in Ireland asking for details on the data sharing. It wants to know if Facebook had shared users’ information with third-party companies such as Aggregate IQ and CubeYou, both of which were linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Facebook responded AggregateIQ, the Canadian political consulting firm after its suspected abuse of users’ private information. The CNBC also reported that Facebook suspended CubeYou for a similar offense. It’s currently investigating the firm to determine the medium through which it obtained information from the quizzes.

The communication ministry is also carrying out an audit to determine how the social network was able to share their data and said that Facebook had only seven days to come up with proper responses.

Facebook Inc. had been entangled in a scandal and is currently facing investigations in other countries such as the United States, Australia, and the Philippines. The CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, last week sailed through sessions of questioning by the US lawmakers and regulators and walked away unscathed.

In a statement this week, the social network said:

“We committed to improving the way we protect people’s information, and to providing a safe and secure experience for the more than 115 million Indonesians on Facebook…We are working hard to prevent abuse and give people more prominent privacy controls.”

Although Facebook is yet to provide a comment after the ultimatum was issued, it had promised earlier this week to update the Indonesians, their authorities and the media on its movements.