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India partner ending links with Cambridge Analytica

  •   Fri, Mar 23 2018 09:18:21 AM

New Delhi, Mar 23 (DHNS): Ovleno Business Intelligence (OBI), the India partner of Cambridge Analytica (CA), on Thursday said it is "looking to end" its association with the global company, which is at the centre of allegations of misusing user data for campaigns.

The OBI, which is owned by senior JD(U) leader K C Tyagi's son Amrish, found itself in the media glare following its association with CA and reports of it working for BJP, Congress and JD(U) in different elections. The association has also put the focus on Tyagi.

In a statement, the OBI said it was not denying its association with Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL), the parent company of CA, or CA itself.

It said OBI was a ground research company closely working with various media houses and did not undertake any project with CA related to social media, especially Facebook.

"We are equally shocked and surprised to see the data breach controversy and we are also looking to end our association with them," the OBI vice president Himanshi Sharma said.

"We again want to clarify that neither the whistleblower nor Facebook has confirmed that there is any kind of data breach in India," he said. Sharma's LinkedIn profile claimed that OBI handled BJP's four election campaigns.

The company had claimed that its clients included BJP, Congress, JD (U), ICICI Bank, and Airtel. SCL and OBI had joined hands to form SCL India. However, OBI's website has been taken down now and it could not be accessed.

Amid reports that JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar has sought an explanation from him, Tyagi, the party general secretary, told reporters that JD(U) has no connection with the CA.

"Neither JD (U) nor my son has got any kind of help from Cambridge Analytica. In any case, JD(U) is a socialist outfit and we stay away from such things, except for maybe Prashant Kishoreji helping us during the last Assembly polls," he said.

"There was only a work relation between my son Amrish's company and Cambridge Analytics. There is no financial transaction or shareholding - everything is open to probe. JD(U) also has no links with this, neither did they promote us in 2010 polls," he said.

Tyagi also asked Union Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad to initiate an inquiry into the allegations against Cambridge Analytica.
  

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Comment on this article

  • SMR, Karkala

    Fri, Mar 23 2018

    Cambridge Analytica’s Indian arm, Ovleno Business Intelligence, had helped BJP in not just 2014 elections but also in four key assembly polls.

    Ovleno Business Intelligence was founded by Amrish Tyagi, the son of former JDU Rajya Sabha MP KC Tyagi. Tyagi junior’s partner in another offshoot Indian firm of the CA, Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL) Pvt Ltd, was Avneesh Rai.

    Rai has now sensationally revealed how the CA Chief Executive Alexander Nix had plotted to defeat the Congress in 2014 by deceiving his Indian partners including Rai.

    The data gathering was at its advanced stage Rai and his Indian partners kept meeting representatives from abroad. He said one of those international representatives was a lady of Indian origin, who may have been either a British or US citizen.

    It was her comments that first raised his suspicion on Nix’s real motive. The Indian lady with foreign citizenship had introduced her as a having represented a mystery client. It implied that Nix had already secured a client but he chose to keep his Indian associates in the dark. Rai told NDTV that when he and his team questioned the woman, she confessed, “we are here to defeat the Congress.”

    This was the first time Rai realised that he and his team had been taken for a ride by Nix and his colelagues. When he reportedly questioned Nix about it, he allegedly said, “I am here to make money.”

    The stunning revelations by Rai will cause plenty of headache to the BJP, which was taking a moral high ground only a couple of days ago on stealing citizens’ data for electoral successes.

    Jai Hind

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  • SMR, Karkala

    Fri, Mar 23 2018

    A senior executive working for the Indian arm of the Cambridge Analytica claims on his LinkedIn profile how his firm had helped the BJP secure 272+ seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Himanshu Sharma, Vice President with Ovleno Business Intelligence, the Indian arm of Cambridge Analytica, claims on his Linkedin page, “Managed four election campaigns successfully for the ruling party BJP. Achieved target of Mission 272+ by managing call centre management project-profiling of each and every volunteer/supporter who had extended his/her support to get involved…Database to be provided constituency wise to BJP candidate as an additional support for national elections and state elections of Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi.” Barring Delhi, the BJP had won assembly elections in all three states.

    The Cambridge Analytica website also claims that it was hired for the Bihar assembly elections in 2010, when the BJP and JDU fought together. The website then states that ‘90% seats targeted by Cambridge Analytica being won.’ The BJP-JDU combine were the winners in the 2010 elections raising questions if the saffron party had hired a company which operates in stealing an individual’s personal data from social media platform.
    In a video link to Channel 4 documentary, where CA chief Alexander Nix had confessed to adopting illegal means including supplying prostitutes to secure his clients’ victories in elections.

    KC Tyagi is a former Rajya Sabha member with the JDU, the BJP’s alliance partner in Bihar.
    BJP has lot to answer on Cambridge Analytica scandal? Facebook has compromised nearly 2 Billion private data of users which include the personal data, banking information, personal interest and so on.
    This is the reason PM Modi has special interest meeting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and joint conference in US. The involvement of public relation company has compromised the India's democratic process.
    Jai Hind

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  • Vincent Rodrigues, Bengaluru/Katapadi

    Fri, Mar 23 2018

    Detailed investigation in the matter may vindicate the truth in this confusion

    DisAgree Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse

  • Narain, Mangaluru

    Fri, Mar 23 2018

    Great

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  • Unknown, Mangalore

    Fri, Mar 23 2018

    If this is true all who are involved in this should be prosecuted to the full extend of the law and the election commission should ban and fine all the political party and its members should be banned for life time to have associated with this kind of mind altering tatic used on our peole

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