NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday registered a preliminary enquiry against British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research (GSR) for alleged illegal personal data harvesting of Indians from Facebook .

It is alleged Cambridge Analytica received data from GSR, which employed ‘illegal means’ of personal data harvesting of Indians using Facebook, CBI sources said. After receiving a reference in this regard from the ministry of information technology, CBI has initiated the PE, which is normally a first step to decide whether the allegations deserve a full-blown investigation through an FIR or not.

CBI sources say that they will seek information from Facebook, and may even examine officials of these companies during its PE. Cambridge Analytica earlier faced allegations it used personal data harvested from 87 million Facebook accounts to help Donald Trump win the 2016 US presidential election.

