The virtual world’s power over real-world outcomes, especially, in deciding the fate of elections, cannot be overstated. In India, the ugly battle of words played out between the BJP and the Congress over the use of the company’s illegal services strikes at the heart of democracy. Illegally harvesting the data of millions of Facebook users – India currently has the maximum number of users after the US – is akin to, nay, far worse, than cricket match-fixing. In today’s world, as an individual’s online footprint is rapidly expanding, a data breach can create unprecedented chaos that can throw societies and governments into a tizzy. IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has set the ball rolling by promising to take stringent action against any incident of data breach.

Source: dna March 23, 2018 02:37 UTC