Data leak crises: Facebook suffers drop of stocks
San Francisco: The world's largest social media company Facebook suffered the biggest one-day drop of its stocks by seven per cent on Wall Street on Monday in four years following reported data leakage of its 50 million users for alleged political purposes.
The Facebook loss came after US and British media reported that the data of more than 50 million Facebook users were inappropriately used by a British data analysis company, Cambridge Analytica, in activities allegedly connected with US President Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign.
Trump's campaign reportedly used the firm's data during the primaries but not during the general election and Federal Election Commission numbers showed the firm collected $5.9 million in 2016 from Trump's campaign, Xinhua cited California-based The Mercury News daily as saying.
Cambridge Analytica received user data from a Facebook app years ago that purported to be a psychological research tool, though the firm was not authorised to have that information.
Facebook admitted that an estimated 270,000 people had downloaded the app and shared their personal details with it.
Last Friday, Facebook said in an official post that it had suspended "Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), including their political data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica," from its website.
It said the two companies had failed to delete user data acquired in 2015 in violation of Facebook rules.
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Explosion near CRPF School in Delhi caused by lit cigarette butts: Report
New Delhi: The investigation team that probed the explosion that took place outside the CRPF School in the Prashant Vihar area of the city on October 20 morning has reportedly not found any terror force behind the blast.
The investigation team, consisting of Delhi Police and staff members from central agencies, has stated in its report that cigarette butts thrown by a local resident might have come in contact with industrial waste and have caused the explosion. Circumstantial evidence does not show the incident to have a terror angle to it, reports The Indian Express.
The Delhi Police, the city bomb squad and the fire brigade had rushed to the spot following the explosion, which was initially believed to have been caused by a crude bomb. The forensic experts who inspected the spot hinted at the presence of potassium chlorate, hydrogen peroxide and some electrical wires there. The school wall had been damaged and the windows of a car nearby had shattered in the explosion.
The investigation team scanned the CCTV camera footage and zeroed in on around 10 people questioned. A senior police officer said that a North Delhi-based businessman from Prashant Vihar was found to be present at the spot around five minutes before the explosion, as he had come there on Sunday morning to walk his dog. The CCTV footage showed him smoking and, after questioning him, the team concluded that he had left lit cigarette butts before leaving the spot, the officer added.
The spot where the explosion took place is learned to have been usually used for dumping garbage and also has a public urinal.
An officer has said that the Delhi Police had consulted forensic and technical experts of the National Security Guard regarding the things found on the explosion site but are yet to get the report. The officer added that they have found no detonator so far.
