The website of the Indian counterpart of the British data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica dubbed Ovleno Business Intelligence (OBI) has been taken down. The website was active till 3 pm on Wednesday, 21 March, after which it was taken down.
OBI is a Ghaziabad-based firm, which claims to have a tie-up with SCL (Strategic Communication Laboratories), the parent company of Cambridge Analytica.
Currently, there is no information as to why the website has been taken down. Rumours suggest that the site was suspended following allegations that Cambridge Analytica had used data from more than 50 million Facebook profiles to aid the 2016 presidential campaign of US President Donald Trump.
According to OBI’s website, it had some of the biggest Indian political parties – the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress and Janata Dal (United) – listed as its clients.
This is what Ovleno Business Intelligence website’s client page looked like before it was taken down:
Yes, the website has been taken down, but the names of the clients (as above) can be clearly seen in the cached pages of site on Google.
This act is a classic case of “wiping the drives clean” and making sure no more fuel can be added to an already ablaze controversy.
Following the website’s takedown, the BJP and Congress officials have been hurling allegations at each other of using the data mined by OBI over the years to aid their own party’s political campaigns.
Apart from client names, the cached data also gives us an insight on the operations that were carried out by the firm. The cached description reads some of the company’s functions as:
“A web integrated application where political leader can manage, update and communicate information and instructions dynamically.”
“It has inbuilt relevant information with reference to assembly, block, panchayat, village, family and politically important individuals.”
The cached data also talks about more information that can be maintained dynamically based on family level information and status, caste-wise voter summary, previous election results and more.
Though, the information in the back-end talks about some of the services offered, here is what the actual website read:
Ovleno is a data mining firm with a primary responsibility to collect data for different firms and help them understand market trends and have a competitive edge over competitors. However, what’s raised controversy is the way the data has been acquired.
Since Ovleno hasn’t been involved in any illegal activities, it raises a question of why the website has been taken down and whether its clients need to be worried about any ramifications.
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