Krafton Faces Allegations of Sale of User Data

BGMI developer Krafton India Pvt. Ltd. faces allegations of data breaches and unauthorised sale of user information, raising data concerns yet again. An individual has lodged an FIR accusing Krafton and its executives of indulging in the sale of user data, i.e., his personal information, through Telegram. The charges included criminal conspiracy, cheating and violations under Sections 72, 72A and 85 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, which deal with the penalty for breach of privacy, lawful contract and a company’s liability in such instances.  While the investigations are ongoing, Krafton has filed two writ petitions in the Bombay High Court to stop them. The hearing is scheduled for July.

BGMI, i.e., Battlegrounds Mobile India, has replaced PUBG, which was banned in 2020 and has over 100 million users in India. On July 28th, 2022, the app was removed from Alphabet Inc.’s Google Play Store and Apple Store following a government order citing security concerns. It made a comeback after nine months with a three-month trial approval of the game that was agreed upon after it complied with issues of server locations and data security. In March last year, the government was again mulling a ban based on an intelligence report that highlighted violations posing cyber threats involving the collection of user data for profiling, with the intention of carrying out targeted cyberattacks on Indian users.