Indian Businessman Accuses Microsoft of ‘Data Piracy’ in Supreme Court Petition

Vinit Goenka's Supreme Court petition alleges that personal information such as phone numbers were shared with third-parties after his company purchased Microsoft software. He seeks a full audit of the company's products.

A businessman has filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India that questions Microsoft’s privacy policy. Vinit Goenka alleges that his sensitive business information was accessed by the company and leased to third-parties.

Goenka says he noticed the issue when he began to recieve unsolicited emails from third parties. He sources a number of reports from Reuters, CNN, Forbes and more to build a profile of historic data abuses.

“It is the assertion of the petitioner that Microsoft has an internal system of spying on the software used by the citizens without their knowledge and permission,” says the petition.

“Inputs from varied sources have also revealed the use of such software with in-built trap-doors and vulnerabilities to capture data, which has a potential to be leveraged for purposes which could be against India’s national interest. Considering the seriousness of the issue, it makes a case for undertaking a thorough multi-disciplinary security audit of software in use, vulnerabilities that would exist, and the potential of damage that would result because of such vulnerabilities.”

Ban of Microsoft Products Sought

According to Goenka, his employees began to receive emails from BMSI, KPMG, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers shortly after purchasing Microsoft software. They were allegedly engaged by Microsoft as third-party reviewers, with access to phone numbers and other sensitive information.

Goenka holds that this is a breach of Indian’s human rights and is calling for a ban on Microsoft products until an investigation concludes. It’s difficult to tell if his claims have credence without seeing the evidence, but the ulterior motive may be sound.

Like others, the businessman believes India doesn’t offer its citizens good enough privacy rights when it comes to non-state actors. In the end, it will be up to the court to decide if he has a claim, and we look forward to further clarification on the issue.