If you've EVER stayed in a hotel in #Hyderabad, the Telangana cops @TelanganaCOPS sent your details and that of who you stayed with to an American crypto firm that never took your informed consent for this. (Hat tip to @DigitalDutta for shining a light on this illegal atrocity.) 1/n
#Data #Fraud #DataTheft #Privacy #India

First, the post from @digitaldutta 2/n
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So who is this crypto firm Zebichain? Turns out it's a near-defunct crypto company based in California, founded by 2 Bay Area gents @BabuMunagala and Pruthvi Rao @PointsOfFew . Munagala apparently spent 18 years at @Oracle and then started doing some #crypto stuff linkedin.com 3/n
#Data #Fraud #DataTheft #Privacy #India

His partner Pruthvi Rao @PointsOfFew worked for @Citi for 8 years across cities and then linked up with Munagala - both seem to be currently in the Bay Area. linkedin.com 4/n
#Data #Fraud #DataTheft #Privacy #India

This gent @BabuMunaagala claimed in a 2018 interview that loads of people were voluntarily sharing this information from 200 hotels in India. I have stayed dozens of times in #hyderabad hotels in these 6 years and I have NEVER been asked for consent to share my name and details with Zebichain or anybody else.
Unscientific survey - I asked 5 friends who visit and stay at hotels in the city often - and they all had never heard of their data being harvested thus. I have never heard of or had a Zebi ID - and neither had anyone else.
So how did this firm do a deal with the @TelanganaCops to illegally steal this data? 5/n
#Data #Fraud #DataTheft #Privacy #India

That's not all the data that's moved to the US - apparently all of Andhra Pradesh land records are already with him as well, per his claim 6/n - source: entrepreneur.com
#Data #Fraud #DataTheft #Privacy #India

Meanwhile the US company has an 'affiliate' in India called Zebi Data India @ZebidataIndia which is based in Gannavaram, Vijayawada. For a company with little apparent activity, there's a paid up capital of nearly Rs. 3 crores 7/n cleartax.in
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The Directors in this Indian company again appear to be the very same @PointsOfFew with a co-director Sudheer Kuppam @SudheerKuppam another US NRI who's also a Director in a couple of funds 8/n linkedin.com
#Data #Fraud #DataTheft #Privacy #India

Zebi USA in their white paper claim that they have a large contract with an Indian state - which I deduce to be Andhra Pradesh - for managing land records. How this data can leave government hands, or even India - I do not know 9/n
#Data #Fraud #DataTheft #Privacy #India

But imagine that - there are over 1,100 hotels in #Hyderabad - and assuming an average of 25 rooms across each, and an average occupancy of 75%, with an average of 1.5 people per room - that indicates that up to 1 crore names of hotel residents a year have been sent illegally EVERY YEAR to the US by the @TelanganaCOPs 10/n
#Data #Fraud #DataTheft #Privacy #India

Who authorised this? What is this firm doing with this data? Apparently @BabuMunagala left in 2019 so it's all @PointsOfFew and @SudheerKuppam now - but how did they get their hands on this precious feed of data. Do they intend to use the data for blackmail? For surveillance? For some kind of marketing?
I want to know. I'm sure the nation wants to know, as well. n/n
#Data #Fraud #DataTheft #Privacy #India