5.6 lakh IndianFB users hit by data breach after they installed quiz app “this is your digital life”
New Delhi: Private data of over 5.6 lakh Indian Facebook users was compromised by a private marketing firm that later sold the personal details acquired through a quiz app to Cambridge Analytica, a UK-based company at the centre of a global privacy breach storm.
The social media giant informed the Indian government on Thursday about the details of compromised accounts in response to a notice over the user data breach and details of the steps Facebook was taking to ensure safety and prevent misuse of personal data.
A Facebook spokesperson, sharing the response with IANS, said a possible breach of data of 562,455 users happened after 335 Facebook users in India installed a quiz app, "thisisyourdigitallife" between November 2013 and December 2015.
The app, developed by University of Cambridge psychology researcher Aleksandr Kogan and his company Global Science Research, pulled out data of not only these 335 users but their friends as well as friends of friends also.
Some 335 people in India were said to have installed the app, which is 0.1 per cent of its total worldwide installs. But this information is limited to people who installed the app throughout its lifetime on the Facebook platform -- from 2013 to December 2015 -- when it was suspended from the platform.
The social media giant, however, did not reveal the identity or locations of these 335 users.
From Monday, Facebook will inform all 562,455 users that their account privacy had been breached through a link at the top of their news feed so they can see what apps they use and the information they have shared with those apps.
Facebook also doesn't know how Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research used the data of Indian users because the firms are not its downstream affiliates and may have made independent decisions regarding the data they obtained. This, Facebook said, was "not authorize(d) and breached our policies".
Ankush Johar, Director at Infosec Ventures -- security solutions firm – said, "The quiz app 'thisisyourdigitallife' is not the only application that had hidden data-scraping functionalities and many other apps were exploiting these so-called 'features' provided by Facebook which the company confirmed itself.
"If as small as 350 users in a single app can lead to leakage of over 5 lakh users, the true number can be exponentially bigger than this," Johar added.
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65 IIT students died by suicide in five years
Mumbai: The suicide of a student at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur reported on Tuesday has once again drawn attention to mental health concerns on India’s premier technical education campuses.
Data from the last five years shows that an average of 12 to 13 students die by suicide every year across the IITs.
According to data compiled by the Global IIT Alumni Support Group, at least 65 students died by suicide at IITs between January 2021 and December 2025. Nearly 30 such cases were reported in the last two years.
Students pursuing undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes are among those who died. Authorities have often attributed the deaths to personal issues or academic pressure.
However, student unions and alumni associations argue that such explanations overlook deeper structural issues. They point to rigid evaluation systems, intense competition, social isolation and, in some cases, discrimination based on caste or language as contributing factors.
Faculty members, speaking privately, have acknowledged that early warning signs are frequently missed and that intervention often comes too late.
According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, around 13,000 students across the country died by suicide in 2023, an average of 36 deaths every day.
IIT Kanpur alone accounts for nearly 30 per cent of the total student suicides reported across IIT campuses. The Supreme Court has taken cognisance of the issue and constituted a task force to recommend measures to prevent student suicides and address mental health concerns.
Dheeraj Singh, founder of the Global IIT Alumni Support Group, said there is a need to fix accountability at the highest levels. He said institutional leadership must be held directly responsible in cases of student suicides to ensure meaningful reform.
(Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the state’s health helpline 104, Tele-MANAS 14416.)
