VK wants to prohibit commercial use of user data

Social network VK has filed a lawsuit against OOO "Dabl" (brand Double Data) and the National Bureau of Credit Histories (NBCH) with the requirement to stop to use open data of its users to assess their creditworthiness and to prohibit the sale of these data. About it reports Kommersant" with reference to the text of the statement of claim.

According to the lawsuit, NBCH offered by credit institutions services based on technologies developed Double Data: they allow to evaluate the creditworthiness of borrowers according to data from VK. According to plaintiff, Double Data extracts from the database of the social network 407 million profiles, names, data about place of work and study, profiles of friends, information on place of birth and region of residence, photos and information about the frequency of page visits and the type of device. However, social network VK or its users did not give permission to retrieve such materials and their commercial use.

Representatives of VK believe that companies violate the exclusive rights of a social network and need to recover from each symbolic compensation in the amount of one ruble.

CEO of Double Data Maxim Ginzhuk said he believes the claims of the VKcompetition method for the reason that Mail.ru Group, which owns the social network, last year invested in a similar project. In addition, Double Data noted that users post information voluntarily and therefore no one can monopolize to use. In NBCH rejected comment the claim.

Previously in July 2016 the company Mail.ru Group together with the credit history Bureau "Equifax Credit services" has developed a model of assessing credit risks for Russian banks. This is the first product for the business of Big Data, which is a holding company launched in January 2016.