QMBD Assignment

Bumble Saga – Privacy

Breached On Campus

Submitted By :
Avra Biswas(UM22333)
Mousumi Nandi
(UM22221)
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF INCIDENT
A journalism professor at O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) exhibited some female students' dating
profiles from the Bumble app during a lecture without their consent. This led to outrage on social media and
complaints from students to the university administration. The professor was giving a lecture on digital
safety and privacy issues. To illustrate his talk, he created a fake Bumble profile and used students' publicly
available photos for his presentation without consent. He exhibited these fake profiles containing students'
photos in front of the entire class as hypothetical examples. Several students filed complaints about breach
of privacy and misuse of personal data by the professor. JGU has set up a committee to investigate the
incident and has sent the professor on leave pending inquiry. Local police have booked the professor under
various sections of the IT Act and Indian Penal Code related to violation of privacy, women's rights,
insulting modesty of women etc. The incident highlights concerns over ethics in journalism education,
gender rights, and data privacy.

BUSINESS IMPACT ON JINDAL GLOBAL UNIVERSITY- QUANTITATIVE

 Reputational damage: The university could be seen as a less desirable place to attend, which could lead to
a decline in enrollment.
 Legal costs: The university may face legal costs associated with the investigation and any potential lawsuits.
 Loss of donations: Alumni and other donors may be less likely to donate to the university if they are upset
about the incident.
 Employee morale: Faculty and staff may be demoralized by the incident, which could lead to decreased
productivity and higher turnover. On a scale of 1 to 10, employee morale could take a serious hit and
decrease by at least 5 points due to this incident as per reports on emotional quantification of such incidents.

It is also possible that the incident could have some positive impacts on the university's business. For
example, the university could receive more media attention, which could lead to increased brand awareness.
Additionally, the university could use this incident as an opportunity to improve its policies and procedures
for handling sensitive student data.

BUSINESS IMPACT ON BUMBLE- QUANTITATIVE

Additionally, the incident can affect the dating app, Bumble’s business in a number of ways in India as well:

 Effect on Bumble's user growth, engagement, and retention rates: If the incident receives
widespread media coverage, it could negatively impact people's perception of safety and privacy on
Bumble, making them less likely to use or continue using the platform. This could slow Bumble's
user and revenue growth.

 Impact on marketing and brand reputation: The incident could hurt Bumble's brand image as a
platform focused on women's empowerment and safety. Quantifying the brand and reputational
impact would require surveying consumer perceptions and sentiment.

 Legal and regulatory risks: Bumble may face questions around its policies, procedures, and
protections for user data/privacy. Fines, settlements, or stricter regulations imposed could have a
financial impact.
 Comparisons to competitors: How Bumble's metrics like user growth, engagement, etc. trend
relative to competing dating platforms after the incident could quantify if it's particularly damaging
for Bumble.