Almost\nall countries, today, are gearing up to deal with a range of issues posed by\nincreasing digitisation in all spheres of public and private lives. The\ndelicate line that threads and, at the same time, keeps apart the public and\nthe private, is increasingly under threat. While we cannot afford to lose out\non the immense benefits of what is being called the fourth industrial\nrevolution and hence, must try to enable the requisite informational\nenvironment, we cannot, at the same time, allow commercial interests to\ncompletely supersede individual autonomy and dignity. What makes the situation\neven more precarious in India is the fact of its widespread illiteracy,\nespecially of the digital kind, which makes a major section of the population\nvulnerable not only to arbitrary acts of digital violation, but also to\npotential systematic deception by entities, both private and public. The\nsecurity of data, then, becomes a concern for both the government, which has to\ndeal with the security of the nation state and hence must protect sensitive\ndata from breach, and for the citizenry who must guard zealously against both private\nand state intrusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A\nhost of events in recent years have opened our eyes to the gamut and potential\nof privacy breaches that technology has enabled. While the revelation of\nwidespread government surveillance led to great hue and cry in the US, the\nWikiLeaks, at the same time, also presented a whole new dimension of citizen\nempowerment against the
\nall-powerful state. More recently, the revelation that Facebook had struck a\ndeal with Cambridge Analytica to allow the latter to harvest information from\nFacebook profiles without the consent of users, fuelled a good deal of\nindignation amongst people and governments against the clear and present danger\nof corporate surveillance. There is a scramble now on part of nations to\ninstitute data protection laws. The European Union\u2019s General Data Protection\nRules (GDPR) enshrine an attempt to curtail the unbridled powers that\ninformation-based companies have come to wield today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Closer\nhome, we have our own share of misgivings about endeavours that entail a sacrifice\nof individual privacy. The \u2018Aadhaar\u2019 number that the Government of India seeks\nto use to deliver its welfare policies has been considered by many an attempt\nat state surveillance and a means to pander to commercial interests. There is a\nfear that seeding the Aadhaar number and associated biometric information with\nother information will allow 360\u00b0 profiling of persons by the state or other\nentities. While the Supreme Court has struck down Article 57 of the Aadhaar\nAct, thus disallowing private companies to leverage the Aadhaar database for\ncommercial purposes, the possibility of state abuse still remains. It is for\nthe government to assuage these legitimate fears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\ngovernment, on its part, is trying to modify the regulatory landscape in\nkeeping with changing needs. The government has set up a Computer Emergency\nResponse Team, CERT-In, to provide early warning with regard to security\nbreach. The government and the RBI have taken various measures for the\nprotection of financial data from hacking. Extant laws like the Information Act\n2000 and the Act on Credit Information have served the nascent digital\nenvironment for some time now. The Information Act, for example, seeks to\nprotect sensitive personal data like passwords, financial and banking information\netc. There is, however, a need to ensure more stringent and elaborate\nprotection of private information. The Personal Data Protection Bill, drafted\nby the Srikrishna Committee, has proposed a slew of measures to protect\npersonal and sensitive personal data. It expands the notion of personal data by\ndefining it as any information that renders the individual identifiable.\nCrucially, the Bill seeks to put the individual in the centre of the entire\nnarrative by assigning him ownership over his data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the Bill relies almost exclusively on the\nidea of informed consent as the guarantor of individual autonomy in the\ncyberspace. While the idea of informed online consent is engendered in almost\nall data protection laws, including the EU GDPR, its value in the Indian\ncontext must be judged in the light of the widespread lack of both general and\ndigital literacy. But, in the absence of a better alternative, the idea of\ninformed online consent, no matter how preliminary a bulwark against intrusion,\ncan still make it difficult for companies to grossly violate norms of\nindividual privacy. Moreover, with great strides in Artificial Intelligence\nenabling easy translation into local languages, the issue of not knowing the\nEnglish language may no longer be a problem for tendering one\u2019s consent online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nBill, however, leaves room for the government to collect data for purposes of\nnational security. Read in conjunction with the recommendation to amend Section\n8.1.j of the Right to Information Act, 2005 which allows for non-disclosure of\ninformation for a greater public good, it creates the fear of rampant abuse on\nthe pretext of privacy to stifle the power of the RTI. So, it is pertinent that\nthe civil society bring to bear enough pressure on the government to ensure\nthat the RTI is not compromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nBill also proposes that all companies keep a serving copy of the data amassed\nin the country for ready access by authorities. This is similar to the\ndirectives of the RBI and the Commerce Ministry, through its e-Commerce Bill,\nasking for companies to localise their data. Many companies regard this as a\nprotectionist measure and maintain that such moves stymie the benefits of free\ninformation flow. But it must also be remembered that the national security and\nthe privacy of the citizens of a nation cannot be held to ransom by commercial\ninterests. At the same time, the government must also assuage foreign companies\nthat it has no protectionist designs and that it does not seek to favour local\nfirms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nnarrative that sees privacy and innovation in terms of a trade-off is\nincreasingly being countered. It is now acknowledged that companies that take\ncare of privacy concerns are likely to be better off in the long run as they\nbuild trust amongst a larger consumer base. Where individual privacy concerns\nare left unattended, consumer trust may suffer and the resultant attrition in\nusage can stem the very flow of information. In this regard, it is worth\npointing out that consumers are not so rigid and pedantic as to disallow\ncompanies the use of reasonably required information. Even the Supreme Court,\nwhile delivering the Aadhaar judgment, has acceded to the idea of\nproportionality in the actions of those using personal data, where the extent\nand means of data collection must be in tandem with the requirement and the\nnature of the good. The draft Personal Data Protection Bill also talks of this\nrule of proportionality which must guide the data fiduciary while handling\nsensitive data belonging to the data.gov.in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As mentioned before, the world is now on the cusp of a new revolution wrought by the use of Artificial
Intelligence and allied technology which will alter the very landscape of economies worldwide. It will require countries to take enormous pains to withstand the transition. India, with its tremendous demographic and economic potential, can successfully ride out this wave of change if it adapts quickly to the emerging requirements of the day. It will have to evolve a new set of rules that allow it to tap into the potential of this new revolution to address its own economic problems and at the same time, to stand tall against all related perils that wash ashore and threaten the very liberal values that form the nation. Individuals must also adapt to this changing environment and take care to ensure that their digital footprint is as secure as possible. Measures like air-gapping, which seek to separate personal data from the cyberspace, can be taken up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Almost all countries, today, are gearing up to deal with a range of issues posed by increasing digitisation in all spheres of public and private lives. The delicate line that threads and, at the same time, keeps apart the public and the private, is increasingly under threat. While we cannot afford to lose out on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":597,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions\/597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}