As the world's largest consumer of mobile data, Indians are increasingly leaving their digital footprint on the web. With more and more people logging themselves in the online network, it has become easier for organization/individuals to steal our personal information, financial data, Aadhar, and PAN details or any other information that we may have registered on the online portal.
Data breach has become a common concept in the country where even the government does not pay heed to the privacy issues prevailing in the system. Recently, the road highways and transport minister, Nitin Gadkari revealed in the Rajya Sabha that the government had given over 85 private companies and 32 government entities, access to the public's vehicle registration numbers and driver license information.
Furthermore, Aadhar-card-related data leaks have now become a norm and every other day there is some news about Aadhar data leakage. Such a loophole in the system wherein the government does not respect a person’s privacy even after recognizing 'Right to Privacy' as a fundamental right leaves the people worrisome about data loss and privacy violation.
According to a report by the Data Security Council of India (DSCI), the second most cyber attacks that happened between 2016 and 2018 worldwide were in India. The current landscape of data privacy in the country calls for a strict and firm data protection law to regulate the use of data which will give the citizens a sense of security and they will no longer have to worry about the unauthorized collection of their information.
However, the majority of the population remains unaware of the consequences of data leakage and goes on about sharing their personal information on any online platform. In fact, according to a survey conducted as many as 7 out of 10 users in India had no problem with sharing their personal information in exchange for a price.
The issues of data privacy prevailing in the Indian ecosystem need to be addressed and the government should come up with a dedicated law for data protection. Moreover, consumers should be made aware of the consequences that can occur due to the irrelevant sharing of personal important data.
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