Editorial: Data privacy, a public issue

In the backdrop of the raging controversy in India, pertaining to the alleged use of the spying software Pegasus by the government to keep a check on politicians and members of the media, a whole new can of worms has been opened up as cyber-sleuths have confirmed to the Supreme Court that evidence of the malicious software was found in the devices of the petitioners. The flash-bang of the Pegasus fiasco seems to be a perfect foil for an innocuous little observance held last week — Data Privacy Day, which is marked on January 28 every year.

The present scenario demands that we deliberate upon questions concerning the ethical use of an individual’s personal data and best practises of data privacy and protection. While most of us tend to shrug off the notion of data privacy, as something to help us fend off businesses keen on selling us their wares, the idea of data protection is a rabbit hole, with many challenges that need to be tackled on a day to day basis.

One of the most fundamental concerns involves the misuse of data that we post online. The importance of this cannot be overstated in today’s heightened political milieu where there is an infodemic brewing every day. A few weeks ago, we witnessed a disgraceful episode where prominent women personalities from the minority community, had been put on auction on an app. While the police’s response to the Bulli Bai scandal was laudable, the manner in which the investigation in the preceding app, Sulli Deals, had lagged on, shows an innate rot within the system when it comes to dealing with crimes of such nature.

There are polarising arguments from within the internet community, with regard to the placing of accountability for one’s actions on the Internet. Several social media sites have now made it mandatory that posting a comment will require users to be identified either by a username or an email ID, which can be traced back. It’s an encouraging stance adopted by these firms, and a move, which may not fully stop the nameless trolls, but could curb them to an extent.

A different argument is playing out in Europe, one of the regions where data privacy and protection is afforded utmost importance. Last week, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice ruled that Facebook was wrong in suspending the accounts of two of its German users who had not used their legal names to post content on the site. As per policy experts, when working under the shadow of authoritarian regimes, activists, writers and researchers are often known to pen articles under a pseudonym to protect themselves, their work and their kin.

Even in liberal democracies, vulnerable members of the public, such as victims of abuse, addiction or younger individuals who identify as LGBTQIA, might require the cloak of anonymity to protect their interests and not expose themselves to miscreants. Just to jog the memory, does anyone know what became of all that data collected from citizens to feed the backend of the Aarogya Setu, India’s contact tracing app? Its functionality barely lasted a month or two since the pandemic first began, and now it’s stuck in limbo.

India is also among those nations that still does not have a law that can protect the data of citizens. However, the Joint Parliamentary Committee had recently presented its recommendations on the Personal Data Protection Bill, a move which was seen by many stakeholders as a necessary start to the conversation around citizens’ digital rights. The challenges pertaining to data privacy and data protection must be viewed in the context of the burgeoning population of internet-savvy users in India. The IAMAI-Kantar Cube report says the number of active internet users in the nation is likely to surge nearly 45 percent to 900 mn by 2025 in contrast to the 622 mn users as of 2020. And as we get closer to hitting that 1 bn mark of internet users, the challenges with respect to privacy and safeguarding of data will only grow denser.