Would you be comfortable if a group of journalists carrying cameras follow you, day and night? Would you be at ease knowing people are betting on your possible future movements at gambling houses? Or what if you are not the one being spied on but every family member and friend of yours are being tracked just to get insights about you, wouldn’t you consider it as violation of your privacy. Today machines with superhuman capabilities are doing something similar, except at a larger scale. With the exponential rise in digital penetration coupled with our greater dependence on technology brought on by the pandemic, our concerns should be addressed before it is too late.

“Well no one has ever spied on me, so why should I care?” Are you sure? Almost all apps installed on your phone are collecting some sort of data, which might be used to extract a lot of details far from obvious. For instance, while youngsters tend to recharge phones when the battery is extremely low, older adults recharge quite early, making data points like phone battery usage indicative of one’s age. Similarly, the cravings of a pregnant woman differ from the rest due to hormonal changes which even a shopping bill is indicative of. If such intricate details could be analysed from just one data point, imagine the possibilities when all your current apps talked to each other, collaborating and manipulating your decisions based on your own data to serve their business masters. And do not be surprised if it is already happening. Things can get even more dystopian with the internet of things where our TV, fridge, gas stove, CCTV cameras and every other possible thing starts communicating over the cloud and lets companies analyse these data and make decisions for us in the name of efficiency. 

By now most of us have one question, is my data on the internet worth anything? Isn’t it a breach of privacy if someone is analysing our relationship with our parents, overhearing the conversations with our partners, or talking to our children suspiciously by mimicking our behavior? And above all, we do strongly believe there is a reason why the data analytics market in India alone is worth  Rs 17,615 crore annually (FY'18)  growing at a rate of 33.5% CAGR. When your personal data associated with insurance is valued over Rs.7000, imagine the worth of all data you are providing these apps for free.

The Aadhar data leaks, the DU students educational data leak, the medical data leak, the Aarogya setu data leak have gone unscrutinised due to lack of a strong law and often the government has shied from being held liable. If only India had a law in lines of GDPR, things would have been better dealt with. The recent changes in whatsapp’s privacy policy in select countries, the new IT rules affecting OTT and social media platforms, actions against few eminent members of google’s ethical AI team, among others has forced us to rally for your support and muster the courage to request government of India for the following:

1. Passing of Personal Data Protection Bill followed by rigorous public consultation and strengthening
2. Creating a minimum protection framework / guidelines until the passing of the act
3. Ensuring data under the purview of the government adheres to these guidelines and respective departments be held  liable in case of data leaks
4. Establishing multi-stakeholder consultation forum on AI national strategy
5. Establishing a data protection agency
6. Scrutiny in handling of personal data by tech giants and public actors 

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