This Way The Naked Man Lies

Other technologies like GPS—a satellite-based location identification technology increasingly being used for navigation—can pinpoint information about a person’s location and movement anywhere on the globe. If you have GPS in any gadget (almost all new mobile phones have it and news is cars too will soon have it), you can’t hide. And then there’s Google Street View. Though this service which takes random photographs of roads and buildings with a car- or bicycle-mounted camera isn’t in India yet, concerns have been raised globally on the intrusion potential.

As it is, existing technologies have already established how privacy can be compromised. The use of Wi-Fi, for one, can make personal data—including crucial information like passwords, bank account details—vulnerable as few users encrypt their accounts. Today, Wi-Fi “sniffers” abound, and it’s easy to sneak into someone’s PC and steal critical information. Recently, Google was in the eye of a storm after picking up Wi-Fi conversations over unsecured private lines while filming for Street View.

Public databases pose another challenge. While ‘leaks’ of personal particulars from credit card firms, mobile service providers and banks are rampant, what can make the situation worse is the Aadhaar project, which is to give us all our unique ID numbers. With Aadhaar set to digitise personal particulars, including people’s biometric records, it will be a goldmine for marketers who, smelling blood, will be on the prowl. Another database, maintained by the Credit Information Bureau of India, which has all details of credit facilities availed and payment records, could seriously compromise individual privacy if it lands up in the public domain. And we know, more often than not, so-called “impregnable” databases do land up in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, the law hasn’t caught up yet. “The IT Act’s loosely defined privacy requirements worsen the issue; service providers don’t have adequate controls in place to protect personal identifiable information like name, address and PAN numbers while processing transactions or storing information on their databases,” says Mritunjay Kapur, Country MD, Protiviti Consulting.

The failure of the ‘Do Not Call’ registry has clearly shown that government thinking on consumer database protection is far from adequate. With newer technologies coming in, things will get worse —even lurid. Technologies brought in by security agencies have faced flak of late. There was a huge outcry when body scanners were introduced at London’s Heathrow airport. As India prepares to introduce these scanners, expect more fireworks in the privacy debate.