Loss or misuse of personal data, by ill-intentioned personnel and loss of privacy is something to worry about and care should be exercised when putting such information into or onto any service provider’s, or social platform, portal or institution. The prospect of identity theft or misuse of even more personal information especially relating to medical / health care and insurance and genetics, that is increasingly becoming necessary can be even more devastating especially at the personal level. The trade –off between the benefits or satisfaction of such interactions both at the personal and the common / public levels must be weighed against the ills of loss of data and privacy.

Unquestionably this is a personal decision and everyone should make it for themselves but to want the benefits and not be willing to sacrifice for them is being unrealistic. Today the COVID Pandemic requires even more data and disclosure of private information, for public tracking, vaccination etc, to control the spread of the disease. As individually people are not really willing to take actions for public good or to solve public problems at personal cost, it becomes necessary to offer them something that they would have a hard time seeing themselves doing without for doing so. The ways to make self-interest align with common good and the benefits to each must thus be highlighted. If they can be led to believe that such a trade –off is beneficial to all and even to them as individuals or to their families, it would be more acceptable. Would we really want to do without even more such services in future?

However, to call for proper Regulations about how, what and where all such data is being collected and held and by whom, Company or Institution or Government and with what safeguards is something that must be done. Anonymizing of data and marketing it with appropriate safeguards should be allowed because after all they are service providers seeking to make profits in a competitive marketplace. To ensure competition we should encourage competitors and if necessary require the Government to itself complete.

Also trust technology to come up with better Privacy protection methods.

Today, Web-3.0 offers encrypted data, using Public and private keys to properly access that data, and distributed/decentralized processing and storage using the shared computer power of multiple computer owners in the blockchain universe, say- Bitcoin, Etherium etc, who are incentivized to share their computer processing power as one of the nodes in this universe in exchange for equivalent crypto-currency. Being encrypted and distributed such data is no longer individually identifiable and manipulatable. Hence, offers much greater privacy. Ofcourse, the Web -3.0 universe is also hackable today, but more to steal the processing power of the computer as if it was belonging to the Hacker and not to the real owner, thus claiming the incentives for themselves.

As days go by, technology will become even better and more responsive to the common demands of the users and make hacking more difficult and meaningless. Clearly all such developments will be far more effective than trying to protect each bit of data by Laws. Laws would perhaps, still be needed to deal with compensation or punishment for the results of specific cases of damage caused to any individual.

Aadhaar is the world’s largest bio-identification endeavour and has proved reliable. It should be allowed to be used extensively. To claim that this would lead to loss of privacy is the false cry of those who fear such identification. It should be noted that many countries use some identification number for similar purposes even if the original purpose was very limited. The Social Security Number in the USA is one such example. Every subsidy, Bank account, other Services and even applications to schools and colleges and jobs should use the Aadhaar identification to ensure against false claims and duplications etc. A National Identification Card is something different and is necessary in our world today. Aadhaar is a way, when necessary, to verify that the identity of the card holder is as claimed. When the Government has no reservation about the use of PAN number for financial transactions, why should we allow vested interests to deny us the benefits of Aadhaar confirmation? Let us not become confused and throw out the ‘Baby with the bathwater’.

Conclusion

Privacy is what everyone desires and hence, must use discretion in what to post or disclose on-line. Encourage social debate to determine what ethical and moral guidelines must be laid down for all on-line Service providers and even for the Government. Proper and adequate regulations and oversight must be insisted on and be strictly implemented and wrongdoers duly penalised / punished. Anonymised general data may be allowed to be used to enable the service providers to earn revenue to enable them to continue to run and even improve on the services they provide. Courts must call on all stake holders to put forward their views on what and how much is possible and what can be done to provide even more protection and privacy. The value of Aadhaar must be recognized and it be allowed to be used extensively.

JAI BHARAT! – JAI HIND!

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