Government plans to protect privacy issues
A group of ministers (GoM) looking into e-governance and e-education issues has set the ball rolling for the creation of a Universal National Social Profile, to have a more immediate and thorough record of people entitled to government benefits. It has also suggested the information include details about people’s families.
This has raised the hackles of privacy advocates, who have accused the Modi government of being lax in protecting people’s privacy, particularly after Aadhaar’s biometric data base was compromised in 2018. They say that while e-governance does improve services, it is important that the data is ‘anonymised’ to prevent any misuse.
India has no data privacy laws though the Supreme Court in 2017 had ruled that the Indian Constitution grants the right to privacy. A data protection law, however, is under consideration of Parliament. Assessing privacy and state of surveillance in 47 countries, UK-based Comparitech in a study last year said that India is next only to Russia and China, when it comes to its surveillance framework and is dubbed as a country with ‘systemic failure to maintain privacy safeguards’.
“Any model of e-governance should act as an enabler and facilitator in addressing public interest,” says Bimal Julka, who has just retired as the chief information commissioner. “With regard to issues concerning personal records and personal data, it should align with the architecture, as defined in various judicial pronouncements, particularly the apex court’s judgement of November 2019 in SC vs Subhash Agarwal, as also private data protection bill under consideration.”
The report by the GoM gives details about which delivery of services and benefits through digital means can be overhauled, identifying 12 specific strategies, such as creating a unified data system for all government offices, ensuring personal records are digital from when a person is born and improving digital literacy as well as infrastructure, to ensure that these reach to every corner of the country. It also includes suggestions on improving e-education. “A Universal National Social Profile capturing individual and family benefits may be created and updated on a real-time basis,” suggests the report. “This would help in minimising inclusion/exclusion errors... This should enable a holistic assessment of the requirement for assistance from the government based on the family/individual’s real-time situation and have the feature of national portability of entitlements”. The report also adds that such a measure would “improve the present arrangement where such information is available through SECC data collected once in 10 years”.
The GoM, headed by Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan with Arjun Ram Meghwal as co-ordinator and Rao Inderjit Singh and Sanjay Dhotre as the other members, also suggested the creation of a multi-dimensional, secure, real-time, geo-tagged, robust and accessible unified data system for all interactions that a citizen makes with the different levels of governments.
The GoM has mooted simplification of government procedures, so that they can get services from anywhere in the country or the world. This simplification can be done by creating a single sign-in facility, ensuring that any office can serve functions of any other government office location, setting up a proactive platform that will present citizens with options for services and benefits and unify certifications.
What the report says
Besides, the report suggested strengthening information and providing affordable access to the Internet as a pre-requisite for going entirely towards digital services. It notes that there are rural areas with connectivity issues and has suggested last mile connectivity through innovative technologies.
Turning to the privacy issue, the report said that it should be “appropriately addressed even as every effort is made for transparent and efficient implementation of government schemes with fidelity. Citizens should have control over their data. They should be able to decide what they would like to share voluntarily. Suitable precautions should be taken so that both ends are achieved.”
The issue of social profiling gained acceptance when public interest litigation filed in the Supreme Court this year, seeking its intervention to stop social profiling of Covid-19 cases and prevent harassment of victims at the hands of fringe elements. The petition filed by three young lawyers said that Right to Equality mandated the state to ensure all citizens were treated equally even during a pandemic. They urged the SC to ensure that there was no profiling in terms of religion, caste or race. The petition came after reports that data of the Union health ministry linked recent spurt in positive cases to the Tablighi Markaz at Delhi’s Muslim-dominated Nizamuddin area.