Blog: Privacy ? Perish the Thought !

Tuesday, 18 July 2017

Privacy ? Perish the Thought !

Following is an extract from ( Economic Times / 18 July ) :

Vidhi to help in Data Shield Law

MEITY ( Ministry of Electronics and IT ) , is working on drafting a law on Data Protection

· In this , it is being helped by Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy [ arghya.sengupta@gmail.com / vidhi@vidhilegalpolicy.in ]

· MEITY will also seek help from eminent jurists and lawyers of the country

· There will be a larger stake-holder discussion exercise after release of the first draft

· Arghya Sengupta ( Founder of Vidhi ) said :

“ Aadhaar is only one part of this eco-system which is admittedly becoming larger

There is an issue with regard to what the private operators are doing with the citizens’ data , every time people sign onto an app and it asks for multiple permissions to access photos etc

I have little hesitation in admitting that successive generations will possibly think that we were fools that every time we downloaded an application, we signed away our rights

So , there is a larger question which is not just an Aadhaar related question but in terms of who owns our data and what happens with personal data that is shared

That is the framework that we need and that’s essential the need of the hour

Be it Governments, individuals or any private entity – any entity that processes large data should have some obligation with respect to data handling

The legislation should have rules pertaining to obligation of data handlers , ways of collection of data , its use , and do’s and don’ts for any kind of onward sharing

“

MY TAKE :

· In the drafting team , besides Jurists and Lawyers , include some Data Scientists

· Get this team to agree on the definitions / meanings of the following TERMS , before releasing of that FIRST draft :

# Private

# Data

# App

# Permission

# Access

# Download

# Sign

# Rights

# Own

# Personal

# Share

# Entity

# Processing

# Obligation

# Handling

# Collection

# Use

· Already the line delimiting the HARDWARE from SOFTWARE is getting blurred ( eg : storing data in DNA or STEM CELLS )

· Technology has ( almost ) evolved to the point where there is NO NEED to ask any PERMISSION from anyone ( who is creating – processing – handling etc of data ).

Any device that you carry or wear , will automatically transmit your every single THOUGHT to a CENTRAL SERVER !

And that ARIHANT will also SAVE the humanity from Artificial Intelligence !

· Under Internet of Things ( IoT ) , each living human will get assigned 50,000 TRILLION , unique IP Addresses , under IP V 6.0 ( including for that packet of food we eat and that bottle of water we drink ! ) – that is 10 BILLION IP addresses for each hair on our bodies !

· We will be “ Watched / Measured / Imaged / Listened to / Analysed / Administered / Governed “ , every second of our lives ( - and no one will even ask for any permission ! )

Anyone wearing an AR / VR device ( which will be everyone ! ) , will know who we are and what we are doing , at ANY MOMENT !

· The Omnipresent CLOUD will tell us , what we should NEED and what we should DESIRE and where we should TRAVEL and what we should SEE ! May be , even how long we should LIVE !

A 9 Judge bench of the Supreme Court [ supremecourt@nic.in ] , has been set up to decide whether “ Right to Privacy “ is ( or is not ) , a Constitutional Right of Indian citizens

I urge the Hon Judges to invite some eminent “ DATA SCIENTISTS “ for deposing their technical views on this subject , before passing their order

After reading my following blogs , Hon Judges might want to ask them :

“ Will technology render India’s Constitution , irrelevant ? If yes , how soon ? “