www.PrivacyForSale.com

The Supreme Court announced two days back  :

“ Right to Privacy “ is a Fundamental Right

Since then , millions of words have got written in news-papers and on web sites and equal number of words got spoken on TV channels

Experts have opined that , like all other Fundamental Rights , this too is subject to “ reasonable restraints “

If I have the patience to read those millions of words , I would know what “ reasonable restraints “ are acceptable to the Supreme Court

I am presuming that one of this could well be :

Notwithstanding anything written elsewhere in this judgement , a person shall have unrestricted / unfettered right to SELL his own PRIVATE data to anyone for a monetary consideration ( or for bartering his / her private data for someone else’s data ? )

After all , in his judgement didn’t Justice R F Nariman write :

“ The dignity of the individual encompasses the right of the individual to develop to the full extent of his potential

And this development can only be if an individual has autonomy over fundamental personal choices and control over dissemination of personal information which may be infringed through an unauthorized use of such information “

See , not a word about  “ authorized use of personal information “  !

Hence , nothing stops me from “ selling my personal information “ by entering into a valid / legally enforceable CONTRACT with anyone !

Government has constituted a committee to “ identify key data protection issues “ and submit a draft Data Protection Bill .

It is headed by former SC justice B N SriKrishna and has members from DoT / IT Ministry / UIDAI and others

I urge this committee to incorporate my following suggestion while submitting its recommendations

#  PREAMBLE

    Every citizen has a right to Sell / Barter his personal information for monetary

  

    Considerations

    Any citizen or a commercial enterprise, will be at liberty to BUY such personal data

    from any such willing person for commercial purpose

#  PLATFORM  

   Such SELL / BUY service will have to be online , on platforms such as :

    www.PrivacyForSale.com  

   Such online platforms can be set up by any entity ( individual or a company ) and will

   need to be registered with Ministry of Information Technology / Ministry of Law /

   Income Tax Department etc and will require GST registration too

  

  

#  USERS

    There will be two kinds of users who will register on this site , viz:

    *  " Sellers " , who want to sell their personal data / information

    *  " Buyers " , who want to buy personal data / info for commercial use

#  REGISTRATION FORM

   For both type of users , the Registration Form will require to submit following details :

*  Personal Details ( Name / DOB / Gender / Nationality / Bank Account No /  Photo /

    Aadhar Number / PAN etc )

*  Family Details  ( Who are members of immediate family ? )

*  Contact Details ( Address / Mobile No / Email ID / Skype - FaceTime ID /

   WhatsApp .. etc )

*  Social Media Footprint 

    To ensure that , in order to make money , people do not create / upload , FAKE profiles of themselves , they will need to provide User ID / Password for their existing registrations at :

  #   Social Media Sites……. ( Facebook / LinkedIn / Twitter etc )

 #   Job Portals  / Matrimonial Sites /  E Commerce Sites etc

 #   Messaging Apps………. ( WhatsApp / WeChat / Skype etc )

 #   Mobile Apps  /  Search Engines  /  Govt web sites

 #   Banks  /  NBFC companies  /  Mobile Wallet Companies etc

This will also enable www.PrivacyForSale.com , to scrap / compile following type of info / data about the SELLER ( information about me , which , until the arrival of above-mentioned online services , was known to only a few ) :

Information such as :

·         Who I am ( name )

·         Where and when, I was born / who were my parents

·         Where I grew up / where I live currently

·         Do I live in a rented place or in an owned flat

·         What Schools / Colleges I attended (- and degrees I acquired )

·         What Companies I worked for and salaries I got

·         How do I travel to work (own vehicle or public transport )

·         Where I go for my holidays / what books I read

·         Who I married and who are my children (- and how many )

·         If divorced, how much alimony I pay and to whom

·         Where do I invest my money ( Banks – Funds – Equity etc )

·         How much I have borrowed, from whom, and for how long

·         My Credit Rating  ( including my spending history / card wise – wallet wise )

·         What are my eating ( food ) preferences and the restaurants I visit

·         What I do for entertainment ( Music  /  Movies  /  Videos )

·         What clothes I wear and how often do I buy

·         Who are my friends and how often I phone / text them / meet them

·         What ailments I suffer from and what medicines I take

·         What minor offences ( traffic ) or crimes that I have committed

·         What elections I have contested ( won and lost )

·         Who are my doctors / lawyers / brokers / agents etc

·         What web sites I visit and how often and for how long

·         What do I search on the Net / what RSS feeds I subscribe to

·         What TV channels I watch and Radio Stations that I listen to

·         Every photo of mine ever taken ( Selfie or otherwise )

·         Every phone call that I ever made or received ( from my mobile )

·         Every Email / Text message that I ever sent or received

·         Every blog / comment that I ever posted on the Web

·         Every face-to-face communication that I engaged in

·             What “ moods “ I am experiencing 24*365 ( picked up by everything that I wear )

This will ensure that the software will be able to “ cross check “ personal data across a SELLER’s entire LIFE ENGAGEMENTS , to ensure that it is genuine

*  Cultural Exposure ( Countries visited / lived-in , with stay-periods  / Foreign friends )
 

*  Educational Details ( Degrees / Colleges ) . Sellers having degree will get ranked higher !

    

*  Language Details ( Languages spoken / fluently - reasonably well ) 

*  Experience Details ( Where worked / for how long ) .Young / educated / employed, Sellers will get ranked higher !

   

Based on the completeness of the Registration Form details , a software will rate and rank the SELLERS , which will be visible to the BUYERS  

It will be MANDATORY to update / edit the data submitted, every 3 months

Upon registration , users will be assigned USER ID and PASSWORD 

#  SEARCHING DATABASE OF SELLERS

   BUYER will be able to search the database of the registered  SELLERs , to generate

   different  DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILES of the SELLERs

  

   BUYER will be able to store such short-listed records into his online “ History of Short-

   listed Profiles “ page , for future reference

  

   Whenever desired , BUYER will be able to select any Short-listed Demographic Profile ,

   add to a SHOPPING CART and click BUY , to complete the PURCHASE TRANSACTION

   and download the database

  

#  SELLING  PRICE

   BUYERS will pay Rs 10 per each individual SELLER RECORD purchased from the portal

   This will be the BASE PRICE for one record of each Seller , to begin with

   How this price will rise with the POPULARITY of a given Seller’s data , is explained later

   Portal will credit this amount to the Bank Account of the concerned SELLERs , after

   deducting

·         10 % as its   own commission

     

   

#  PAYMENT MECHANISM

    Using online payment gateway , each BUYER will deposit a minimum of Rs 100,000  

    on the portal as PRE- PAID amount into his online account

        

    As a BUYER continues , buying these online database records , credit balance will get

    displayed

    There will be facility for online ( or through Mobile ) re-charging of the account

#  REPUTATION SYSTEM

   

   At some future date , it should be possible ( through appropriate software ) , to

   introduce following variations in pricing of the database :

  

   *  Surge Pricing 

      Depending upon the DEMAND  of any given data-record in one month

   *  Reputation Pricing 

    Software will keep record of the “ Number of Times “ , each  Seller’s record gets

  

    downloaded and revise upward , the SALE PRICE ( for the record of that person )

    This number will be displayed to the Buyers ( next to each record )

    For every 100,000 downloads of a given record , the SALE PRICE will get revised

    upwards by Re 1 / - ( from Rs 10 to Rs 11 )

#  USAGE  HISTORY

    For each user ( SELLER or BUYER ) , there will be a Usage History page of all the past

    transactions including the Credit Balance ( for the BUYER ) and the Earnings ( for

    the SELLER )

   

#  PRIVACY

    The portal will NOT reveal any info / data of any SELLER to anyone else other than the registered BUYERS

   

    However , portal will be obliged to subject those transactions to BIG DATA analytics

    and make available to the Central Government , DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILES of both ,

    the SELLERS and the BUYERS , for helping in deciding various types of Subsidies (

    through DBT ) or for the introduction of  UNIVERSAL  BASIC  INCOME

#  BUSINESS  MODEL

   Business Model will be in the nature of " Sharing Economy " , where those owning /

   possessing " Idle / Spare / Under-utilized " assets / resources , will offer the same to

   those in need / when in need , for a price

  

    Both parties benefit . Economy also benefits by fuller utilization of the spare/surplus

    capacities of millions of assets

All in all , I think this is a great opportunity for some Indian Start Up to seize

#  POINTS  FOR  COMMITTEE  CONSIDERATION

·         On this portal , can a SELLER be a BUYER ( and vice versa ) as well ?

·         Does a SELLER need to have a GST registration number ?

He / she has not “ purchased “ own data but only “ generated “ it through transactions carried out during life-time . So , there is no “ input credit “ which can be offset

Should a SELLER still be required to obtain a GST registration number ( as an individual ) and have a GST rate of 0 % ?

·         A Buyer may end up paying for same SELLER-DATA , many times ( over and over ) , if that same SELLER’s data-record appears under various DIFFERENT demographic profiles , being short-listed and saved by the BUYER

Must he be made to pay repeatedly for the same record ?

·         Should a Buyer be at liberty to SELL ( secondary sale ) same record to others ( not registered as BUYERS on www.PrivacyForSale.com  ) ?

It is almost certain that , a record for which he has paid Rs 10 , he will sell to 50 others , for Rs 2/- each ( and make a profit of Rs 90 / - )

Should / could such “ Re-Sale “ be prevented through some encryption during downloading ?

Or , this may be permitted ( even encouraged ? ) if a method can be found to levy / collect a GST of 25 % ( of that Rs 2 / - resale price ), every time such re-sale takes place ?

I believe , technology is available which can track any attempt ( on the part of the original buyer ) to  “ resell “ the downloaded records and stop such resell unless GST got paid first !

·         Since no Data Protection Law will be able to stop businesses to collect my personal data and then , by selling it , make a profit , then why should I be deprived of making money from my own data ?

Why not “ legalize “ what is currently , an “ illegal trade “ and , hopefully get rid of the thriving  “ BLACK MARKET “ in sale of privacy ? 

Just type in Google ( in inverted commas ) :

“ Sellers of Private Data in India “ ,

to come across [  About 10,80,00,000 results (1.22 seconds)  ] –  all Illegal  ?

Does any individual or a government agency have the required resources to :

·         First determine that one – or more – of these entities have collected / compiled my personal / private DATA , without my explicit and written permission and , is selling it to others

·         Launch prosecution against these ?

And , does our Courts , already saddled with 30 MILLION cases ( some pending for DECADES ) , have resources to listen to these NEW data-breach cases ?

Can one expect these 108 MILLION entities to register as BUYERS on this portal ?

Most likely !

Can we expect some of these to rush and book URL (  www.PrivacyForSale.com ) and launch such a portal before the DATA PROTECTION Committee comes out with its recommendations ?

Very likely !

Here is what SC judgement said :

“ Informational privacy is a facet of the right to privacy.

The dangers to privacy in an age of information can originate not only from the state but from non-state actors as well ” 

IF YOU CANNOT LICK THEM , JOIN THEM  /  MAKE BEST OF A BAD BARGAIN

26  Aug  2017

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs