Blog: Delayed Data Protection : a blessing in disguise ?

Dear Shri Ravishankar Prasadji,

You are harried man in great hurry

But, for once you will be happy that the Data Protection Bill was not rushed through in a hurry ( ala FARM LAWS ? ), giving you an opportunity to revamp it in light of the following recent developments :

What development ?

A committee headed by Shri Dharmendra Pradhan has recommended creation of Universal National Social Profile

Context :

GoM bats for Universal National Social Profile / HT / 09 Dec 2020

Extract :

Ø India should create a Universal National Social Profile in order to have a more immediate and thorough record of people entitled to government benefits

Ø The suggestions ..details ways in 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,

Ø Their report also suggested creation of a multidimensional, secure, real-time, geo-tagged, robust, and accessible unified data system for all interactions that a citizen makes with the different levels of governments.

Ø 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

Ø The privacy issue should be appropriately addressed …Citizens should have control over their data. They should be able to decide what they would like to share voluntarily.

Ø With regard to issues concerning personal records and personal data, it should align with the architecture as defined in various judicial pronouncements, particularly the SC judgement of Nov 2019, as also private data protection bill under consideration

Ø Eminent expert Nilanjan Sircar said while e-governance improved services, it was important that the data is anonymised to prevent any misuse.

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WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS RECOMMENDATION ?

Ø UNSP ( Unified National social Profile ), rests on the following CORNER STONES :

# PRIVACY issue should be addressed properly

# Citizens should have control over their data

# They should be able to decide what they would like to share voluntarily and with who

# Personal data should be anonymized to prevent any misuse

# There should be a SINGLE sign-in facility

APART FROM GETTING GOVERNMENT SERVICES / BENEFITS DIGITALLY, HOW ELSE CAN UNSP HELP CITIZEN ?

Ø Since a citizen has the right to,

# “ Own- Control “ her Personal Data , and

# “ Share “ the same with entities of her choice,

It is obvious that she also has the right to SELL ( get compensated ) for her data ( monetize her data )

OK , BUT HOW CAN GOVERNMENT HELP CITIZEN TO “ MONETIZE “ HER DATA ?

By implementing :

Ø Digital Dividend from Demographic Data [ 4 D ]………… …………..[ 14 Feb 2019 ]

Ø SARAL ( Single Authentic Registration for Anywhere Login )….[ 10 Feb 2019 ]

BUT WOULD THAT NOT REQUIRE A TOTALLY DIFFERENT ARCHITECTURE OF WWW ?

Ø Yes, and fortunately Tim Berners Lee ( father of WWW 1.0 ) has just released an OPEN SOURCE software ARCHITECTURE , as reported here :

Mission-critical security in Inrupt’s Version 1.1 release

Extract :

Ø The Inrupt software suite includes the Enterprise Solid Server, Developer Tools, and PodBrowser.

Ø Mission-critical use cases often require safely storing and controlling access to sensitive, regulated, or private data

Ø Solid enables end users to share and grant access to data stored on Pods with other users, applications, and organizations. In order to do this securely, a Solid server requires the ability to authenticate and authorize these users, applications, and entities.

Ø A Solid server must be able to verify the identities of agents in order to ensure they only access data they have been granted access to.

Ø This enables Pod owners and service providers to not only control who has access to data, but also control the applications and services used to access that data.

Ø A core tenet of Solid is that data, and the interfaces to access it, are interoperable across applications

Ø It is an important step towards empowering users across the globe with control over how their data is used and allowing organizations to deliver new kinds of value never before thought possible.

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Dear Shri Ravishankar Prasadji,

In a way, may be it was best that we have yet to pass the Data Protection Bill into a law

The latest release of OPEN SOURCE ARCHITECTURE by Inrupt, now makes it possible re-focus the PERSONAL DATA issue,

Ø from one of PRIVACY

Ø to one of MONETIZING

Here is your “ once-in-a-lifetime “ opportunity to :

Ø Resolve the differences between Govt and Industry ( data collectors / compilers / hoarders etc ) in respect of mandatorily sharing ( or not sharing ) of Personal Data vs Non-Personal Data

Ø Come up with a solution which is much superior to EU’s GDPR

Ø Enable Indian Users of Social Media / E Com sites – Apps etc to earn Rs 30,000/pm ( ave )

In case you have any doubts as to the FEASIBILITY of my suggestions, I urge you to get an opinion from NASSCOM

With regards,

Hemen Parekh / hcp@RecruitGuru.com / 24 April 2021

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