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
* Language Details ( Languages spoken / fluently - reasonably
well )
* Experience Details ( Where worked / for how long ) .Young /
educated / employed,
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
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