The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has submitted a list of recommendations pertaining to the protection of privacy of personal data to the Department of Telecommunications. It is encouraging that the regulator has taken up a matter of vital importance in a data-driven and data-controlled milieu. Technology is leapfrogging into new domains at breakneck speed. 5G technology, which the developed world has already embraced and is quickly evolving, is on its way to India as well. Soon, that too will be ancient by the time it reaches our coast. The data speeds that 5G could deliver will connect a whole host of devices to the Web and that will mean there would be even more of private data on the information highways than ever before. This private information would be in the form of metadata that allows those mining such data to build the profile of a person without actually being in touch with him or her. The well known case of Cambridge Analytica is an example of what data generated by individuals can be used for. The US has already had a brush with what technology can do even with influencing the mandate delivered to form a government. It has proven that if an entity is able to plug into the information superhighways of the Web it could filter out relevant data and zero in on individuals without trouble. The data even allows motivated companies to draw up psychological profiles of individuals and subtly influence their behaviour. With immensely high data speeds that the future promises to deliver, the quantum of information users may let on to the Web would be huge. And regulations will only catch up once the damage is done. TRAI has recommended restraining entities that control or process data from using metadata to identify individual users. It has also called for a study to formulate standards for anonymisation or de-identification of personal data. Until this time, the rules applicable for telecom service providers could be made applicable to all entities in the digital ecosystem. Although the initiative of TRAI is a welcome reaction to a growing need of the time, what actually can be done to prevent misuse of data remains a huge question. The rate at which devices are getting added to the network is itself baffling. As their numbers increase, it would remain an unenviable task before governments to keep track of the information traffic and the ways in which it will be misused. Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, had some time back stated that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has no real idea of what artificial intelligence (AI) could do. Musk who has always been wary of AI, said this in the context of chatbots developed by Facebook showing signs of creating their own language that became unintelligible to humans. A few days back, Microsoft also warned the world about facial recognition software. It has urged the US government to control the use of the technology citing the potential for its abuse.
Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft are among the technology giants selling systems based on personal data, voice and facial recognition including massive use of AI. Votaries of the technology, point out that it can improve safety and help track down criminals or to find missing people. But civil rights groups have raised the red flag over issues such as illegal surveillance and monitoring. The technology is also feared to produce false identifications given the fact that it is still in the nascent stage. India offers a veritable goldmine of data for entities in the business. We will have to act fast if our data is to be protected from misuse. The factor that needs to be considered while taking decisions on data protection is not whether there would be attacks on data but when would it and how prepared we should be to counter it in time.
While TRAI is but only a small window that wants to take a stand against illegitimate collection of data, the Emperor still lurks in the foreground with all pomp and glory. The government’s insistence on Emperor Aadhaar lording over all and sundry under the pretext of stopping leakages of welfare money cannot be ignored. With opposition to Aadhaar growing along with awareness about that evil among the average citizen, the government is adopting insidious methods to continue its deadly data mining. The manner in which video recordings (not still photographs) of individuals for business-related returns are being demanded is a dark shadow that looms large over every small entrepreneur of this country. Big corporates will never face such problems. They will always have employees who do the dirty work for them. Dealing with Aadhaar still remains a major problem that will only increase in ferocity every passing day.