Democracy Needs an Internet Ombudsman

Context: There must be a gatekeeper to balance appetites for technology, security and privacy of personal data of citizens.

Issues related to data privacy and security:

• Lack of data privacy: The Aadhar Act diluted the standard of proportionality test set up by the Supreme Court. Even the Aarogya Setu app does not satisfy the conscience of privacy overseers. 
• Data theft: People continue to suffer because of the regular incidents of data theft. 

• CERT-In, last year reported huge data theft of Facebook and Twitter users by malicious third-party apps. 
• More than 1.3 million credit and debit card details from Indian banks and the data of 6.8 million users from an Indian health-care website were stolen.

• Unauthorised data mining: Private data analytics companies have emerged to exploit the electoral process with the sole objective of customising political messaging. 

• Many private enterprises routinely share the personal data of individuals with third parties including political organisations. – reported by Omidyar Network India and Monitor Deloitte.
• Non-Competent Electoral Laws: are unable to check the menace as they were framed in time and space that was primitive when compared to contemporary technological advancements.

• Regulation and independence: Personal Data Protection Bill 2018, is more about control and surveillance than about promoting privacy and protection of data.

• Section 35, provides the government with unfettered access to personal data, negates the tests of legality, necessity and proportionality given by the Supreme Court in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) vs Union Of India. 
• The Bill also allows State and private parties to process personal data without obtaining consent.

Conclusion: Only an Internet ombudsman with experts on cyber and Internet laws, data science and national security, and involving eminent sections of civil society can be an effective antidote to unregulated technological disruptions.

Quote: “Information Superhighways” (coined by the U.S.’s “almost” President Al Gore) in a democracy are leading to “re-tribalisation” of politics in cabals and cocoons while deliberations are fast transforming into ‘consultations among computer systems’ where trust and security are illusions.