Data privacy has become a challenge in today's world, particularly in India, where individuals are less concerned about the data they share online. One might be surprised at how companies approached him for stuff he didn't even inquire about.
Data privacy means the ability of a person to decide for themselves when, how, & to what extent their information about them is shared. In India, the lack of rules and laws has made this business a systematic scam. This requires immediate attention, or else it will become a social blight in the future.
In 2018, Ayushi Saha was visiting her parents in Chhattisgarh, five months after her wedding. Her husband appeared out of nowhere. He expected her to actually listen to something. He took out his phone and hit the ‘play' button. And it was revealed that her husband had secretly recorded her without her consent.
Her husband screamed angrily. He'd learned that Ayushi had been complaining to her mother about her in-laws. She even spoke with a male friend. Her marriage eventually came to an end. Ayushi was shocked as to how her husband had learned about her private discussions. Her husband had gifted her a Vivo smartphone as an engagement gift, so she got suspicious.
In India, one of the factors of privacy breaches is surveillance. It's possible that we're being watched without even realizing it. Our information can be marketed in the same way that groceries are.
This topic has recently become more relevant.
Let return to Ayushi’s case.
It's possible that a spyware programme or software was placed on her phone. Perhaps her husband downloaded it himself, or maybe he sought the services of a professional investigator. You might be confused as to why someone would do such a thing. Why would a person hire a private investigator?
It is, in fact, a common practice.
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| Source: komando |
These spyware applications aren't new. They were popular several years ago. Who do you think made them famous? Parents used it to keep tabs on their kids, to see who they were meeting or conversing with? As a result, many parents put these apps on their children's phones.
A typical example of such apps has the following features:
It can track someone's SMS, location, call history, internet history, and photographs, and is a prominent example of such apps. These apps' updated versions can even track social media activity. It doesn't matter if it's Facebook or WhatsApp. And how much do these services cost? 1000-2000 rupees per monthMany of you may believe that this activity should be prohibited. However, in India, buying and selling these apps is lawful. They are, in reality, legal in India due to legal loopholes. Google will impose limits on such apps in August 2020. Our law, on the other hand, will be pointless in this circumstance.
The second area where there is a lack of regulation is how our data is used. Let us now turn our attention to Anwar Hussein's story. He received a phone call even before he could see the results. The lady on the phone even knew Hussein's son's registration number. Despite the fact that his kid had passed the exam, she expressed concern that he might not be accepted to a reputable college. She said that it can be manageable. To put it another way, she said give us money.
Imagine getting a sales pitch before you've even checked your results.
Anwar Hussein did exactly what any Indian parent would have done. He was adamant about sending his son to a prestigious college. As a result, he sold his ancestral land and put his life savings into the admissions fixture, which totaled 2.5 lakh. He then discovered that it was all a scam.
This shows how our data can be used against us.
Many of the people involved in this industry have formed a new profession called Data Broker. Data brokers are businesses that provide you with requested data on demand
In an investigation, the TOI discovered that brokers can access data on car owners, companies, credit card holders, and professionals. You may also obtain information on Mumbai's high-net-worth individuals. This information isn't bogus or of poor quality.
The Economics Times conducted its own investigation to verify the credibility of the data. They called the customers. One of the customers had purchased a gas stove on eBay. On asking, the customer confirmed that he had made such a purchase.
The first data brokers were shopkeepers who sold SIM cards back in the day. The SIM card was the most essential data point ten years ago. In 2011, NDTV published an article revealing how to obtain Airtel's postpaid database for 20 paise per number.
Now let's look at how your data ends up with a data broker.
The first is when you supply data without knowing how it will be used.
If you fill out an online job application, for example, the company may sell your information in exchange for money. Employees who handle customer databases, according to privacy experts, are frequently the source of data leaks. Employees at banks, hospitals, credit card companies, and car dealerships, for example. These businesses have customer databases that they sell for a profit. Aside from personnel, IT businesses that handle databases may also leak information. In 2018, the owners of three IT firms were arrested for leaking the personal information of over 800,000 students in classes 10 and 12. The leaks can take offline too. Anil Kumar, who works at Gurgaon's cyber police station, believes that even the information we provide on a restaurant's feedback form might be sold. The most interesting element of this is that it is unclear whether it is illegal for companies to sell our data. Our data will be used in accordance with the company's privacy policies. Many organizations claim in their privacy policies that we agree to these policies when we tick a box on a form or click "accept" on an app, even though we are not completely aware of them.The second way data brokers obtain our information is through data leaks caused by lack of security.
About 100 thousand Aadhaar numbers were leaked in 2019 because government officials' records were not password-protected.Around 1 million medical data and 120 million medical photos of x-rays and scans were leaked in February 2020. Recently, the personal details of roughly 30 million job seekers were released on the dark web.
In June 2020, 100 GB of data belonging to around 1 million Indians were leaked. It also contained their proof of identity. Someone bought it for $4800 in bitcoin from the dark web.
These leaks are used by data brokering companies. They gather information, organise it, and then sell it to other companies.
The Third way is by creating a fake website:
Some naïve individuals fail to recognise the trap and unwittingly pass over their personal information. Popular websites such as Flipkart, Whatsapp, Facebook, and Kaun Banega Crorepati have clones.
Scammers utilize these websites to commit fraud. You might be wondering what this data is used for. It's mostly utilized for two purposes.
1. The first is marketing.
Some companies find this information useful. They can use you as a target to promote their product. Manjunath Desai went online to compare insurance plans. Suddenly, he began receiving phone calls from insurance companies attempting to persuade him to purchase their policies.2. The second purpose for frauds, something that we observed in Anwar Hussein’s case. And the most common fraud is:
According to Rahul De, an IIM professor, the most common theft involves criminals attempting to obtain your OTP. Criminals gain access to your information. They then mimic bank personnel using your personal information, such as your name, phone number, and birth date. They force you into disclosing your OTP and CVV. The retailers who sell SIM cards are those who are involved in this.The shopkeepers are in collaboration with the criminals, many of whom are situated in Jharkhand. This was depicted in the Netflix online drama Jamatra. There’re several benefits of your data.Broadly, leaked data can be used for two things: marketing and frauds.
We talked about so many databases. Guess which one is the most valuable? Himanshu Bhatt, a former data broker, states that the student database is the most valuable. According to him, the student database is a gold mine.
Remember the Chennai incident where three company owners got arrested? The trio was arrested after many parents complained that they had been receiving several phone calls from the private colleges.
Nobody should be taken aback by the fact that the student database is most valuable in India. In a competitive environment, parents are willing to do anything to help their children. That’s why they get scammed by the admission fixtures and data brokers. Like we observed in Anwar Hussein’s case, he sold his ancestral land and gave up his life savings to the admission fixture.
Journalists state that it’s easy to procure these databases. The database for 2020 NEET was sold for just $20. One of the data brokers claimed that NEET employees were behind this leak.
These problems are complicated but their solutions aren’t. According to a survey, 75% of the participants never read privacy policies. Many of us might not know what privacy policies are and how we can protect our data. That’s why we need more awareness campaigns in India. Like the awareness campaign led by AIB.
Did you know, whenever you charge your phone in a public place like cafes and airports, hackers can gain access to your data? Maybe you didn’t know.
Before reading this article, did you know that the data on a feedback form that you fill at a restaurant can be sold too? Maybe you didn’t know.
Next time you fill in your personal information, check for the possible way it can be misused.
At last, I would suggest that you should first, raise awareness among yourselves. And then ask for a strong data protection bill from our government.
If we do this, we can ensure that what happened with Ayushi Saha and Anwar Hussein doesn’t repeat again.
You should talk about these issues with your friends and families. You could share this article with them.
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