Privacy #4: Unification of Databases

In an earlier blog, I had explained why India’s policy on privacy was what it was. To that list, Rahul Matthan adds another point in Privacy 3.0, namely most people didn’t care. And why didn’t they care? Because, pre-Internet and pre-Aadhar, whatever info the government had on us was scattered across different databases and (physical) filing systems, none of which could “talk” to each other. The fact that they were silo’ed from each other ensured nobody, not even the government, could stitch all the info about an individual together.

 

Until Aadhar came into existence. The BJP government started pushing to have the Aadhar ID added to different databases – from bank accounts to subsidy entitlement to phone numbers… Combine that with the increasing digitization of government records, and suddenly it was very much possible that the government could now stitch together all the info about an individual. Matthan helped frame this concern in an approach paper on privacy for the DoPT:

“One of the inevitable consequences of the UID project will be that the UID number will unify multiple databases.”

 

People like Matthan (he is a lawyer) wanted privacy laws framed first, and Aadhar integration done second. Their point was that if the laws on privacy were in place, then it would be clear when the government could stitch things together. Insert Aadhar first, without privacy laws in place, and the government could play Big Brother – that was the concern. These were not people who wanted to kick Aadhar out; rather, they wanted a check and balance system created first.

 

This is a well thought out and valid concern. I’d never heard it explained like this. Matthan has worked to try and frame such laws, been part of the working committees for the government, been part of groups that framed drafts, before it got lost when the next election cycle came.

 

In the next blog in the series, I will go over Matthan’s ideas on what principles the data privacy laws should be created, what he feels are the problems with Western attempts at this problem, and whether India should chart a different course customized for its own needs.

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