Data, Privacy and Security - WEIRD Topics

When it comes to Big Data, privacy and security, India’s view is totally different than that of the West. The difference is due to the answer to the following question – Do the benefits and applications of analyzing large data outweigh the privacy and security risks? And it’s not just India, all countries without pre-existing well-functioning systems look at data sets, AI and machine learning favourably since they enable better systems and better governance.

 

It reminded me of that term WEIRD - Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. It was used a lot to refer to the Western view of how things should be, how studies and research should be done etc is unconsciously skewed since they didn’t know or understand non-Western (or non-WEIRD) countries and cultures. Today, more and more people think that the Western views on privacy and security should be added to the list of WEIRD worldview topics, i.e., matters where Western views are inapplicable to non-WEIRD countries.

 

Insurance is one such topic where the divergence in views is visible in India, as Rahul Matthan explains. Take personal health insurance and auto insurance:

“Affordable devices like Fitbit, Oura and Whoop now provide streams of personal health data in real time, while most modern vehicles have built-in telemetry that offers similar insights into driving behaviour. And insurers have begun to capitalize on this.”

Those whose data streams show better behavior in these matters have to pay lower premiums for health (15% lower for regularly doing 10,000 or more steps daily) and auto insurance (25% lower).

 

While this sounds good and fair, Matthan warns us of some of the risks. Too much usage of data can lead to penalizing people for the “accident of birth”, as he explains via a few examples. People with genetically inheritable diseases. Women born in bad (unsafe) neighborhoods, where they cannot walk freely or safely to clock those 10,000 daily steps. His point being:

“We need to find a way to thread this needle.”

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