Data Privacy

Predominant communication modes across the globe have moved from offline to online – letters and telegrams have been replaced with e-mails, chats, voice and video calls. Technological advancement has enabled real-time communication and information sharing. In the past, the physical letters used to be sealed and sent via the post. There was a factor of trust that the letter would reach the other end without the envelope being opened. In the digital age, we get the benefits of real-time communication but the risk of our communication being intercepted or eavesdropped have increased multiple times.

Due to peer pressure, we are in a hurry to create accounts on all social media. We are willing to give our personal information to third parties without considering the consequences. To a certain extent, our information available online and stored on our phones is available to the manufacturers and service providers. Most of the social media networks and their applications have a privacy policy which we agree to without reading thoroughly. Not just the data online, but all our activities, locations, places that we have visited is tracked. Earlier this year, Facebook, which has 2.23 billion active users per month, was questioned for its commitment to privacy.

As Indian citizens, we have registered for AADHAR with all our personal information including our bio-metric data all of which is stored in servers. While it may be true that security controls are in place to protect this data in the servers, there is no assurance that the third parties employed for integration/linking of multiple accounts with AADHAR are capable to protect this data. In case of breach, a normal citizen’s personal information would be made public.

Recently in Singapore, the most developed country in Asia, the data of 1.5 million people including that of the Prime Minister was stolen. The data taken included name, NRIC number, address, gender, race and date of birth. Information on the medical records of about 160,000 patients was also accessed. According to Ministry of Health of Singapore no other patient records, such as diagnosis, test results or doctors’ notes, were breached. Still, the address, date of birth, etc. which are part of the personal information of an individual and which can be utilized for identity theft were accessed. If the diagnosis and test results were known, it could have led to a much larger problem.

With so many breaches happening around us daily, we need to be aware of what we share online. Are our phones and laptops protected? Is our data online protected? Here are some ways to protect your data:

Before discarding documents containing personal information (bank/credit card statements), shred them.

Secure home Wi-Fi with strong passwords. DO NOT use default passwords.

Use strong, unique passwords for all online accounts.

Do not provide your AADHAR number to strangers.

Do not publicize your personal information online.

Use security questions whose answers are not readily available on your social media accounts (for e.g. - using date of birth as a security question, which is readily available on social media can make you an easy victim of Identity Theft)