- Introduction
The Previous chapter has equipped the researcher with a very broad understanding ofthe different approaches adopted by the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom towards protection of Personal Data. Before getting into the discussions about the optimality of a certain Data Protection Model in India, it would be necessary to have a thorough review of the existing data protection legislations in India. The sole objective of the discussions in this chapter is to strike gather the best possible understanding of the state of Data Protection in India.
The world is becoming more and more intensely digitalized by each passing day and India is no exception to the phenomena. With billions of people all over the world communicating with each other through the transmission of information through digital mediums a huge volume of data is generated all over the world[1]. The new found digital mediums of communications including the social media intermediaries such as the WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and other platforms have an extensive outreach amongst a huge chunk of population. With the availability of cheaper internet and broader connectivity, the more than 53% of the Indian population has an online presence.
Further, the use of online payment applications such as the Paytm and Google pay have got an extensive presence in the Indian economy. The use of these apps by the citizens has added to the enormous amount of data that is involved in the digitals sphere. However, the progress in technology has also armed both the public and private sector entities to get access to the personal data of the individuals, store them and process them within a matter of moments.
A surge in the internet users also indicates that a lot of personal and financial data is usually involved in these transactions. The immense popularity of these applications amongst the Indian users, make India a hotbed of digital transmissions. It must be noted that these mobile applications that offer various kinds of services to the uses such as online chatting, digital transactions, online shopping, cab service etc. do store and process a huge volume of the personal data of the individuals. The evolution of a digital economy with the Data at its centre-stage can be amply traced in the following excerpt:
Something as simple as hailing a taxi now involves the use of a mobile application which collects and uses various types of data, such as the user’s financial information, her real-time location, and information concerning her previous trips. Data is fundamentally transforming the way individuals do business, how they communicate, and how they make their decisions. Businesses are now building vast databases of consumer preferences and behaviour. Information can be compressed, sorted, manipulated, discovered and interpreted as never before, and can thus be more easilytrans formed into useful knowledge.
Along with the collection and processing of the personal data, the process more oftenthan not involves storage and transmission of the personal data. With the advancement of technology, the storage and processing of personal data has become extremely viable option economically and technically as well. These phenomena ensure that thedata aggregators not only collect bit also store the personal data of the individuals which can be used to make the individual profiles of the users, of course for a more efficient functioning of the applications. The creation of customized user profiles helps the service providers to reduce the transaction time and make the services moreefficient. The online aggregators and the e-commerce companies make use of the online history of the users to suggest the products that the users may be interested in buying321. To be precise, the use of data can have a great impact on the way things work in the digitalized world and every entity, whether be it the private sector or the public sector, does strive to get the maximum output through the data of their users. Use of data for analyzing the locations of people living in a particular area may be used to improved traffic conditions, the analysis of health data of the patients may help the researchers come up with a better diagnosis procedure, the analysis of the demography and economic condition of the individuals can be of great help to the government in framing policies and targeted delivery of socially beneficial policies. The processing of data can also be of great help to the financial regulators in detecting frauds and the law enforcement agencies prevent crimes. There has been an increasing trend among the law enforcement authorities to use drone cameras and using more complex methods of surveillance with the help of the internet and sophisticated technologies of the personal data of the individuals possesses a great threat to the informational privacy at the same time. An increasingly prevalent use of the internet has thrown open a plethora concerns related to the possibility of data breaches. With government being the largest processor of personal data in India, it becomes extremely important to have a law in place that would regulate the entire affair of collection, storage and processing of the data and put in place necessary safeguards. However, the threat to the informational privacy in India, just like the entire world is not something that has just loomed up, it is just that the threat has become much more larger with the advent of digitalization.
[1]Mandavia, M., 2020. India Has Second Highest Number Of Internet Users After China: Report.[online] The Economic Times.