gregory house
philosopher-in-chief
Read about it on economictimes.com.
The Indian government and its agencies have a poor track record of safeguarding its citizens privacy. Some time ago, an english news channel ran reports of how HNI individuals who had filed income tax returns under tax audit (turnover of over 10 lacs/ 40 lacs depending on nature of business) were being threatened by elements of the mafia in Bombay. How did they get their hands on such sensitive information? Through some crooked CAs (not all, I am a CA myself, albeit not practicing) and some more crooked income tax officers.
How is the government planning to protect this massive database of cell phone calls? Who is going to oversee the same? What is the guarantee that the agency holding this information will not be arm-twisted by the government in power at a particular time and forced to release information on individuals of "interest" to them regardless of whether such individuals are indulging in "unlawful activities".
Just a few days back similar reports came out of USA. The GOI now wants to play catchup. If this goes on, in another decade one would be hard-pressed to differentiate between USA, UK, India, China, North Korea and Iran. All countries already have similar policing. People in the first three countries still have some freedom of expression and privacy. Actions such as these chip away at this freedom and privacy.
I was playing Civilization IV a few months back when Ben Franklin's quote about liberty and security came up on one of the popups. Lots of variations of the same are available around the internet but this one seems to be the likeliest one - "Those who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security."
Whoever wrote the above statement is probably right. We do not deserve either of the two.
The Indian government and its agencies have a poor track record of safeguarding its citizens privacy. Some time ago, an english news channel ran reports of how HNI individuals who had filed income tax returns under tax audit (turnover of over 10 lacs/ 40 lacs depending on nature of business) were being threatened by elements of the mafia in Bombay. How did they get their hands on such sensitive information? Through some crooked CAs (not all, I am a CA myself, albeit not practicing) and some more crooked income tax officers.
How is the government planning to protect this massive database of cell phone calls? Who is going to oversee the same? What is the guarantee that the agency holding this information will not be arm-twisted by the government in power at a particular time and forced to release information on individuals of "interest" to them regardless of whether such individuals are indulging in "unlawful activities".
Just a few days back similar reports came out of USA. The GOI now wants to play catchup. If this goes on, in another decade one would be hard-pressed to differentiate between USA, UK, India, China, North Korea and Iran. All countries already have similar policing. People in the first three countries still have some freedom of expression and privacy. Actions such as these chip away at this freedom and privacy.
I was playing Civilization IV a few months back when Ben Franklin's quote about liberty and security came up on one of the popups. Lots of variations of the same are available around the internet but this one seems to be the likeliest one - "Those who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security."
Whoever wrote the above statement is probably right. We do not deserve either of the two.
