IT'S TIME TO HAVE A CYBER QUOTIENT

Data and its privacy in the new world order needs an all-in-one platform for people to check their sensitive information exposures and remediate the same, learn about preventive measures against cyberattacks, and more robust cyber hygiene practices

- SAKET MODI

“My house is my castle, how can you disturb me at my home? My time is my time; my life is my life. My privacy is supreme to me.” - Former Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, while delivering the MC Setalvad Memorial Lecture in New Delhi.

For eons, humanity has been able to survive because of its collective ingenuity and intelligence. Anything that threatens to curb this freedom needs to be handled with utmost caution. At the 2019 Stanford Commencement, Tim Cook said that the thoughts, innovations, creations, and designs that humans can create would be drastically stifled if their privacy is at stake.

Under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, the Right to Privacy is recognised as a Fundamental Right for every living person in India. While we await the Personal Data Protection Bill (2019) to be passed in Parliament, the pandemic has accelerated digital growth and cyber-adoption. What happens when a country of 137 crore people depends on the internet to function? An insurmountable amount of data is being created, transmitted, and stored. An astonishing 463 exabytes of data will be generated each day, and India, a data-rich economy, will account for about 21 exabytes per month by 2025! For perspective, to create 1 exabyte of data, your video call would have to last for 2,37,832 years!