Digital India Fail Without Digital Privacy Laws

Most Indian users don’t know the perils of sharing their personal data on the Internet, which leads to serious cybercrimes like frauds, child abuse, etc. Digital India therefore, can’t become a reality if data privacy laws are not made more clear, stringent, and pervasive.

- Sidharth Shekhar

This quote clearly points to a shift that our world is undergoing today. Unfortunately, this shift is leading to rampant and free-wheeling capture of personal information about users on popular online social media platforms. This is due to lack of a proper framework that clearly outlines the boundaries for doing this.

So while it’s good to see growing use of online platforms, with e-commerce being the latest addition, what’s also required are a strict regulatory framework on how personal data of user users should be used. Otherwise, the Digital India Dream will soon turn into a nightmare. Here are some concerns to be looked into:

• No separate law designed exclusively for the data protection

- Bill Diggins, U.S. chief, Verizon Wireless marketing initiative

• No specific national regulator dealing with administration of privacy laws

• No need to obtain any approval from government regarding data transfer agreements

• Who controls the data?

• Cybersecurity

• Digital literacy

Consumer data matters to the market

Recently, LeadSquared integrated itself with Facebook Lead Ads thereby allowing lead capture through smartphones. So, what makes Facebook so appealing for customer acquisition platforms thriving on users’ information? First, Facebook users are known to tag their friends, location and life events. This is a good chunk of information were smartphone acts as the middle ware between the user and the social media. Second, mobile is mostly used by people on the move to access information, news or online shopping which means that their preferences can be tapped to provide customized advertisements directly to them. Knowledge is power is a common understanding but data will be the key holding it.