Data—The Currency Of The Digital Age

Every inch of privacy you cede makes you less of an individual and more of a statistic. Protect your data, lest you endanger yourself

- Samit Basu

Last month, a controversy broke out over reports that several high-profile Indians—journalists, lawyers, opposition politicians—had been surveillance targets. The key players all diverted blame and responsibility. Pegasus, a spy software (see Quickipedia p 23) developed by NSO Group, an Israeli cyberintelligence firm, allegedly exploited a security flaw in WhatsApp’s video-calling system, and snooped on users worldwide, including Indians. But the makers of Pegasus said they only sold the software to governments for security reasons. Our government denied buying Pegasus, and demanded an explanation from WhatsApp, who claimed they had already informed the government twice about the leaks. The government then said WhatsApp’s reports were too technical for them to understand.

In Hong Kong, during the recent mass protests, demonstrators were afraid to use their metro cards to travel to gatherings, queueing up to pay cash instead. They did not want to leave a data trail of their physical presence, as they were not sure how that would affect the rest of their lives. Facial-recognition technology, location-tracking using public Wi-Fi, satellite surveillance, devices to record all phone calls and messages within range—public surveillance grows ever more sophisticated every day.