MP Baijayant Panda flags privacy, data protection concerns in Lok Sabha

New Delhi: Calling for a full-fledged parliamentary discussion, Kendrapara MP Baijayant Panda raised the issues of privacy and data protection in the lower house of the parliament today.

“As India makes a leap into the digital era, the issue of privacy and data protection takes on enormous importance. Cyber crime is one aspect of it and the problem goes far beyond that. We voluntarily give information to social media and apps. Theft of identity and loss of identity is a serious problem. Today issue has come to fore because of Aadhaar program. It goes far beyond Aadhaar as the issue of privacy and data protection is going on for more than a decade,” said Panda.

Citing that the concern for privacy and data protection is a serious concern Panda said “In my opinion, there is a right to privacy. Whether it is fundamental or not the Supreme Court is hearing. But it is inferred from Constitutional guarantees in Articles 19 & 21 to life and dignity. But in a modern world right to privacy cannot be absolute because we have already agreed that we have CCTVs all over the city and airport security which have biometric capacities wherein CCTVs can take facial recognition and identify the person. We have voluntarily agreed that we cannot live in the 21^st century without having these things in place. There must be right to privacy with very narrowly defined exceptions. This is a very critical issue and we must have a full fledged discussion.