DATA PRIVACY

 

“Data” means and includes representation of information, facts, instructions, opinions, or concepts in a manner suitable for communication, interpretation or processing by humans or by automated means. In the era of 21^st century “Data” is termed as a “Digital gold” or a “New oil”.

Every application, software, sites we use records our data and store them on their database for future reference, the data may be of any type of personal data, sensitive data, or other means of data. Axiom, an American company claims that it has collected data of  10% of the total population worldwide. After the scandal of Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica, concerns about the privacy of data raised all over the world. Cambridge Analytica was using the data provided by Facebook to politically influence the people and it was carried without concerns of the user.

The data collected  by different companies are either sold to third party companies or they use it for their own purposes, but there are many cases found where these data has been mishandled or used for some political, religious benefits by influencing the users. Thus, the privacy for data is required so that none can use it without the user’s permission. But we often do mistakes to agree on sites, application over their terms and condition without going through it and allow all the permissions to access which helps them to gather every possible data user has.

It may seem simple, but these data can create great turbulence if misused. So, better not to provide the data which can create havoc in the future. People these days have become social media freak which leads to more leaks of personal data that can lead to unprecedented conditions as we know the cases of photo morphing, theft of account balance, sharing of malcontents and it goes on if listed.

It is not only the government policy that can help to protect our data but users should also be aware of it and should be able to procrastinate damages that can be done. After Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica Scandal leads the government of different countries to bring the law against data protection. So for the same in India Personal Data Protection Bill was passed in 2019, which included personal data and sensitive data to be stored within the Indian territory.  In the end, try to avoid allowing the sites, application for collection of data and be sure to read the terms and conditions though it seems to be boring.