Big data, big dangers
India needs to negotiate the world of big data technology with adequate safeguards
With the Supreme Court turning its gaze on
privacy issues associated with Aadhaar, can we take a moment to look to the
myriad ways in which our privacy is being assaulted in the digital world? When
my neighbour across the street got too curious about my life, I installed
curtains to block his gaze. But what about when the invisible drones at
Facebook send him a message that one of my colleagues has tagged me enjoying a
music festival in Goa and he might want to “like” this picture? How do we draw
a curtain around our digital lives?
Think beyond the nosy neighbour to the
corporations that want to utilise minutia of your life to sell products that
you may or may not need. Corporations have always been interested in
understanding consumer behaviour and been collecting data about users using
their products or service. What is unique about Big Data Technology (BDT) is
the scale at which this data collection can take place. For instance, Google
has stored petabytes of information about billions of people and their online
browsing habits. Similarly, Facebook and Amazon have collected information
about social networks. In addition to using this data to improve products or
services that these corporations offer, the stored data is available also to
highest bidders and governments of nations where these companies are based.
Looming dangers
One major problem with collecting and storing
such vast amounts of data overseas is the ability of owners of such data stores
to violate the privacy of people. Even if the primary collectors of data may
not engage in this behaviour, foreign governments or rogue multinationals could
clandestinely access these vast pools of personal data in order to affect
policies of a nation. Such knowledge could prove toxic and detrimental in the
hands of unscrupulous elements or hostile foreign governments. The alleged
Russian interference in the U.S. election tells us that these possibilities are
not simply science fiction fantasies.
The other major problem is the potential
drain of economic wealth of a nation. Currently, the corporations collecting
such vast amounts of data are all based in developed countries, mostly in the
U.S. Most emerging economies, including India, have neither the knowledge nor
the favourable environment for businesses that collect data on such a vast
scale. The advertising revenue that is currently earned by local newspapers or
other media companies would eventually start to flow outside the country to
overseas multinationals. A measure of this effect can already be seen in a way that
consumer dollars are being redistributed across the spectrum of U.S. businesses
touching them. For instance, communication carriers such as AT&T, Verizon
and cable networks find that their revenue has remained flat to slightly
falling in the last five years whereas the revenues of Google, which depend on
these carriers to provide connectivity to consumers, are increasing
exponentially. Unless we employ some countermeasures, we should expect the same
phenomenon repeat itself for corporations based in India.
Sadly, BDT is a tiger the world is destined
to ride. It is no longer possible to safely disembark, but staying on is not
without its perils. The only way to negotiate this brave new world is to make
sure that India does it on her own terms and finds a way to protect both
financial rewards and ensure individual privacy and national security through
appropriate safeguards.
What India can do
China has apparently understood this dynamic
and taken measures to counter this threat. It has encouraged the formation of
large Internet companies such as Baidu and Alibaba and deterred Google and
others from having major market share in China by using informal trade
restraints and anti-monopoly rules against them. India may not be able to
emulate China in this way, but we could take other countermeasures to preserve
our digital economy independence. The heart of building companies using BDT is
their ability to build sophisticated super-large data centres. By providing
appropriate subsidies such as cheap power and real estate, and cheap network
bandwidth to those data centres, one would encourage our industries to be able
to build and retain data within our boundaries. In the short term, we should
also create a policy framework that encourages overseas multinationals such as
Google and Amazon to build large data centres in India and to retain the bulk
of raw data collected in India within our national geographical boundaries.
Moreover, we should also build research and
development activities in Big Data Science and data centre technology at our
academic and research institutions that allow for better understanding of the
way in which BDT can be limited to reduce the risk of deductive disclosure at
an individual level. This will require developing software and training for
individuals on how to protect their privacy and for organisations and
government officials to put in place strict firewalls, data backup and secure
erasure procedures. In the West, we already are seeing a number of start-ups
developing technology that enables users to control who gets access to the data
about their behaviour patterns in the digital world.
The government has approved the “Digital
India” Plan that aims to connect 2.5 lakh villages to the Internet by 2019 and
to bring Wi-Fi access to 2.5 lakh schools, all universities and public places
in major cities and major tourist centres. This is indeed a very desirable
policy step. But unless we evolve appropriate policies to counter the side
effects of the Digital Plan, this could also lead to the unforeseen
eColonisation of India.
Source | The Hindu | 15 June 2017
Regards
Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @
Knowledge Repository
Khaitan
& Co
Upcoming
Event | MANLIBNET 17th
Annual International Conference on 15-16 September 2017 at Jaipuria, Noida,
India
Website | https://sites.google.com/site/pralhadjadhavlib/home
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