Of Privacy Laws and the Lack of Them
Rahul Srinivas, Sep 26, 2008 1643 hrs IST
82% of US netizens are worried about their credit card numbers being stolen; 72% think their online activities are being tracked by companies
According to a recent poll by the Consumer Reports National Research Center in the US, most US citizens are extremely concerned about their online privacy and are keen to know what exactly is being done with their personal information online. As much as 82% of the people are worried about their credit card numbers being stolen online --while another 72% think their online activities are being tracked by companies.
The telephonic survey conducted recently has brought to light several concerns and misconceptions held by the public in the US regarding privacy laws. Some glaring examples include the fact that a large percentage of US citizens (incorrectly) think their consent is needed for companies to USE their personal information. While others think, companies actually need a court order to be able to track your activities online -- which happens to be completely untrue.
While this kind of corporate consumer behavior tracking has been a hotly debated issue over the years in the US, India is just seeing a rise in awareness amongst its netizens about their online privacy rights. Currently, with little or no privacy laws governing cyberspace in India, the average Internet user is left exposed to nefarious practices by unscrupulous companies who have gained notoriety in selling off personal information to foreign companies in need of online browsing habits.
If that was not all, our very own government is planning to monitor our online activities. Thanks to a bunch of terrorists who decided to use e-mails as a medium to send their messages across. Do you really think it is right on the part of the government to have the right to see what you're doing online? Well, 47 percent of our readers thought it's OK! More on that story here.
Coming back to the US survey reports, here are some interesting statistics:
As much as 35% of the respondents used an alternate e-mail address to avoid providing real information to these companies. 26% of people surveyed use software that helped them hide their identity while another 25% provided fake information to websites that ask for personal information. Nice tactic. I do think providing fake information is a common practice here in India as well.
The survey has managed to highlight one common sentiment amongst Americans; they are increasingly demanding more control over their personal information being collected by companies.
In a related story, two of the major Internet service providers in the US, Verizon and AT&T have recently pledged not to track their customers unless they get an explicit permission to do so.
India seems to be still in its infancy when it comes to cyber laws. Most of us are grossly unware of our rights as far as online privacy laws are concerned. While most Indian companies have vendor-specific privacy policies, it is high time that our legal system implements laws that are uniformly applicable to all relevant industries. In our judiciary, the only reference to online privacy is seen in the IT Act of 2000, where Chapter XI, Section 72 has the following excerpt:
"Penalty for breach of confidentiality and privacy states that any person who secures any electronic record, book, register, correspondence, information, document or other material without prior consent and discloses the information to a third party is punishable under the Act. The punishment ranges from imprisonment or a fine which may extend to Rs. 100,000 or both."
That is as vague as it could be. And considering, this was implemented in 2000, it's past time our cyber-laws got a firmware update.
Via: Consumersunion.org
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