’Tis the season of leaks, peep and squeaks
Is data the new oil? If it is, then given the myriad mutations of data, is there any kind of data that is sacrosanct? If some data is indeed inviolable then does anyone, especially the state have the right to mine it, warehouse it and exercise proprietary control over it? These are some serious questions that need to be articulated given the fact that we are in a season of data leaks, peep and squeaks.
Decriers of the data-oil equivalence paradigm underscore the fact that oil is limited hydrocarbon resource while data is a renewable being churned out in more than generous doses every day. There is but a finite amount of oil on Earth that can be extracted. The worth of oil comes from its scarceness and the difficulty of mining it from new and untapped locations. However, it is progressively becoming easier to churn out massive amounts of data.
Designating data as the new oil serves to only delineate the study and analysis of a hitherto unexplored horizon as the brave new frontier of the technology universe. The insights that a deep dive into the undulating oceans of data can provide, in turn impels companies and even states to discern novel methods of monetising and weaponising it respectively.
Oil is a single-use commodity while data can be recycled and reprocessed for fresh purposes and discernments. Not too far in the past if anecdotal evidence available in the public space is any guide data generated from a clinical trial of a medication ordinarily used to treat coronary ailments and contractual obligations that would have to concurrently evolve strictly circumscribing the usage of data all along the value chain from the raw feed to the finished product if data ownership issues have to be properly addressed.
Herein lies the conundrum for there are some forms of data primarily human biometrics that should not but be squeezed, teased and creased out of human beings without informed consent.
That is primarily the entire problem with the Aadhaar programme. When it was launched there was hardly any worthwhile thought given to the doctrine of informed consent. People were offered a stark black and white utopia of an identity traded off against handing over to the state the most intimate of personal data. Millions of internal migrants and others were captivated by the power of the magic number that would unlock keys to the bugbear of their daily existence, the inability to access state and private services that are essential for a dignified if not empowered living like a ration card, bank account, voter identity card, Pan card and other such statutory and nonstatutory essentials. Others signed up out of sheer ignorance.
Nobody thought anything of parting with his or her personal details for the utopia of transiting from a nameless, faceless existence to the one with a demonstrable identity was both seductive and easy. In the process the government acquired proprietary control over personal, immutable and unalterable data of a billionplus people precisely the kind of basic raw material required for a humungous data refinery.
To stifle any serious deliberation around the entire issue the NDA/BJP government rammed the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016 subterfuge as money bill through Parliament without a thorough consideration by a parliamentary standing committee whereby safeguards could have been suggested as to how all the data collected in the absence of a legal architecture should be treated. Moreover the government has shared that data with private players of all shades enabling them to stockpile their own data troves without letting the citizens have any inkling of it.
The Aadhaar programme has changed the fundamental compact between the citizen and the state. Rather than the state organically flowing out of the collective free will of the sovereign, people have become but an object at the end of an extended leash in hands of an omnipotent state. It can be argued that people are also coerced into parting with their personal details when they obtain visas or arrive at foreign airports — the stripping before the white man analogy of a freshly minted Union minister. Even that is problematic and needs to be dealt with. However, first and foremost the time has come to take a fresh look at the entire Aadhaar programme if we the people are not to become new oil for the data refinery called the Government of India. The writer is a lawyer and a former Union minister. The views expressed are personal. Twitter handle @manishtewari The Imam in Asansol showed remarkable restraint in remaining calm and urging people not to get violent in the interest of peace even in the midst of personal loss (Asansol clash: Imam loses son, appeals for peace, DC, March 31). Communal violence during festivals is becoming common today in a country once wellknown for Ganga-Jamuna tehzeeb (culture). The appeal made by Imam of Noorani Masjid has not just save Asansol from a communal conflagration but also sent out a lesson on how to deal with aggression and provocation from people trying to foment trouble. Mohammad Ayub Mujahid Hyderabad
First and foremost the time has come to take a fresh look at the entire Aadhaar programme if we the people are not to become new oil for the data refinery called the Government of India...