HC seeks govt’s stand on data leak petition

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court sought the government’s stand on a plea alleging data leaks and cyber security breaches on platforms like Bigbasket, Dominos, Mobikwik and Air India.

Justice Rekha Palli, on August 13, granted time to the counsel for the Centre to seek instructions on the petition by Yarlagadda Kiran Chandra, general secretary of Free Software Movement of India, which claims to be a national coalition of various regional and sectoral free software movements.

“Learned counsel for the respondents, who appear on advance notice, prays for time to obtain instructions. List on September 23, 2021,” the judge said in her order.

In his plea, Chandra has sought a direction to Computer Emergency Respondent Team -India (CERT-IN) to act on his representation and commence investigation and review the alleged data breaches.

The petition claims that Chandra

wrote to the CERT-IN on several occasions on the breaches of data of millions of users of Big Basket, Mobikwik, Dominos and Air India platforms, urging it to investigate and update the citizens, but no action was taken.

It said that under Section 70B of the Information Technology Act, 2000, CERT-IN is responsible for collecting and analysing information on cyber incidents and taking emergency measures for handling cyber security incidents etc.

The petition said that presently, since there is no law governing data protection in India and the aggrieved users do not have any legislative recourse against such breaches, an investigation by CERT-IN on frequent data breaches at mass level is important to safeguard the privacy of users.

“The breach have leaked sensitive information of millions of users. These breaches the privacy of the users including their financial details and personal addresses,” the petition said.

The matter would be heard on September 23.