In breach of privacy, auto value chain data sold to pvt parties

Agencies
September 20, 2019

Mumbai, Sept 20: With data privacy now becoming hot button, breaches too are common place. However, when the government itself decides to wilfully use data to generate revenue, then questions of propriety are raised for this is proprietary data with the right to it and ownership of it vested with the individual. With the government looking to monetise data, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had revealed in Parliament recently that the government is selling vehicle registration and driving licence data of Indians and earning money from it. It is not known whether this decision was ratified by the Law Ministry since issues of privacy are involved.

Replying to a query posed by Congress MP Husain Dalwa, who asked if the government has intended to sell Vahan and Sarathi database in bulk (and) if so, the estimated value for the sale, Gadkari stated that it has provided 87 private and 32 government entities access to Vahan and Sarathi database which has yielded a revenue of Rs 65 crore so far. This is peanuts for the breach involves giving access to tele marketers, leading to widespread harassment, DND (do not disturb) be damned.

If you want to know why the frequency of car manufacturers, financiers and insurers tele calls is rising, then Mr Gadkari is partly to blame for it. More and more people are being inundated with phone calls on topups or loans against owned cars or purchase of upgrades and the reason behind it is that data has been made freely available to a slew of people connected to the auto industry.

An IANS investigation has found that manufacturers Toyota Kirloskar, Tata Motors, Volkswagen India, Indo Farm Equipment manufacturer of tractors, pick n carry cranes, rotary tillers and harvestors; banks like Stan Chart, SBI, Banaskantha Mercantile Coop Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDFC Bank, Indus India Bank and Kotak Mahindra bank and vehicle financing companies like Khushbhu Auto Finance, Kanak Durga Finance, John Dere Financial Services, India Infoline Financial, Home Credit India Finance, Hinduja Leyland Finance, Hero Fin Corp, HBD Financial Services and insurers HDFC Ergo General Insurance, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co, Sundaram Finance, Suryoday Small Finance, Tata Capital Financial Services, Oriental General Insurance, TVS Credit Services are the bulk buyers of the data. These are some of the buyers till date and they represent virtually the entire automobile food chain.

The Vahan and Sarathi ministry maintains the Centralized National Registry through the National Informatics Centre and it contains approximately 25 crore vehicle registration records and 15 crore driving licence records. For the same, the Road Transport and Highways Ministry has also created "Bulk Data Sharing Policy & Procedure".

In Parliament, Gadkari had added that organizations seeking bulk data could obtain it at a price of Rs 3 crore. According to him, education institutes seeking the data could obtain it for "research purposes and internal use only" for a price of Rs 5 lakh.

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News Network
May 7,2020

May 7: Two people, including a child, were killed and nearly 70 hospitalised after a gas leak at a chemical plant in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam in the wee hours of Thursday, officials said.

People in Gopalapatnam area, where the chemical plant, LG Polymers, is located, complained of irritation in eyes, breathlessness, nausea and rashes on their bodies.

District Collector V Vinay Chand said two people were killed due to the gas leak, while some are in a critical condition.

Close to 70 people have been admitted to the King George Hospital after for treatment, he said.

TV channels showed people lying unconscious on roads.

Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have rushed to the spot.

Reports said the gas leak has been contained.

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy enquired about the incident and directed the Visakhapatnam district collector to ensure proper medical care for the affected people.

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Agencies
May 5,2020

Jammu and Kashmir, May 5: Awarding the prestigious Pulitzer Prize to three Indian photographers, the Pulitzer Board at Columbia University claimed that it was for their work in Kashmir as "India revoked its independence".

The award to Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin in the feature photography category for their pictures for the Associated Press was announced on Monday.

The prizes, considered the most prestigious for US journalism, are associated with the university's Graduate School of Journalism where the judging is done and is announced, although this year it was done remotely.

Besides a certificate, the prizes carry a cash award of $15,000, except the public service category for which a gold medal is awarded.

The public service prize went to The Anchorage Daily News for a series that dealt with policing in Alaska state.

In making the award to the three, the Board said on its website that it was "for striking images of life in the contested territory of Kashmir as India revoked its independence, executed through a communications blackout".

Besides making the false claim about "independence" of Kashmir being "revoked", the board that includes several leading journalists did not explain how their photographs could have reached the AP within hours of the incidents recorded "through a communication blackout".

India's Central government only revoked Article 370 of the Constitution that gave Jammu and Kashmir a special status and it was not independent.

Indian journalists were allowed to operate in Kashmir, while only non-Indian journalists were barred.

The wording of the award announcement calls into question the credibility of the Pulitzer Board that gives out what are considered prestigious journalism awards.

The portfolio of pictures by the three on the Pulitzer web site included one of a masked person attacking a police vehicle and another of masked people with variants of the Kashmir flag, besides photos of mourners and protesters.

One of the finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism was a reporter of Indian descent at The Los Angeles Times, Swetha Kannan, who was nominated for her work with two colleagues on the seas rising due to climate change.

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Agencies
February 20,2020

Kanpur, Feb 20: Inspector general, Kanpur range, has ordered a probe into a woman's allegation that the cops misbehaved with her at Raipurwa police station when she went there with her father to lodge a complaint of harassment and eve-teasing.

The woman posted her complaint on the Twitter handle of Kanpur police.

The woman, 21, alleged that instead of listening to her complaint, Raipurwa cops asked her, "Zyada padh gayi ho, itna advance kisne bana dia hai, tumhare Papa ne?" (You are too educated. Who made you so advanced - your father?)

She further said that instead of taking necessary action on her complaint, the police forced her father to compromise with the accused, the son of her landlord, who harassed her on Monday.

The woman also stated that there were no female cops at the police station and she had to wait for several hours.

"Throughout my presence at the police station, I had to interact with male cops," she tweeted.

Inspector, Raipurwa, Sunil Kumar, however, has denied allegations.

"Her allegations are not true. Both the parties settled the dispute on their own," he said.

IG Range, Mohit Agarwal, meanwhile, said, "I have asked the SSP to initiate a probe in this regard and take action against guilty cops."

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