Blame Game Between Congress And BJP On Data Privacy

Is your personal data safe? That's the question that has dogged citizens, first with Aadhaar and then since the Facebook data scandal emerged recently. In the case of Facebook, the data of 50 million people -- their personal information, contacts, etc -- was illegally obtained by a company called Cambridge Analytica. The data was then allegedly used to influence voters in election campaigns of leaders like US President Donald Trump and even in India. The data debate has now exploded. Both the Congress and the BJP have spent most of the last 24 hours accusing each other of illegally mining the data of people who downloaded their official apps. It began with the criticism Prime Minister Narendra Modi's app, and a report that 13 lakh National Cadet Corps members have been asked to download the PM Modi app. It turns out the app was sending data to a third-party domain in the US. But it turns out the Congress's official app was also sending data to a server in Singapore. This is not the first time India is debating privacy. The Aadhaar debate is a huge part of it. The bigger question is: does India take data privacy too lightly?