Data theft and misuse are becoming serious threats to individuals, organisations and even nations, bringing turmoil in people’s and nations’ lives and fortunes. While it is imperative that data is protected from misuse by data-gathering organisations and through foolproof laws, individual vigilance is also essential to prevent its rampant abuse
There is turmoil in the political system of the world’s oldest democracy, and the echo of the same is heard in the world’s largest democracy. The Brexit referendum in UK also looks dubious. Things are happening because of the alleged dubious role of a British company, namely Cambridge Analytica (CA) whose holding company is US-based. The allegation is that personal data of 80 million American subscribers of Facebook was inappropriately used by CA to influence the US Presidential election in 2016. It is alleged that a similar attempt was also made by CA during the Brexit referendum. It has also been alleged that Facebook allowed a professor in London to study its data for research purposes but the professor illegally transferred the data to CA. The CA, in turn, used the study of behavioural pattern of the subscribers and their friends on Facebook to influence the voters by designed publicity. CA used data illegally to achieve its nefarious objective. As per the sting operation of the CEO of this company, it appears that the company went to the level of bribing and prostitution.
There are also rumblings in India as it has been alleged that this company was used by some political parties to influence voters. This company was established in 2013 and it became fully operational in 2015. Investigation is being carried out in the US and there was also a search action against the company in London by an authorised agency of the British government. The Indian government has also raised serious questions about its role in our country and is seeking an early reply.
The London-based professor Mr Kogan is a psychology professor and he analysed the behavioural pattern of data users and their friends. This could have been a good research in the field of social media. However, this creditable research was transferred to CA whose nature of activity has been political liaising and influencing the elections of various countries. Countries other than US which were allegedly influenced thus are Brazil, South Korea and India. Social media messaging was created for groups having identical views of the company to win elections for client political parties. These messages were circulated by the groups among friends and also in other groups so as to create a wrong impression against opposite parties and to create a positive picture about the client parties of the company. It is alleged that President Donald Trump benefitted from such effort. The actual situation will be known to the world only after the inquiry is completed.
Facebook has accepted that its data has been misused for political purposes and has virtually apologised for the same by publishing full-page advertisements in leading newspapers of USA and Britain. The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has personally admitted the lapse and apologised before the US Congress. The market capitalisation of Facebook has dived because of this.
The very essence of democracy is participation of voters with an unbiased mind, without any fear or favour. Democracy will fail if the minds of the electorate are poisoned with fake news cleverly created by social media or even mainstream media. Facebook is the biggest social media platform and so it has more responsibility to protect its data from ulterior use. Data these days is more precious than gold and it has to be kept safely. Misuse of data can play havoc in several fields like politics, economics and even in personal areas when it is used for defaming people.
The rise of social media has been meteoric in a short time, but the safeguards for the protection of data have not kept pace with it. There are always dangers of hacking along with the utter misuse of data, as CA has done. We have cyber laws in our country but they are not foolproof. Several countries have developed expertise in hacking the data of premier organisations and government departments of other countries, with ulterior motives. Today, Facebook is such that anybody can know about us, our tastes and also about our friends. Our private life has become an open book now. Can we trust the evil eyes that can unduly know more about us? We have to think twice before posting news and views about ourselves.
It is not that everything is bad about social media. We can make a wider group of friends. We know more about many things concerning our life, our hobbies, and even about the world. Our viewpoint widens. It is the evil design of some which discredits social media. There can be the best of both worlds if misuse of data is stopped. Facebook has promised that it will now be extra vigilant and that such misuse of data, as done by CA, will not happen in the future.
If we look into the problem holistically, we will find that the real problem lies in the business model of our social media companies. They provide services to their customers free or at a nominal cost while they have to generate enough revenue to meet their cost and earn some profit too. Advertisements become the main source of their revenue and sometimes greed makes them sell their data and then this data may fall into the wrong hands. Data is also sometimes sold to companies for their marketing. For example, a sports company comes to know who are sportspersons in the society and similarly a pharmaceutical company comes to know as to who are sick and the nature of their sickness. Then, such companies design their advertisements accordingly. Thus data remains unprotected and they keep on flowing from one hand to another.
In the Indian political system, misuse of data can be a serious threat as the same can reveal the caste, religion and language of the data owners and this can be used selfishly by political parties and their agents for influencing the elections. Right to Privacy has been declared a Fundamental Right by the honourable Supreme Court and in such a situation, violation of the same is not justified. The government has to legislate strict laws to stop violation of our privacy rights. The entities and social media groups which are the custodians of our personal data should be awarded harsh punishment for any lapse on their part.
Such lapse is possible even in the case of our Aadhar Card data and hence strict safeguards have to be made to protect them. The matter of Aadhar card is sub judice before the Supreme Court and all pros and cons are being considered by the honourable court. In the digital world which is the emerging future now, data has to be generated as it will serve as tools for running any organisation or country. Hence we cannot shy away from data collection but efforts should be made that it is not hacked or go into the wrong hands.
Cash, jewellery and other valuables can be kept in bank lockers for their safety but how do we keep our data safe? Data remains with the organisations in their software and hardware. They have to be properly encrypted with safety devices and honest employees of the organisations should be made custodians for maintenance of the same. Secret codes should be changed frequently. Political parties misusing the data for illegally winning the elections should be punished by the Election Commission.
"The very essence of democracy is participation of voters with an unbiased mind, without any fear or favour. Democracy will fail if the minds of the electorate are poisoned with fake news cleverly created by social media or even mainstream media"
USA and Britain should lead by setting examples as far as Facebook and CA are concerned. They should award them appropriate punishment for negligence in the case of the former and criminal activity in the case of the latter. The world will watch and that will set the tone the world over. In addition, particularly in the context of our country, our people should be taught as how to use apps, Facebook-like platforms and even smartphones so as to keep their data secret so that nobody can use the data without their explicit and categorical consent.
Many of us use these platforms and services but we are ignorant about the safety measures, the ignorance of which can hurt our personal interest. We do not read the fine print in the apps and in the devices. Professor Kogan used an app about a quiz to steal our data which was on Facebook. We ourselves constitute both the cause and effect of misuse of our personal information. If we want our privacy to remain secure, we need to be extra vigilant. The rule of the law will work but as prevention is better than cure, we have to be cautious and selective. We should also decide not to propagate unverified messages as it may lead to misinformation and chaos in our society and the country.
Napoleon Bonaparte said, “Four hostile newspapers are to be feared more than a thousand bayonets.” We should go for unbiased and credible news published in respectable newspapers and not follow distorted information campaigns based on data theft with an ulterior objective. ‘It is better to be uninformed than misinformed,’ as Mark Twain once said.
by S K Jha
