BJP leader calls for law to regulate data privacy

A senior member of BJP today said there is a need for a law to regulate data privacy and maintained a lot of apps obtain information from people that they are not supposed to do and are lax in managing them.
"You all know that a lot of apps take data from you which they are not supposed to. Who regulate them or set the standards for them? I think we, as a country or as the industry, have to think about it. Especially with the digital movement, I think we have no choice but to think about it," national head of BJP's IT Cell Arvind Gupta told reporters.

"May be there has to be a law to be thought about in the future," he said, speaking on the sidelines of an event hosted by American lender Citi here.
If not a separate law, concerns can be incorporated by amending the prevailing regulations on cyber security, he added.
Gupta was quick to stress that the Government's IT architecture does not have any such concerns and made a special mention of Aadhaar in this regard.
Asked about findings by an international agency showing concerns on cyber safety like trolling, Gupta declined to comment, saying he has not seen the report.

He said the rate of change to digitalisation in financial transactions is "fairly good" but underscored the need for it to help in other sectors like education and healthcare.

Terming cyber security as a "constant battle", Gupta said the entire system, including the consumer, their apps, the network and the enterprise, has to be in a state of alertness.
At the event, a public-private partnership started by Citi, aimed at finding newer digital solutions to solve real world problems across sectors, was launched.
Individuals, start-ups or large corporations will be submitting entries for the 'Citi tech for integrity challenge', and the final awards will be given in August after live demos, said Citi India's head for global consumer banking Kartik Kaushik.

The initiative was first launched at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos last month. Citi has partnered with other companies, including IBM, PwC and Wipro apart from the Government's Electronics and Information Technology Ministry, for the programme.