Parliamentary panel summons Twitter, IRCTC over data privacy

India

oi-Deepika S

New
Delhi,
Aug
26:
Shashi
Tharoor-led
parliamentary
panel
has
called
top
executives
of
social
media
giant
Twitter
on
Friday
on
the
issue
of
citizens’ data
security
and
privacy.
The
panel
is
likely
to
question
them
about
a
tender
floated
by
it
to
hire
a
consultant
to
monetise
its
passenger
and
freight
customer
data.

The
meeting
will
be
held
a
day
after
the
Supreme
Court
said
the
technical
panel
appointed
by
it
to
probe
the
unauthorised
use
of
Pegasus
has
found
some
malware
in
five
mobile
phones
out
of
the
29
examined
but
it
could
not
be
concluded
that
it
was
due
to
the
Israeli
spyware.

Meanwhile,
Twitter
has
said
that
it
was
a
false
narrative
and
the
allegations
and
opportunistic
timing
appear
designed
to
capture
attention
and
inflict
harm
on
the
company,
its
customers
and
its
shareholders.

According
to
international
media
reports,
former
head
of
security
at
Twitter
Peiter
Zatko
has
also
alleged
that
Twitter
knowingly
allowed
the
Indian
government
to
place
its
agents
on
the
company
payroll
where
they
had
“direct
unsupervised
access
to
the
company’s
systems
and
user
data”.

Malware
found
in
phones
not
Pegasus:
SC
panel

Former
Congress
president
Rahul
Gandhi
attacked
the
government
over
the
issue
on
Wednesday.
Tagging
a
related
report,
he
tweeted,
“Snooping,
threatening
and
stealing
are
the
foundations
of
the
‘Amritkaal’ promised
by
the
PM.”
It
was
not
clear
if
the
matter
will
be
taken
up
at
the
panel
meeting.

The
Tharoor-led
panel
has
been
holding
meetings
with
various
stakeholders
including
tech
companies,
social
media
firms,
ministries
and
other
regulators
on
the
issue
of
citizens’
data
security
and
privacy.

The
panel
has
also
called
officials
of
the
Indian
Railway
Catering
and
Tourism
Corporation
(IRCTC)
on
the
same
issue
of
citizens’
data
security
and
privacy,
according
to
the
notice
of
the
meeting
issued
by
the
Lok
Sabha
Secretariat.

The
IRCTC,
which
has
more
than
10
crore
users,
of
which
7.5
crore
are
active
users,
has
floated
a
tender
to
hire
a
consultant
to
monetise
its
passenger
and
freight
customer
data
to
generate
revenue
up
to
₹
1,000
crore.

Sources
in
the
panel
said
on
Wednesday
that
the
issue
will
be
taken
up
for
discussion
in
the
meeting
with
the
IRCTC
officials.

The
Railways
has
not
officially
commented
on
the
tender.
However,
highly
placed
sources
said
it
will
be
rescinded
considering
the
fact
that
the
government
has
withdrawn
the
Data
Protection
Bill
from
Parliament.

The
Centre
had
on
August
3
withdrew
the
long-awaited
Personal
Data
Protection
(PDP)
Bill,
2019
to
replace
it
with
a
new
bill
with
a
‘comprehensive
framework’ and
‘contemporary
digital
privacy
laws’.

According
to
the
IRCTC
tender
document,
the
data
to
be
studied
will
include
information
captured
by
the
transporter’s
various
public-facing
applications
such
as
“name,
age,
mobile
number,
gender,
address,
e-mail
ID,
class
of
journey,
payment
mode,
log
in
or
password” and
other
details.