Legislative Step Towards Protection Of Data And Major Concerns Surrounding It

Suryansh Sharan, ICFAI University, Dehradun

Introduction

In the present era, one of the major issues which affect people around the world is the privacy of their data. A substantial population around the world has a digital presence with that number increasing day by day. If we look at the stats alone, the number of active users of the internet has exploded since the dawn of smartphones. According to Statista, the number of internet users worldwide stood at more than 5.2 billion, which translates to more than 2/3rd of the world’s population. If we look at India, in a report published on Data Reportal in 2022, the active internet users in India in 2022 stood at around 658 million, which translates to approximately 47% of the population has now access to the internet. Such numbers are bound to increase in the upcoming years. Where there is a population there is an opportunity for companies to exploit them to earn profits hence there is a dire need for governments around the world to implement such laws in the interest of citizens, which protects their citizens. In the age of algorithms and AI, companies have found new ways to monitor and mold user behavior in ways which is profitable to them. The Companies assign huge sums of money to online market research and to improve their algorithm so that they can track the buying behavior of their customers. Most of the company make a profile on their individual customers and show them ads of products that they may likely purchase. Be it a click on a certain website, a search-on-search engines, or even casual browsing of the internet, everything is monitored by the algorithm. Allegedly there have been numerous reports where such companies have even interfered with private conversations or there have been cyber-attacks where crucial information shared on these platforms have been made public or sold to other companies. In such an environment, it is very crucial to restrict such companies to a certain amount of data and laws relating to what can and cannot be stored or further shared/sold.