Trai calls for data protection, says soon recommend policies on privacy, net neutrality

At the ‘i-Bharat 2017’ organized by FICCI, Telecom Regulation Authority (Trai) Chairman RS Sharma announced that data protection in now going to be the top priority and was in favor of assigning responsibility to the stakeholders to ensure customers’ data being safeguarded.
He said that policies would be finalized only after seeking views and opinions of relevant stakeholders. Trai would probably send its recommendations for data privacy to Justice Srikrishna Committee.
RS Sharma said,” Currently, there is a huge amount of monopoly that monopoly is becoming bigger and bigger. We are saying you can use my data because we are using your application, but give us too so that we can use it for other purposes too. This should be finalized by December-January.”
According to Trai chief, there is an asymmetry of information. The users aren’t even aware of the consequences of sharing data and its drastic misuses.
Coming to the issue of net neutrality i.e. access to internet content without discrimination in data speed and cost, Sharma said that Trai will come out with its views on net neutrality very soon. He added that data portability should also become a part of the modern concern.
This isn’t the very first data protection call. Back in August, former Aadhar Chairman Nandan Nilekani had urged the govt. to come up with a framework to protect data of individuals using technology. He also addressed that Aadhar system, which contains all the mis-usable data, hasn’t been breached yet but in future data security was going to be a big concern for the government. It is not actually a technology issue but a much more policy issue that needs to be implemented soon.
Also, Apple has been accused of engaging in data colonization in India. It’s been charged for not allowing users to pass on details about pesky calls and irrelevant messages to authorities or mobile operators. Sharma poked on this and said,” While Google’s Android supports our Do-Not-Disturb app, Apple has just been discussing, discussing and discussing. They haven’t done anything.” Currently, a user knows nothing of what so far happens to their data and this information needs to be given back to people for more righteous privacy.