FROM THE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
When bestselling writer Yuval Noah Harari talked at the India Today Conclave in Mumbai of the possibility of the North Korean government forcing its citizens to wear a bracelet transmitting biometric data to government data centres to monitor how people feel about their leader , it seemed straight out of science fiction . In a Digital Dictatorship , he warned , technology would be able to extract high-precision biometric data from people and report back to a centralised decision-making control system , owned by governments or by corporations — or both . It turns out we ’ re not so far off from that reality , given recent revelations by a whistleblower of the role of British firm Cambridge Analytica ( CA ) in using a data-harvesting app that was allowed by Facebook to gather data of 50 million users without their consent . Set up in 2014 with Steve Bannon , the former chief strategist of United States President Donald Trump , as vicepresident , CA used the data to aid Trump ’ s 2016 presidential campaign as well as to manipulate audience behaviour in the 2016 Brexit referendum and the 2017 Kenyan elections . According to the whistleblower , former CA employee Christopher Wylie , the Facebook data helped develop psychological profiles of users , which was subsequently used to influence them . This , reportedly , had a greater impact on voters than traditional advertising .
The story has an Indian dimension too , with Wylie claiming that the Congress might have been CA ’ s client in the past . The Congress has strongly denied the allegation and that explains the current slanging match between them and the BJP on this issue . Be that as it may , the larger question is of the emergence of transnational digital corporations such as Facebook , Google and Amazon whose access to information has given them great power with practically no accountability . They know everything about us — where we are , who we talk to , what we buy , access to our e-mails and our contacts , our photographs , our interests , our predilections and more . Enough to build a complete psychological profile of us .
Now the big question is how all this data is used and by whom . I may have given my consent in order to use the services offered by these companies , but as it is now being discovered , this has huge societal implications . This data is the new gold in the hands of private corporations whose prime motive is profit . They are like the monopoly oil companies of yore which had to be broken up to avoid concentration of economic power . It is possibly worse , as it can be used , as we have seen in America and other countries , to subvert democracy . Messages can be sent that play to our prejudices . Add to that fake bots and Twitter accounts that can influence the way we think . Another byproduct of this algorithm-driven
Our September 27 , 2004 , cover
data mining is that we will continue to be served the kind of content we had liked in the past . This means the converted speak to the converted with the result that diversity of opinion and debate get restricted .
This is not a problem confined to developed countries . With over 250 million active users , India has the largest user base for Facebook . WhatsApp and Instagram , two other entities owned by Facebook , have over 200 million and 53 million users in India , respectively . India has a low social media penetration of 19 per cent at the moment but with a 31 per cent annual growth rate , it is the second fastest growing country in this aspect . Predicting voter behaviour through Facebook trends may be vastly overrated , but politics is increasingly about selling a product . No wonder the number of followers or likes one has is a matter of significance . This explains why heads of state like Trump and Narendra Modi use social media platforms like Twitter to announce executive orders , conduct diplomacy and communicate directly with voters .
This controversy comes close on the heels of embarrassing leaks in India ' s biometric ID programme Aadhaar , which , with over 1.1 billion users , is the world ' s biggest database . The cover story , written by Senior Associate Editor Kaushik Deka , with columns by experts across several fields , examines all aspects and underlines the necessity of regulating potential misuse of data as well as defining the privacy law clearly — the Supreme Court has already said Indians enjoy a fundamental right to privacy , that it is intrinsic to life and liberty and thus comes under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution . India is the fifth most vulnerable country in the world in terms of cyber security breaches , according to the Internal Security Threat Report of 2017 by Symantec . Clearly , unless you wish to lead a life of an ascetic , it is impossible to escape the digital world . It has changed our lives for the better , but at a huge cost . These new digital gatekeepers have the potential of poisoning our politics and tainting our society . There is also the danger of the government getting its grubby hands on data of private citizens . Democracy is not just about elections , but also about protection of people ’ s liberties and freedoms . There is an urgent need for regulation which is transparent about the sharing and use of data . So next time you are on a social media platform or on a search engine , remember many Big Brothers are tracking you . Privacy is truly dead .
( Aroon Purie )
APRIL 9 , 2018 INDIA TODAY 1