Towards zero privacy

The NDA government has warned Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg of “strong action” if it attempted to interfere with elections in India. That is a long shot from the time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad feted Zuckerberg at different times. Facebook came close to ending Net neutrality in India, but for the last-minute thumbs down by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The BJP has accused the Congress of using the now-notorious Cambridge Analytica in elections. The Congress has hit back with the same charge. The truth may never come out, but it is also a fact that social media, particularly Facebook, was used extensively during polls, whether or not using legitimate data. It is also a fact that social media platforms worked better for the BJP three years ago, and the balance is tilting now; that, however, may be a reflection of the country’s political mood more than technology use.

Zuckerberg has now used very sincere words to apologise for the “mistake”, and promised to make amends. But is an apology, however sincere, a guarantee mistakes will not be repeated? And we are not talking about Facebook alone. Governments, too, hold immense amounts of personal data, and recent experience shows not all of it is totally secure. Security is only as good as the integrity of the man or men holding the key. And once stolen, electronic data is very easy to transmit, manipulate, interpolate, or interpret for various needs. Data, of course, can be gathered very legitimately too; it just takes a bit longer. And thereafter deployed to deadly effect; the only limitation is the resources of the entity using it.

A real spectre the world may have to come to terms with is that all the effort to protect privacy may only at best delay its absolute loss. Both governments and unethical/pioneering tech-based services are doing their best to get as much hold over people’s lives as possible. The day may not be far when entities may know your pulse rate in real time.