Modi govt trying to invade peoples' privacy by creating social media hub: Cong

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The Congress today accused the Modi government of trying to invade the privacy of every individual in the country by creating a social media hub and said it was behaving like a "big brother".

This government is habitual to prying in the lives of common people and had a repetitive ingrained tendency to act as a "super big brother and watch you, to intrude into every aspect of your life, body, every aspect of your privacy", Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi alleged.

Citing a Supreme Court judgment on privacy, he said the right to privacy was now a fundamental right and it cannot be invaded.

"You cannot peek into my life except in exceptional cases with specific authorisation not below the rank of an ACP level officer. We find it very curious that a tender (for the hub) given to a private agency for which bids are invited at Rs 42 crores.

"This is the worst example of using the taxpayers' money to snoop on the taxpayers," he said, alleging that the tender has been floated by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to create the so-called 'Social Media Communication Hub'.

Singhvi said that the standard digital channels listed are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google and Instagram, among others.

He alleged that there was not a single safeguard in the 66-page tender document to ensure how encrypted data will not be un-encrypted.

The reason why this is even more serious is that this government has a "proven track record of snooping shamelessly, of attempting to shamelessly enter everybody every aspect of your life which include established laws and rules", Singhvi alleged.

In this regard, he cited the example of the NamoApp, which seeks 22 pieces of information of all kinds from audio, video, contacts of your friends, family and location, among others.

"What is this mad obsession with collecting data?" he asked, pointing to a media report on how personal data of Aadhaar can be obtained by paying a paltry sum.

Instead of the plugging leaks and holes, the government filed an FIR against the journalist, the Congress leader said.

Singhvi said this government has the Sri Krishna Report and this report should be the basis for the prevention of Data Collection Act.

"What is the need and urgency to have a very strange kind of Social Media Communication Hub unless you integrate Data Protection Laws. It is not very surreptitious over clever method of intruding in a different form," he said.

Posing a set of questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, he asked, "Why doesn't Social Media Communication Hub tender does not clarify that the data which the said tool is accessing is at all or per say be encrypted?".

"PM Modi and his Minister of Information and Broadcasting should let us know where are the safeguards in building such a tool?" Singhvi asked.

"Why was there no consultation with the stakeholders in the IT and data industry before launching such a 'Social Media Communication Hub' or publishing such a tender?
On whether they would move court against the move, Singhvi said, "We reserve all including all our legal rights after all privacy is a Constitutional right, privacy is now a Supreme Court asserted comprehensively asserted rights and all those are available."