Proposed privacy law will create monopoly: Gulshan Rai

The proposed data protection law will create a sort of "monopoly" when it comes to data collection and surveillance, and the government will have to control these issues, a former cyber security official said on Wednesday.

Gulshan Rai, the ex-national cyber security coordinator, also said that virtually every mobile phone in the country, with a few exceptions, is "compromised" due to the activity of a host of unknown apps (applications) being downloaded by the users.

He was addressing a session on 'dimensions of digital revolution and security' here.

Answering a question on possible security pitfalls in the backdrop of the Aadhaar-PAN linking and similar issues, Rai said technology in the country to secure data has "significantly improved" over the last two years and the government is "serious" to create a robust technology system to check these issues.

"In the Internet, there are so many points where the data is being stored and from where it gets leaked and I really don't know?"