Most people think govt was responsible for leak of personal data: Report

Even as the government gears up to present the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023 before the parliament on Thursday, a survey shows a majority of the people think their personal data was lost in a leak from various government agencies.

According to the report, Aadhaar and PAN card numbers, mobile numbers and email addresses were the most commonly leaked personal data. The survey, released by community platform LocalCircles, is based on over 23,000 responses from citizens located in 309 districts of India. 45 per cent respondents were from tier-1 cities, 34 per cent from tier-2 and 21 per cent respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

• 72% citizens surveyed say their personal data has been leaked
• 56% believe central government offices, databases or staff (EPF, Passport, CoWIN, Aarogya Setu, Aadhaar, Vehicle Ownership, etc.) were responsible for leak
• 81% people who lost data in a leak believe the state or local government offices were responsible
• 7 in 10 citizens surveyed believe one or more of their personal data elements have been compromised
• 50% citizens surveyed say their Aadhaar or PAN or both are in public domain
• 75% hold telcos responsible, while 69% think bank and financial service providers were responsible