8 out of 10 people concerned about Aadhaar data privacy: Study.

8 out of 10 people are concerned about their Aadhaar data security and feel that the government should intervene for online data protection, a Velocity MR survey showed.

Following the Facebook data scandal perpetrated by Cambridge Analytica, 80% Indians are concerned about their Aadhaar data privacy, a study by market research and analysis company Velocity MR.

The Velocity MR study, in which 5,800 respondents participated, shows 8 out of 10 people are concerned about their Aadhaar data security and feel that the government should intervene for online data protection.

“Every netizen is leaving a trail of digital footprints with everything that they click online. From personal information, to financial data, to biometric details, all this data is accessible in some form or the other on various foreign servers that one cannot fathom,” Velocity MR CEO Jasal Shah said.

“With the new European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regime coming into play, it is a wake-up call for internet companies to tighten their security policies with immediate effect,” he added.

Europe has introduced the GDPR regime that all tech companies have to adhere to. The Facebook data scandal has created awareness like never before on issues around data privacy, user rights and consent policies, nudging tech companies to review and strengthen their data protection rules.

According to Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairperson J. Satyanarayana, more than 121 crore Indians have been enrolled for Aadhaar and it has been used for over 19 billion authentications so far.

The Velocity MR study, which covered Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Pune, also noted that 4 in every 10 respondents said their opinion about Facebook has gone down in recent months.

One in three respondents said that they would share lesser on Facebook, even though they will continue to be on Facebook, the study said.

Moreover, even though people believe that social media sites are not completely safe for financial transactions, they have not completely stopped using it either. The higher age group of 46-60 years is more willing to continue using Facebook as before, the study noted. (Source: Livemint)