New Delhi : Expressing serious concern over information surveillance taking place in the country for commercial purposes, the Supreme Court on Thursday said that individual data is a goldmine of commercial information.
“Today, commercial information is itself a goldmine of information. Even little things we disclose for Aadhaar is available for commercial purposes. We are dealing with data of 1.3 billion people, some of who may be poor…but the goldmine of information is available for commercial purposes,” the five-judge constitution bench observed.
The bench also referred to the testimony of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg before the US Congress to press home the point that technology was a powerful enabler of mass surveillance, which could even influence elections in a major democracy like the US.
“Can you deprive a person of his property (money)? Can a rule be made beyond the scope of the law? The consequence here leads to deprivation. One cannot withdraw his own money as the account is not linked… first, the account is suspended and then it may be blocked after six months. Can you do this,” asked the bench.