Now, websites sell students’ details

HYDERABAD: Sensitive details like name, phone number, place of residences, previous names of educational institutions and other details of lakhs of students, including minors, are on the sale on websites. The issue came to light when French researcher Robert Baptiste tweeted the website’s link on Friday saying, “Only in #India: the website http://studentsdatabase.in is selling student databases. You can even access a sample of the data for free.” However, this issue is not a new one.

News reports dating back to 2017, had highlighted the way these websites, including the one mentioned above, were selling information for a lump sum. Till now, no action has been taken against these websites who continue to divulge information of students belonging to numerous states in the country.

A Faluknama resident who appeared for his standard XII exam in 2017, was one among the thousands whose data leaked online. When Express contacted his brother, he said, “We have no idea about this. My brother has now got into a college yet.”

But who buys the data?

The buyers are often colleges themselves. These educational institutions contact students who often do not get the desired amount of marks in their respective competitive examination. For example:

If the student who scored below average marks in MAT, these educational institutions who bought his details from sites like students database.in will spam his phone with calls, messages and even emails asking him/her to join their institution. G Ganesh, a Twitter user in a reply to the tweet by Robert Baptiste, wrote, “I have been a victim. They (educational institutions) usually start spamming with messages, emails and calls.