Consent is crucial

Consent is crucial

Context

Data protection

Backdrop

Data science and data protection are in news due to two recent incidents

• Data breach at Facebook, which saw allegations of the U.K.-based Cambridge Analytica (CA) illegally accessing over 87 million users’ information for personalisation of digital campaigns
• Allegations are being made that the official mobile apps of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Congress party had sent user data without consent to foreign companies for analytical purposes.

Utility of Data Science

Data science generally tends to produce win-win scenarios for the practising organisations and their end users

• For example, its application in election processes can make it possible for various political parties to understand their voters better, and to reach out to them more effectively
• The insights derived after analysing feedback from the electorate can be used while creating manifestos, formulating policies, and selecting candidates — steps that can essentially usher in a more transparent and participatory democracy

Negatives of Data Science

Applications of data science, along with large social media platforms with hundreds of millions of active users, could unduly subvert our democratic processes, and turn our elections into mere marketing campaigns

Way forward

We should move towards a strong data privacy and data protection framework