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Privacy Rights of a Bangalore Citizen
Written By Sindhu - 23 June, 2009
Bangalore BBMP property taxes Privacy Need Help Everything else
The BBMP has put up the property details of all the property tax payers and those who not yet paid taxes in 2008-09 on bmponline.org.
On the one hand it is indeed a laudable initiative toward transparency and accountability. It lets each of us verify if our payment has indeed been recorded correctly in the BBMP database.
Yet, the way the reports are accessible on the site is in my opinion a violation of the privacy of property owners in Bangalore. The information can be downloaded at the road level for each ward and area and we can download a PDF which lists every single property with the owner's name and address.
The irony is that if you have paid tax, then more of your information in in public domain.
The data with names and addresses, property number and size of property can be 'farmed/mined' by any one and used for marketing their services. It can also be used by cyber-savvy hoodlums, kidnappers, extortionists and blackmailers.
Further, even for those who have apparently not paid 'tax', should this list be available to all? How correct is this information? As someone mentioned, what if the citizen had indeed paid taxes and the BBMP system did not record it correctly? That the information is "out there" as a person who has not paid taxes not affect his /her credit worthiness?
When I tried to find out if this was not a violation of my privacy, I was told that in India the right to Privacy is NOT a fundamental right. Judgements of the Supreme Court have given some definitions but these have been specific to certain cases.
Is this true? What can be done about it?
Regards,
Sindhu
COMMENTS
murali772 - 24 June, 2009 - 06:49
Welcome to PRAJA, Sindhu. And, indeed a valid point you have made.
In fact, as I have already mentioned
, the entries pertaining to my property have been made incorrectly. I have used the provision made on the site for alerting them on the mistake. I have not checked if the corrections have been effected. Whatever, I can't see that as having any serious impact on a person's creditworthiness. And, the advantages to the community on the whole through equitable tax collection are far higher.
As to the question of privacy - well, how much of it there anyway, even today? Through club memberships, credit/ debit cards, and the information you fill out against various reward schemes, the entire world knows enough about you already. And, with the proposed
scheme, which the new government is expected to roll out soon, whatever little privacy remained, will also go. I suppose this is the price you'll have to pay for development, whether you like it or not.
Well, when all the neta's and babu's are required to place all the info about themselves before the public, perhaps it's only fair that the 'praja' have also to follow suit. So, I atleast am not complaining.
Muralidhar Rao
Rithesh - 29 June, 2009 - 04:08
@Syed
I tried two numbers, in one it gave the chassis details and make of the vehicle. For the other one it said "The Vehilce No is wrong". I think they are still working on it and is not fully functional.
@SB
Check my previous post - i have posted a link to the article in Hindu.
@srkuhalli
Sir fear of police harrasment is sometimes over state (i am not ruling it out though). Sometimes it is just a fear - or the cultural attitude of our society which pervents us from going to the Police station. When these thugs know for sure that the victims wont go to the police, would they be worried even if their address is easily accessible. I feel the scope of misusing this feature is more than its advantages.
idontspam - 24 June, 2009 - 07:37
It is ironic that personal information of the citizens can be got at the click of a button yet we have to struggle to get information from public authorities who by law are accountable to us. If its not mandatory it is not done, first the IRC and now privacy.
Online information access is new area for bureaucracy and there are no/minimal laws on what information can be protected. At bare minimum access entitlements should be the same as it exists for paper documents.
The entire bureaucracy has created a governance structure which makes us run through RTI hoops to get information. WIth unique id hope a similar structure gets built by design which protects personal information.
§§§ Tweetenator
Rithesh - 25 June, 2009 - 09:17
If i am right, the initial plan was to put up the name of defaulters who had not paid the tax on the website. In fact many organizations like Janaagraha have been advocating this concept.
The idea the was to ensure people pay up their taxes or face the humiliation of having their names displayed in the defaulters list. The defaulters list was to be put up in public spaces of the particular locality.
You could say the same about the electoral roles too. Its very easy to find a persons' name and address. But as long as these lists do not include personal information like date of birth, age, phone numbers, vehicle numbers, etc etc., these are fine.
The RTO for example is one violator, few weeks back they came up with this feature where people could SMS a vehicle's registration number to RTO to get the address of the owner. This i think is a clear violation of ones privacy. Why would anybody want this information. If there was a real need like in case of theft or hit and run cases, the police could anyways get this information through the right channels.
RTO operates under State Transport Ministry!
kbsyed61 - 28 June, 2009 - 15:31
RTO operates under state transport department with state transport minister being the head and transport secretary being the bureaucrat who is responsible for its day-today operations.
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