IRCTC withdraws tender on knowledge monetisation

Indian Railways’ catering and ticketing arm Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has withdrawn a controversial tender — which proposed hiring a marketing consultant to monetise a bulk of its passengers’ knowledge — because the authorities has withdrawn the info safety Bill.

The tender had alarmed activists who mentioned it may result in a violation of privateness of people that have used IRCTC’s providers because it sought to analyse knowledge factors like their names, contact numbers, addresses and even “login/password” credentials. In a notification to inventory exchanges on Friday, IRCTC mentioned it was withdrawing the tender because the Centre has withdrawn the “Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018”.

The firm can be learnt to have knowledgeable concerning the tender’s withdrawal to the Shashi Tharoor-led Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT. The panel had summoned IRCTC officers for a listening to on Friday on the subject of residents’ knowledge privateness and security after its passenger knowledge monetisation plans had raised issues amongst privateness activists.

The choice to withdraw the tender was taken at IRCTC’s annual normal assembly on Friday earlier than its representatives testified in entrance of the Parliamentary panel. The tender was additionally taken down from the corporate’s web site on Friday.

An IRCTC spokesperson didn’t reply to a right away request for remark.

According to the tender initially launched in July, IRCTC buyer knowledge that might doubtlessly be monetised included passengers’ identify, age, cell quantity, gender, electronic mail tackle, cost mode, “login/password”, amongst different issues. The chosen marketing consultant additionally needed to segregate monetisable knowledge, establish its market potential and put together a ultimate roadmap for the monetisation of this knowledge.

The firm was seeking to monetise its digital belongings anticipating that it will give it a income of round Rs 1,000 crore. “IRCTC is a reservoir of huge amounts of digital data which opens several opportunities for IRCTC for monetisation. IRCTC wishes to leverage its data assets and market position to drive strong growth in revenues,” the Corporation had mentioned within the tender. “IRCTC envisages a revenue generation potential of Rs 1,000 crore through monetisation of its digital assets. IRCTC wishes to engage a consulting firm to help in identification, design, and development and roll-out of data monetisation opportunities.”

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Incidentally, the tender doc mentioned that the chosen marketing consultant needed to put together the monetisation roadmap maintaining in thoughts the “current Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018” together with different legal guidelines just like the Information Technology Act, 2000 and EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The knowledge safety Bill that IRCTC had talked about within the tender doc will not be even the most recent model of the Bill that was withdrawn. Earlier this month, the federal government had withdrawn the Data Protection Bill, 2021 from Parliament, saying it’s going to come out with a “comprehensive legal framework” for the web ecosystem.

While specialists have welcomed the withdrawal, in addition they cautioned concerning the growing efforts of knowledge assortment and monetisation within the nation. “The withdrawal of the tender is a positive step and cause for cautious optimism. Structural incentives for ‘data maximisation’ remain in place in the country, however, and also need to be addressed in the near future,” mentioned Prateek Waghre, coverage director on the Delhi-based digital rights group Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF).