NEW DELHI: Former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi on Modnay accused the Centre of “data manipulation” and putting on hold the disinvestment of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation ( IRCTC ) in order to “tap the data” collected over the webportal.

Referring to it as a “threat to privacy”, Trivedi raised the issue in Lok Sabha and asked for the government to “look into the matter” on an urgent basis. He said, “The government is reassessing the disinvestment of IRCTC because it wants to tap private data of individuals. This is the first time a government department is attempting to sell private data.”

Trivedi also said passengers do not expect for their personal data to be sold to private parties for a profit. “It is a known fact that IRCTC database was leaked and the information of around 1 crore people was feared stolen,” Trivedi said, referring to a data breach in 2016, which the railways had later denied.

The TMC MP also sought to compare the attempted sale of private data with Facebook and WhatsApp compromising users’ privacy. “The government is now planning to do the same thing for which it penalised Facebook,” Trivedi said.

He added, “IRCTC is a treasure trove. Indian Railways has the biggest database in the world. Privacy of Indian citizens must be protected. Also, I hope that Supreme Court is also looking into the matter as Aadhaar issue is still at the hearing stage."

