“24-7. EVERYTHING THAT IS HAPPENING in your house. There is Alexa, Siri TV, all listening to you. And this is all useful data. They know what you’re doing the whole day,” remarked advocate Murali Neelakantan, speaking at a seminar ‘Our Data, Their Wealth: Why Privacy Is the New Currency’, organised by Moneylife Foundation in Mumbai. The Leaflet had joined in as a media partner.
Neelakantan, who has served as the Global General Counsel of global pharmaceutical companies Cipla and Glenmark in the past, opened the seminar with a series of questions: How many in the audience were receiving WhatsApp messages from unknown numbers? How many had used their phone numbers to make UPI payments instead of scan codes, or to enter building complexes through apps like MyGate or ApnaComplex? How many had CCTV cameras in homes, offices or schools? How many had given blood tests that cost Rs 1000 that analysed lipid, kidney or liver function? And, how many used Google Maps every day?
“I am just reminding you of how generous you have been in giving away something that was private,” Neelakantan explained, adding later that privacy was “not about having something to hide; it is about control over your life. Most people say, ‘I have nothing to hide, so why should I care about privacy?’ But privacy is not about hiding; it is about control — over your choices, your information and your life.”
