[nicodash]

Out of curiosity, I Googled my phone number, and the first result was from the Parivahan website.

Apparently, the Uttar Pradesh Parivahan Department has uploaded 'Darpan' reports on the sarathi.parivahan.gov.in portal and set them to public visibility. I assume this is intentional, given that the name 'Darpan' (which means 'mirror' in English) suggests transparency.

Here's the main listing page where they've organized license numbers by district:



Clicking on any of the blue numbers in the screenshot above opens a list of license holders and applicants from that district:



As a result, your name and phone number are publicly exposed, making you vulnerable to spammers and scammers. I only found a Darpan page for Uttar Pradesh; I'm not sure about other states. The data seems to be from 2022 onwards.

This is just one example of how government agencies handle sensitive user/citizen data carelessly, exposing us to cybercriminals. I'm not sharing the exact link here, but I'm not sure what's the point of hiding it when everything is on Google anyway.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[SilverSmoke]

And what.. My number with name is up for display too. Waiting for increase in scam & spam calls now. Recently I changed my address on DL.

[sh3lby]

As always citizen data security in India is a joke. I'm sure you've also heard how Meta has threatened to leave India if forced to break WhatsApp encryption...weird times when Zuckerberg is on the 'good' side.

[nikvint]

Your RTO data is/was never safe. I am in the field of Insurance, So I know this. There are N number of people who is running tele-calling business in Insurance field. They buy data from intermediaries for type of vehicle, make, model, mfg year, name and registered mobile no. date of registration etc. And on the basis of these, they call for renewal of insurance.

All these data are available unofficially with 100% accuracy. It is no brainer that the data is stolen from RTO data center. I have also got one such data in past through my acquaint, though I do not acted on this.

Meta and Google shares all your surfing data to each other, so they should not be talking about encryption of data. That issue would have some other points for which they threatened to leave India.

[ZenMaster]

Originally Posted by nikvint

Meta and Google shares all your surfing data to each other, so they should not be talking about encryption of data. That issue would have some other points for which they threatened to leave India.

Meta and google collects info mainly to find out what you like and then sell you stuff you don't want.

Unfortunately breaking encryption means that anybody(from the govt. To hackers) can read every message you ever sent to anyone , even jokes, and then use it against you to put you in jail by using that as evidence or use the information to scam you out of your money.

So, no. It is not the same thing.

[anjan_c2007]

Thats an unpleasant and appalling violation of the right to privacy, our fundamental right. The right to privacy under Art 21 is a right which protects the inner sphere of the individual from interference from both State, and non-State actors and allows the individuals to make autonomous life choices.

The Supreme Court in its 2018 judgement had held that Aadhaar could be used for welfare, but it recognised a fundamental right to privacy and struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act that enabled private entities to use Aadhaar authentication to establish identity for delivering services. However the Apex Court observed that the State can restrict the right to privacy if such restriction is proportional to a legitimate state aim. State aim is all about verification of private data for security, violation of rules and laws by the concerned and so on, where under such special circumstances, the state is empowered to get access to someone's private data stored in such websites and portals.

Hence, in this backdrop the UP government Parivahaan's display of mobile numbers overtly, is violative of Article 21. The other facts stated about mobile numbers and identities getting revealed on the sly through underhand dealings from the RTO offices to the concerned, though an offence, is a totally different topic and need not be mixed with this topic under discussion. The OP here discusses about the UP government's open, public and official display of mobile contact numbers of the gullible individuals for anyone and everyone to violate the right to privacy of the respective individual, who becomes a victim of the offenders with an encouraging hand to such offenders by the state.

[nicodash]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

Thats an unpleasant and appalling violation of the right to privacy, our fundamental right. The right to privacy under Art 21 is a right which protects the inner sphere of the individual from interference from both State, and non-State actors and allows the individuals to make autonomous life choices.

Well said! What frustrates me the most about this fiasco is that the government officials and ministers seem to have no concept of privacy. I'm pretty certain that when they were discussing putting up these personal details online to bring transparency to their functioning (good intention - bad approach), the word 'privacy' would not have crossed their minds even once.