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Didn’t intend to sell data to third party, IRCTC tells House panel
“The policy has already been withdrawn since there is no privacy bill,” a person aware of the matter said
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) told the Parliamentary standing committee on information technology on Friday that it never intended to sell data to a third party but only sought to leverage it to improve the services, people familiar with the matter told HT, adding that a controversial bid had been withdrawn.
“The policy has already been withdrawn since there is no privacy bill,” a person aware of the matter said. “It will be reviewed again by the board, but IRCTC never meant sell the data to a third party, the panel was told.”
The IRCTC, which has more than 100 million users, of which 75 million are active users, floated a tender to hire a consultant to monetise its passenger and freight customer data to generate revenue up to ₹1,000 crore. It has been collecting data since 2002, people aware of the matter said.
According to the IRCTC tender document, the data to be studied would include information captured by the transporter’s various public-facing applications, such as “name, age, mobile number, gender, address, e-mail ID, class of journey, payment mode, log in or password” and other details.
IRCTC said that the media reports were fictitious and that the company does not sell its data, and there is no intention to do such things.
“IRCTC has withdrawn tender for appointment of consultant for suggesting business strategies using data available,” a spokesperson told HT.
Meanwhile, the panel also quizzed Twitter over allegations that the social media firm had been pressurised into hiring an “Indian agent” who had unrestricted access to user data.
The complaint by the former head of security Peiter Zatko, first reported by the Washington Post and CNN, makes a litany of other serious allegations against Twitter’s leadership, including current chief Parag Agarwal, who is accused of lying to shareholders about the extent of security vulnerabilities. Twitter has denied Zatko’s allegations and described them as a false narrative.
According to a person familiar with the developments, Twitter said it had only seen a redacted version of the document and alleged that the whistleblower had ulterior motives.
When asked if any former government employees were on Twitter, the company did not answer. “Twitter said it valued the privacy of its customer and their liberty,” the person mentioned above said.
