PIL in court seeks direction to Centre, to ensure travel companies keep personal information confidential

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been moved in Delhi High Court seeking direction to the Center to take steps to ensure that the travel companies, particularly the foreign travel companies, that collect personal data, i.e., name, address, phone number, AADHAAR, passport details, etc., during ticket booking are totally confidential and not shared with anyone.

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been moved in Delhi High Court seeking direction to the Center to take steps to ensure that the travel companies, particularly the foreign travel companies, that collect personal data, i.e., name, address, phone number, AADHAAR, passport details, etc., during ticket booking are totally confidential and not shared with anyone. The Plea has been moved Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, a BJP leader, stated that the Foreign Travel Companies not only collect the data of common man but also the personal data of lawmakers, Ministers, Judges of the Supreme Court and High Court, defense Personnel, Civil Servants and their family members.

The petition claims that there are several companies that are running their operations in India and that they are partially or fully owned by Chinese investors. Plea further stated that the petitioner is worried about the potential misuse of citizen's data, especially their Aadhar and passport details.

It also stated that the Supreme Court in the Justice Putaswamy Case has held that the right to privacy is a fundamental right under Article 21. Thereafter, the Data Protection Committee, also known as the Justice Srikrishna Committee, has suggested that government issued identity cards are sensitive personal data and their processing requires stringent laws. Section 3 of the DPDP Act 2023 states that the provisions of the Act shall apply to the processing of the digital data, both inside and outside the territory of India, if the goods or services are offered to the data principal within the territory of India. Therefore, it is the duty of the Centre to seek clarification from travel companies and particularly from foreign companies on data protection measures, added the plea.

Petitioner suggests that the Centre Government should take written undertakings from the travel companies, particularly from the foreign travel companies, to keep the citizen's data confidential and to comply with the provisions of the DPDP Act 2023 in letter and spirit. (ANI)

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