Breach of privacy: Data of 250,000 NEET students being sold online
Breach of privacy: Data of 250,000 NEET students being sold online on Business Standard. The company claims to run ads on Facebook where students are encouraged to provide their details to get help from career counsellors.
Latest News In yet another case of potential breach of privacy, data of students who took the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test this year is available for buyers through a website. The website [name withheld till it’s taken down] claims to have access to records of 250,000 students along with their gender, roll numbers, rank in the exam as well as their mobile numbers. NEET is administered by CBSE as the entrance exam for medical colleges across the country. More than 1.3 million candidates appeared for the exam this year out of which data for 250,000 students is available for anyone willing to shell out lakhs of rupees for access to this data. Even as this raises serious concerns about privacy and data protection rights of students whose data is being sold along with their phone numbers, the person behind the website claims that he runs a legitimate business and owns this data. Praveen Chowdary, Chief Executive Officer of
the company, spoke to Business Standard and explained the process of collecting data. He said that the company collects data directly from students through various means among which social media advertising is the biggest source of data. The company claims to run ads on Facebook where students are encouraged to provide their details to get help from career counsellors. Chowdary said that students are more than happy to provide their ranks as well as their contact details in order to get free help from career experts about their future. However, what’s left unsaid in this transaction is that Chowdary’s company uploads this data on their website for people to see and those who pay Rs 100,000 are able to access the complete database with phone numbers unmasked.
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