Supreme Court Directs Centre To Curb Personal Data Misuse By Private Companies Over Security Concerns

The Supreme Court of India has expressed serious judicial concern over private companies commercializing and accessing sensitive personal information. Hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Piyush Sharma, a bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, alongside Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana, highlighted the alarming ease with which commercial tech systems extract government-backed financial and employment records without explicit citizen consent.

Vulnerability Of EPFO and Income Tax Data Exposed

During the proceedings, the petitioner demonstrated that private verification platforms could access an individual's complete employment history simply by entering a Permanent Account Number (PAN) and Universal Account Number (UAN). Crucially, this extraction occurred without One-Time Password (OTP) authentication or explicit authorization. The petitioner pointed out that private entities routinely exploit these regulatory loopholes for background checks, moonlighting detection, dual employment tracking, and labor market profiling.

Supreme Court Directs Government Policy Intervention

While acknowledging that safeguarding digital frameworks falls primarily within the executive policy domain, the apex court emphasized that unchecked commercial exploitation of citizen data submitted under legal mandates poses a severe national security and privacy threat. Noting that detailed memorandums had already been submitted to authorities, the Supreme Court directed the Central Government to collaborate with domain experts and formulate robust policy measures to prevent private firms from misusing sensitive personal data.