Central Govt. earned over Rs 100 crore by sharing vehicle owners’ data with private companies

New Delhi: Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the Union government has collected more than Rs 100 crore in revenue this year by providing vehicle and driver data to private companies. He was speaking in Parliament on Thursday.

This data has been shared with law and order organizations, the Ministry of Home Affairs as well as insurance companies and automobile companies. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari told Parliament that such data has been shared with about 170 organizations or companies. These include BMW, Axis Bank, Bajaj Allianz, L&T Financial Services, Mercedes Benz.

About Rs 111 crore revenue has been earned by sharing this information with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. This information was given by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari while answering a question in the Lok Sabha.

There was a possibility of potential misuse of this personal information and privacy issues of vehicle owners in the country. Speaking in this regard in June last year, Nitin Gadkari had expressed such a possibility and promised to close the policy.

Asked whether the government would demand deletion of data collected from private institutions, Gadkari said the government was not considering any such proposal.

Under the bulk data sharing policy, any private entity or company could purchase data at any time for a calendar year. Professional organizations and personal information have to pay Rs 3 crore if they want this data, while educational institutions have to pay Rs 5 lakh if they want this data for educational and research work.

The Union Home Ministry and the Union Ministry of Transport as well as the National Informatics Center had unanimously decided to repeal the policy. Currently, information or data on such vehicles will be shared under the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019.