House committee calls IRCTC, Twitter officials over data privacy issue

New Delhi, August 24

A parliamentary panel has called representatives of the Railways’ catering arm, IRCTC, on Friday and is likely to question them on a tender floated to hire a consultant to monetise its passenger and freight customer data.

Briefing by the representatives on the subject is the last of three items on the agenda notified by the Lok Sabha Secretariat for a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology chaired by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.

Representatives of Twitter India will also appear before the panel on the same issue on that day. At Friday’s meeting, the panel will also hear the views of individuals, stakeholders or experts on issues related to digital platforms, technology and Gig economy on “Citizens’ data security and privacy”.

The IRCTC, which has more than 10 crore users, of which 7.5 crore are active users, has floated a tender to hire a consultant to monetise its passenger and freight customer data with the aim to generate revenue up to Rs 1,000 crore. Though the Railways has not officially commented on the tender, it is reportedly contemplating a rollback of the proposal in view of the absence of a law on personal data security. — TNS

Monetising customer data

The IRCTC, which has more than 10 crore users, of which 7.5 crore are active users, has floated a tender to hire a consultant to monetise its passenger and freight customer data with the aim to generate revenue up to Rs 1,000 crore.