IRCTC Drops Plan To Monetize User Data To Adhere To Data Protection Bill

IRCTC has dropped the idea to monetize user data after the withdrawal of the Personal Data Protection Bill 2018 by the Indian government. The Indian Railways service provider had previously planned to use customer data of crores of travelers as an extra source of income. The move has now been scrapped.

IRCTC Drops Customer Data Monetization

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation announced in a regulatory filing that it has scrapped its plans to monetize customer data. Previously, IRCTC had posted a job vacancy for "Consultant for Data Monetization of Indian Railway/ IRCTC."

The job posting brought to the limelight that IRCTC wished to monetize user data. But now, the Indian Railways has withdrawn the job posting and also scrapped its plans for utilizing user data from more than 10 crore users.

Soon after the issue came to the forefront, the Indian government's Parliamentary Committee on Communications and Information Technology headed by Shashi Tharoor summoned IRCTC. Issues of data privacy were discussed, and representatives of the Indian Railways were questioned about the citizen's data security.

The filing reads: "It is to further inform that due to withdrawal of Personal Data Protection Bill 2018 by the Government of India, the above-referred E-tender for appointment of Consultant for Data Monetization of Indian Railway/ IRCTC floated by IRCTC, on 29th July 2022 has been withdrawn."

User Data Monetization In India

India is one of the most populated countries in the world, recording billions of user data. A new study found that Google collected 39 types of data followed by Twitter, Amazon, and Facebook. Most of this user data is monetized to create target ads.

For the same, many committees and panels worldwide are discussing citizens' privacy and security. In India, top executives from Google, Amazon, Netflix, and Microsoft were summoned to depose before a parliamentary panel. While they were summoned for fair market practices in the country, panels are also being raised to protect user data.