The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has rolled back a tender which was published earlier to hire a consultant for monetising the passenger data. This update was provided by a senior official from IRCTC to the Congress MP Shashi Tharoor led parliamentary panel on Aug 26, 2022. The railway ticketing app announced the tender earlier this month and it has garnered controversy over data privacy concerns regarding the monetisation of passenger and customer data. Additionally, IRCTC confirmed that it is no longer pursuing the tender.
According to a report by PTI, Rajni Hasija, MD and Chairperson of IRCTC deposed before the Tharoor led Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology along with other officials. The committee had summoned officials from IRCTC following the reports announcing the tender for appointment of a consultant for digital data monetisation.
Moreover, the IRCTC officials confirmed to the parliamentary committee that it is no longer pursuing the tender. “IRCTC has withdrawn the tender in light of the non-approval of the Data Protection Bill,” an IRCTC official informed the committee, as reported by PTI.
IRCTC decided to withdraw the tender at the IRCTC annual general meeting on Friday which was scheduled ahead of the summon in front of the committee.
Meanwhile, microblogging site Twitter was summoned too by the Congress MP led parliamentary committee. According to sources from PTI, the Congress MP led parliamentary panel questioned the microblogging site on its management and composition.
Based on the allegations of irregularities levelled by a former employee named Peiter Zatko, a parliamentary panel led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday questioned social media giant Twitter on a range of issues including the privacy of user data and the possibility of breaches.
It is believed that the tech company’s team of officials has told the Standing Committee for Information and Technology that it follows strict data safety norms and that most of its employees do not have access to user data.
Officials further said, although there is some access to user data at the headquarters, it is purely for technical purposes.
According to the sources present in the committee, the members wanted to find out from the Twitter team if there was any leakage of data. The social media giant defended itself saying there has been no data leak by the company.
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