| Govt asks talented JK youth to share details on ‘insecure’ portal | | Experts fear misuse of database, exploitation | | Early Times Report
Jammu, July 1: The Jammu and Kashmir government has asked talented youth to submit their personal details on a private portal raising concerns over possible leak and misuse of the personal details.
On June 25, the government asked the talented youth to share their details on a specific website.
“Under the Jammu & Kashmir Film Policy, talented individuals from a wide range of expertise, including dancers, fashion designers, actors, choreographers, cinematographers, sound recordists, set designers and others, are encouraged to register themselves in the government's database,” the government had said.
“Registration can be done online by visiting the link, (details withheld) or by scanning the QR Code. The deadline for registration is July 10, 2021,” the official handout said.
But the cyber experts said the portal is not run by government and that sharing details on the private website was insecure given the numerous complaints of data leak in the recent past.
A top cyber expert said the data as sought by the government should have been collected through some government website where the database would be safe and secure.
“But here a private portal is being used to collect the data, which is a serious issue for data privacy,” said the expert.
A retired police official said what if the database is misused. “What if the data is misused by some criminal elements or terror groups, to exploit the local talent. And the exploitation can even include sexual exploitation. The concerned have behaved irresponsibly ,” said the former official on the condition of anonymity.
He said it seems that the government has not done its job properly on the subject. “You are asking all the talented youth to submit data on a portal about which government cannot give guarantee of the data security, is a joke with the youth,” he said.
Explaining his point further, he said: “What if the data goes into hands of some sex racket and they try to lure youth?”
When contacted a senior official however refuted the apprehensions of “data compromise.” “The database is fully secure,” he said on the condition of anonymity adding that people should not pay heed to such apprehensions.
Asked why the database was not kept on some government owned portal, he said the technology was not available with them and hence a private portal had to be roped in. |
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