सवाल है, साक्षी धोनी को गुस्सा क्यों आता है?

If you are the reading type, you would have come across this news: cricketer Mahinder Singh Dhoni goes to a Aadhaar shop to get his Aadhaar updated. The operator clicks a photo to capture his famous moment, and posts it online. He (presumably) clicks a photo of the online application of the update screen and shares with […] and it reaches his company HQ (in this case, a Govt. body called CSC SPV). The company boss, in a gloat-moment, uploads it on Twitter. On the other hand, the photo of Dhoni visiting the update centre is also shared by the IT minister in Govt. of India. The hapless wife of the cricket, Sakshi Dhoni, now expresses her angst: “Is there any privacy left? Information of Adhaar card, including application, is made public property,” she said. When she brings it to the notice of the IT minister regarding the release of the Aadhaar update application screen, he took it seriously and promised swift action: “Thanks for bringing this to my notice. Sharing personal information is illegal. Serious action will be taken against this.”

Action came the next day. The Aadhaar shop (a Common Service Centre under CSC SPV) is banned for 10 years. The poor fellow got punished for his moment with the famous guy.

Question is, is it a privacy leak that the application got leaked? Yes.

Then, is the Aadhaar operator liable for it, or the person who uploaded it on the Official Twitter head of the CSC SPV (which would have happened with management support)? Probably both, but the person who put it on public domain is more liable (do not that WhatsApp is private domain but Twitter is public domain).

Further, is the photo of Dhoni visiting the shop being leaked a privacy concern? Well, no. Mrs. Dhoni accepts as much when she replies to the IT minister that she is more angry about the application form being leaked than the photo her husband in the shop.

The way I see it, it is purely a collateral damage of celebrity status. A celebrity does not have any effective right to privacy. It is true that there is no explicit bargain that a celebrity makes with the society, but it is implicit. I lose my privacy for being famous. Mundane things of famous people are matter of curiosity among general people. It is undoubtedly true that uploading the application form of Dhoni on the public domain is illegal and foolish (it serves no purpose). However, the uploading was done precisely because of the fame quotient of Dhoni – the Aadhaar operator did not upload your or my application.

And therein lies the pitfalls of being famous. Do note, it has got nothing to do with Aadhaar or the security of Aadhaar.

Epilogue:

Lakshman: How secure is Aadhaar if an operator can upload someone’s application?

Rama: How secure is Coca Cola’s secret sauce formula, if the person holding it uploads it on the internet?

Hmm….