‘Violating privacy laws’: Ola Electric gets notice from customer for making data public

kalph09

Adept
Quoting my post from Jan 2022.

....digital footprint/data/evidence can be manipulated and work against you in the future. Think twice while using cheap and free stuff.

Link: https://www.thenewsminute.com/artic...ets-notice-customer-making-data-public-163311

I never expected the future to arrive so early. lol.

The rider might be at fault, but publicly sharing personal usage data is a bit alarming.

Secondly, digital evidence is very easy to manipulate and this could spill into things like denial of insurance claims to hospital bills.
 
I am more surprised that such people exist in India who understand what privacy is!!
Nevertheless, GDPR should be the benchmark for our privacy laws. Our current law on privacy is so toothless, that it is better to not have them since it won't have any difference.
There needs to be mass education about privacy and the people's right to determine what they want to share with consent.
All this depends on how educated (mentally, not degree wise)a person is. A right-minded, rational person will ask question like this Balwant Singh guy.
 
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I am more surprised that such people exist in India who understand what privacy is!!
Nevertheless, GDPR should be the benchmark for our privacy laws. Our current law on privacy is so toothless, that it is better to not have them since it won't have any difference.
There needs to be mass education about privacy and the people's right to determine what they want to share with consent.
All this depends on how educated (mentally, not degree wise)a person is. A right-minded, rational person will ask question like this Balwant Singh guy.
The only reason this Balwant Singh guy raised privacy violation is because the data was against him. The only reason why Ola shared that data is because the data was helpful for them. Ola seriously should not have shared this directly on social media. The reason I did not support this guy's claim was that his claim was absolutely fishy. There is no way one will get that kind of injuries from a fall over speed breaker. It only happens when they were going beyond safe speed and could not control the scooter. Also, brakes of Ola and Ather are super sharp and stopping distance is way way way better than that of a normal scooter (thanks to low GC and sharp dual disc brakes).

One look at that guy's twitter DP gives a feeling that he is going to find a way to squeeze money out of Ola. Had they showed this data to him in private and asked him 'you do whatever you want, we have this solid proof', things would not have taken this turn. Ola had a door out and they locked themselves in by sharing that data. People are blaming that guy's son now for accident but they are also supporting the guy on privacy violation (though I do not understand how this speed data is violating their privacy).

The best thing that happened with this is that this guy's Twitter handle has become one stop shop to find all current issues with Ola scooters. He is finding all those complaints against Ola S1 Pro and RTing those left and right. If this was in a country like USA, he would've led a class action suite against Ola. Here, each victim will have to fight a lonely battle with customer care call center.
 
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The only reason this Balwant Singh guy raised privacy violation is because the data was against him. The only reason why Ola shared that data is because the data was helpful for them. Ola seriously should not have shared this directly on social media. The reason I did not support this guy's claim was that his claim was absolutely fishy. There is no way one will get that kind of injuries from a fall over speed breaker. It only happens when they were going beyond safe speed and could not control the scooter. Also, brakes of Ola and Ather are super sharp and stopping distance is way way way better than that of a normal scooter (thanks to low GC and sharp dual disc brakes).

One look at that guy's twitter DP gives a feeling that he is going to find a way to squeeze money out of Ola. Had they showed this data to him in private and asked him 'you do whatever you want, we have this solid proof', things would not have taken this turn. Ola had a door out and they locked themselves in by sharing that data. People are blaming that guy's son now for accident but they are also supporting the guy on privacy violation (though I do not understand how this speed data is violating their privacy).

The best thing that happened with this is that this guy's Twitter handle has become one stop shop to find all current issues with Ola scooters. He is finding all those complaints against Ola S1 Pro and RTing those left and right. If this was in a country like USA, he would've led a class action suite against Ola. Here, each victim will have to fight a lonely battle with customer care call center.
Fair point.. There is a possibility that sharing this info in public has left him vulnerable and now looking for an escape route. And as you mentioned Ola had the opportunity to deal with him by sharing data with him first rather than going public first. That way, it would have respected privacy and the chances of crying hulla-bulla wold have been reduced. Maybe Ola's still learning about how to deal with privacy.
I will not add anything else here and derail the thread and let's just with respect to the OP end this discussion here
Agreed!!
it is just when see people only brining one side of the story I feel the need to bring it up other part of the story too .
Loudspeakers are a nuisance, whichever way you look at it. Nothing is above human health and well-being!!
 
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Folks, the message here is to understand the absolute power of digital evidence and the scope of manipulation by big-tech-corps. Ola should have taken this 1-1 with the guy first instead of blowing it up on the internet.

I can imagine someone's insurance claim being denied as they were doing xx kph in an 80kph zone or something worse like innocent people (not related to this topic) being tied to crime using digital evidence.
 
I can imagine someone's insurance claim being denied as they were doing xx kph in an 80kph zone or something worse like innocent people (not related to this topic) being tied to crime using digital evidence.
Quite possible. For that consumer awareness and being alert is necessary. This "chalta-hai" attitude, might be fine for non-serious matters, but for issues like these, consumer needs to maintain vigil. Also, a mechanism should be in place wherein a consumer can initiate charges(based on verification) if he fails his data has been misused.
 
This has got me worried with all the connected cars and devices.
This may make me sound like a boomer, but too many unnecessary devices are connected to the internet.
Remember, the S in IoT stands for security.

Imagine if your health insurance provider gets access to your smart watch/smart air purifier/smart AC/etc data. They see you living in high pollution area, they then increase your premiums.

Ola has already shared a user’s telematics.

Lots of other manufacturers have such internet connected devices in car(for some genuinely useful features like location tracking, remote locking etc).
What prevents them from selling such data to your insurance provider. Insurance provider sees you drive erratically, sudden acceleration and deceleration, multiple speeding events, then they increase your premium.
(I think few insurance companies provide an optional add on to allow them to track your driving behaviour/driving distance to dynamically adjust your premium)

Without any strict data privacy laws, we are at the mercy of these corporations and businesses.
 
Folks, the message here is to understand the absolute power of digital evidence and the scope of manipulation by big-tech-corps. Ola should have taken this 1-1 with the guy first instead of blowing it up on the internet.

I can imagine someone's insurance claim being denied as they were doing xx kph in an 80kph zone or something worse like innocent people (not related to this topic) being tied to crime using digital evidence.
I believe the error of users are that they click the checkbox and accept the terms without reading them just because it is too lengthy to read or very boring. And there are those who try to take undue advantage by gaming the system

There are many ways of airing your grievance other than going public. Taking the social route to create noise is nothing but shooting yourself in the foot.

I agree that the data will be very useful to analyze patterns and have differential pricing. But it will wont penalize all users with a higher price for the fault of some.
 
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