The Indian government’s track record with data security is abysmal, yet citizens have a lot of trust in it.
As many as 35% of urban Indian respondents in a recent survey said they trusted government departments the most with the safety of their personal data. In comparison, just 14% said they trusted e-commerce sites, while only 7% have faith in social media platforms.
The online survey was conducted by market research and data analytics firm YouGov and included responses of around 1,023 respondents in India.
Indians have shown this trust despite the fact that government apps, websites and databases in India have witnessed security flaws time and again. For instance, last year in August, a data firm had claimed it found a security vulnerability in India’s Covid-19 contact tracing app Aarogya Setu. In June 2020, a data breach had happened to the state-owned UPI payments app BHIM. And India’s Aadhaar database has been criticised for not being secure enough.
The main reason for trusting the government over other organisations is the recent cases of data leaks by private digital platforms. For instance, on April 19, a data breach at Domino’s India led to sensitive customer information such as names, phone numbers and credit card details being leaked and put on sale on the dark Web.
This article first appeared on Quartz.