Digital Pakistan without digital security? | BR Research - Business Recorder

Pakistan's track record on data protection seems to be getting worse by BR Research.
 

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For some time, rumors of identity data theft have been circulating online. Apparently, some websites and mobile apps are giving away user identity (a person's name, CNIC number, and address) upon the website visitor inserting a mobile phone number. Now it seems that those rumors are true, as BR Research verified the scheme of things in the case of one such website.

This sort of malicious activity has been going on for a while. Over at YouTube, dozens of videos are available that “educate" viewers in Urdu on how to access personal information of just about anyone by simply using a mobile phone number, and in some cases a CNIC number. These videos, some of which date as far back as 2017, have racked up hundreds of thousands of views online. Most of the links advertised in these videos are masked under seemingly scrupulous websites. A few websites are blocked in Pakistan, but they can be accessed directly through VPN (virtual private network).

Sources tell BR Research that stolen identity data keep cropping up online from time and time...

Globally, the EU's General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and California's digital privacy law offer a proactive template for other countries to improve their data protection regimes. These laws ensure that the tech and telecom companies are held accountable for their practices when it comes to collection, storage, usage, and sharing of personal user data. Next door, India is modeling its data protection regulations on the lines of GDPR.
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Source: Business Recorder