'Providing personal information and sensitive data is a necessary evil'

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Gold the most preferred investment

: identity thefts in India.

Do you think anti-phising and data protection softwares that claim to protect you against identity theft actually work?

Currently, if one sits to analyse all the people who have access to data that should be concerned private and sensitive, it is mind-boggling to say the least. In the internet world the minute one starts financial transactions online, their service providers have the ability to trace your movements at every step of the way. Applications that protect you from falling prey to identity theft currently help you reduce the traces you leave behind on the internet. However, they cannot completely eliminate the information you had provided, since, your service provider and your computer will always have that data stored. Still, I do feel that such software's will help you reduce the risk of middlemen from gathering your personal information and using it to their advantage.

What can one do about the prevailing situation of identity thefts in India? How can one safeguard themself from such threats? What do you feel about identity insurance in India?

Providing personal information and sensitive data is a necessary evil, especially in India. Here, personal information is always exchanged, be it on the internet or otherwise. Thus identity theft risks cannot ever be altogether eliminated. However, if our legislation minimises the usage and storage of personal information, things should improve. There needs to be specific norms regarding what service providers who are is possession of such information can and cannot do, or whom can they share it with, if it all. These laws are internationally accepted, however, they have not yet been passed in India. The IT acts amendments have been lying in the parliament for 2 years now.