Grama Nildaris begin collecting personal data of the public
By: Staff Writer
Colombo (LNW): The public administration and home affairs ministry along with its state ministry is now in the process of collecting highly personal data of the people under the government’s e-grama niladari project without paying any respect for the right to privacy in Sri Lanka.
In some Colombo suburban areas the collection forms to fill personal details has begun today keeping the citizens bemused as they were in tow minds in revealing their details, several residents complained.
They noted that they were not given sufficient time to check with the government authorities to know the hidden agenda of the present administration and their hastiness in collecting personal data.
The invasive surveillance methods as well as violations of privacy raises grave concerns of the people, especially in the absence of legislative protection of the right to privacy in Sri Lanka,several activists of human rights and social services said
Data protection has become a top priority today, as digitalisation grows globally and businesses have been forced to step up security measures to protect valuable data.
As such, data classification, broadly defined as the process of organizing data by relevant categories, so that it may be used and protected more efficiently and easily retrieved when required, is taking center stage in every organization’s data protection strategy.
Sri Lanka has also taken measures in pushing forth the Personal Data Protection Act, which aims to adequately regulate the processing of personal data, where every activity that an organization engages in from confidentiality to storage of personal data, will fall under the spotlight.
These compliance regulations intend to keep state institutions within ethical lines when handling personal data and place several obligations upon all data controllers/processors to ensure that the organization adheres to strict rules and regulations in its data collection and management.
The aim is to Utilize this community – based database of ‘e – Grama Niladhari’ project instead of the previously existed house holders’ register.
According to the document issued to the public via grama niladaris countrywide, the ministry of public administration and home affairs, IT has been planned to eliminate obstacles in providing development project benefits to the people.
People will have to fil forms distributed by grama nildaris these days among households divulging almost all of their personal details including email address, passport number,driving licence details , mobile number and the number of residential phone., bank account number.
It is also compulsory to provide highly personnel of details of bank account, monthly income, and the extent of housing land if thre is any employment, etc
By now ‘e – Grama Niladhari’ project has been inaugurated under the State Ministry of Home Affairs and a house and citizens database is being developed while it has been planned to implement throughout the 14,022 Grama Niladhari divisions under several phases.
