THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 10 February 2020 (Algorithmic governance must be inclusive, adhere to privacy rights (The Hindu))

Algorithmic governance must be inclusive, adhere to privacy rights (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Governance
Prelims level: System Risk Indication
Mains level: E-governance- applications

Context:

• Two recent judicial interventions, both from abroad, which upheld citizens’ right to privacy against the hurried implementation of algorithm-based governance tools.
• This must act as a wake-up call for advocates of algorithmic governance in India.

Background:

• The District Court of the Hague in the Netherlands asked authorities to halt immediately a digital tool that used predictive analysis to detect fraud in welfare distribution, citing that the algorithmic programme violated basic human rights.
• The Dutch court’s comments involve System Risk Indication or SyRI, which uses algorithmic prediction methods to track and spot individuals who can be potential welfare cheats.
• The tool is armed with big data analytics and uses individuals’ private data on consumption and other significant activities to rank them and create risk profiles that authorities can use in the detection of fraud. Such tools can be misused.
• SyRI allegedly helped Dutch authorities spy on people in poor neighbourhoods only based on algorithmic evidence and no other proof.
• The court found that SyRI impinges on the principles of transparency and held that technology should respect privacy.

Challenges for algorithmic governance:

• The fact that such large-scale personal data was made easily available digitally could pose risks to individuals.
• In India, too, fears have been voiced over the scope for distortions in using citizens’ biometric data in welfare distribution and fraud detection.
• Such automated digital tools are acknowledged to reflect human biases and prejudices, and can imperil welfare distribution.
• They could end up aggravating discrimination to new levels.
• Reports of mistargeting post-Aadhaar, in the case of Direct Benefit Transfer schemes, have been reported from central India.
• It is important to be cognisant of the pitfalls of digitisation to ensure that DBT’s benefits are not sacrificed in the bargain.

Way forward:

• In 2018, the Supreme Court, while upholding the constitutional validity of Aadhaar, had asked the government to introduce strong data protection rules to ensure an individual’s right to privacy.
• India must use the global rulings as an opportunity for introspection before opting for digital solutions without checks and balances.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS), consider the following statements:
1. It is a centrally sponsored scheme.
2. The objective is to award scholarships to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to arrest their drop out at class VIII and encourage them to continue the study at secondary stage.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both
(d) None

Answer: B
Mains Questions:
Q.1) What are the major challenges pose threat towards algorithmic governance?