In this Reddit India AMA held last week, Dr Gus Hosein and Dr Edgar Whitley talk about the perils of Aadhaar, citizen privacy and surveillance, a law for privacy and the right to privacy. Dr Gus Hosein works with Privacy International, a London-based charity and is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, and Dr Edgar Whitley is an Associate Professor (Reader) of Information Systems at the London School of Economics. Here are snippets from the AMA: On generating awareness on the online privacy breaches: Hosein: .. For some people it is all about the specific scenario that raises their awareness -- a data breach, or the lack of power resulting from a decision against them based on their data. For others it is the matter of principle -- that any entity could have control over their lives in such a way. The answer I can give for an entire country (the question asked about India) is that you need many many stories of many many different types that give rise to debate and more stories and more debate. Then you have a national conversation… Nonetheless I can say that the debate in India has come so far since 2007 when I first visited. At the time whenever we spoke to people about privacy they all laughed. Since then, due to the hard work of individuals and organisations, the debate has advanced significantly -- faster than anywhere else in the world… We're still working on the best ways…
