Aditya Ghosh, India and South Asia head of Oyo said at a CII event that the company would be sharing information of guests staying at their hotels on a real-time basis, reports Business Standard. Oyo confirmed to MediaNama that a pilot is operational in Jaipur, and talks are ongoing with Telangana and Haryana. However, in a conversation with MediaNama, an Oyo spokesperson contested this and said that guest information will only be recorded in real-time, instead saying that information will be shared with the government/police only when after they produce an information order. Its worth noting that Oyo's hotels already have real-time documentation and storage of information, which is what is being referenced by the Oyo spokesperson. Digital records of guests is nothing new, what would be new is if Oyo was sharing this information real-time with the state/police. Real-time data-sharing, which is what Ghosh announced, is problematic. Note that Oyo claims to have 8,700 hotels in India. Issues with real-time data sharing It is disproportionate and unnecessary: Real-time data sharing would make available the details of every guest staying a hotel in India. This would imply that all guests are criminals who present a risk and need to be watched. The system hands over the data of every individual, instead of the data of the handful of people law enforcement would actually be looking for. It may be the beginning of a trend: If a real-time data sharing system is put in place, it may be an indication for…
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