What it’s like in India

I didn’t know what blogs were! I mean I’d heard of them vaguely somewhere sometime but didn’t know much about them. See, in India, (at least when I left 3 months ago) blogs weren’t that big. Nobody I knew had a blog. Or then it wasn’t important enough to be brought up in a conversation. Now, having been introduced to blogs and discussing them at length (!) I wonder how I was so oblivious to them…

I did run a Google search ( yeah yeah at the expense of having the cookies saved through 2038 * sigh*) and found that blogs are picking up back home. In fact, India is catching up pretty fast.

If you’ve ever lived in Bombay, you realize that privacy is not so much of a big deal. With so many apartment and business buildings cramped together, people are used to being ‘overheard’, looked at through windows, being visited by family, friends, milkman, newspaperman, salesmen at any hour. In view of internet and technology then, people are not as conscious of the information they send out.

Here is a study that examined the attitudes of Indians towards privacy. http://www.carleton.ca/hotlab/hottopics/Articles/November2005-InternetPriv.html
“Our analysis demonstrates an overall lack of awareness of Internet privacy issues and even less concern about technology-related privacy issues in India.”

The study found that the respondents of the study were comparatively more willing to share their personal information in situations that required them to be identifiable. Indians experience fewer invasions from advertisers and marketing agencies as compared to the Americans. Further, most Indian websites don’t even have privacy policies! Even if they do, how many would read the policy before using the website?!

“To understand the awareness and concerns about computers and data storage, we asked a question about computerization of data. A typical Indian response was, "No I don't have any concerns. In fact I feel like you should computerize everything."”

“Another common practice is publicly posting personal information of travelers at Indian railway stations and in train compartments. The posted information includes last name, first name, age, gender, boarding station, destination, seat number, and the passenger name record number for each passenger.”

The level of sensitivity regarding privacy issues largely depends on the culture of the place in question. In India, implications of privacy threats are not treated as grave concerns because Indians are “used to” having their information displayed or giving their information online without thinking twice and haven’t yet faced major consequences. In America the nature as well as the intensity of privacy problems is mature enough for people to realize, question and oppose this violation. Similarly as the problems increase in number and mature in India, Indians will also find this need to protect their privacy.