Airtel, Reliance Jio bat for user privacy and local control over data

New Delhi: Facebook India has called for clarity over data rules that it said would greatly benefit the industry, while Reliance Jio Infocomm stressed that all sensitive data should be available locally and have local control, irrespective of where it is stored, given that the security of individuals and the country was paramount.

Bharti Airtel India chief executive Gopal Vittal, on his part, said Indian mobile phone operators have loads of data on them, but were not into the business of leveraging user data and earn revenue only from subscriptions. He underlined the need to have explicit user consent before anyone could use user data, as well as the need to protect user privacy.