Karnataka government to tighten open data policy amid concerns

The state government will revisit its open data policy to allay concerns raised by civil society, especially on monetisation of citizen information, a senior officer said.

DH was the first, in its October 19 edition, to report on the government’s data monetisation plan under the new Karnataka Open Data Policy, sparking concerns among activists and data professionals.

While the policy states that only anonymised personal data will be monetised, pro-privacy campaigners are concerned that complete anonymisation is not possible.

“This concern is valid,” Additional Chief Secretary (e-Governance) Rajeev Chawla, who directly reports to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, told DH.