The first time when I had traveled to Americas, about 10 years back, one thing that I had noticed was the importance given to an individual’s privacy. So much so that even the cabin baggage tags in some of the airlines in the US and Canada had flaps to protect one’s personal information, unlike the simple open cards that we see around here.
Over the years, a lot of significance has been attached to identity proof in India as well. The KYC remains the buzzword in the financial world, even if there are a few exposures involving sting operations across Banks to ridicule all this noise around KYC. The intent is good and it helps to curb black money, money laundering, suspicious activities, terrorism etc. However, one closed door opens many others for the unscrupulous blokes. A couple of years back, one of my friends received a notice from a credit card company for nonpayment of dues. Not only the language of the notice was intimidating, my friend was completely astounded as he could not recollect ever holding a credit card of that company. After a lot of soul searching, he remembered having given his identity details to a credit card salesman outside his office gate – a copy of some identification proof and the salary certificate from his company but he never got the card. He had no idea where to follow up for the same and gave up his wait without bothering much about it. As it appeared, the card was probably issued and either ‘landed’ or was ‘delivered’ into wrong hands.
As I was trying to recollect as to how many agencies I had given a proof of my existence on this earth in the last couple of years, the list was never ending. I gave these documentary proofs for complying with KYC requirements of my 3 different Bank accounts; for getting a new credit card as that offered free movie tickets every month – this in addition to already having 2 other credit cards that were successfully sold to me by the highly persuasive sales agents; for getting a new Gas Connection; for opening a new bank account for my daughter; for getting a new driving license for myself; for opening a demat account to facilitate transfer of my ESOPs into a depository account; for opening a personal wealth management account with a PMS; for getting a mobile phone connection; for getting another mobile phone connection for my daughter as she did not have the required documents; for getting another mobile phone connection that came as a free offer while purchasing my groceries - the attraction was that my monthly spend on household items gave me extra talk time on this number; for getting a fixed line connection at my residence; for getting a USB data card that allowed me internet access while on the move; for KYC compliance of a mutual fund investment that I had done long years back when I did not have a demat account and hence this remained on paper; for getting an Election ID card – so that I can exercise my franchise as a responsible citizen; for getting an Aadhar Card that has become a new norm to find one’s identity. If I did not do that my kitchen stove would cost me double every month. These were 15, in case you lost the count.
The other day, the relationship manager assigned to me by my banker visited me with a request to renew my KYC details – as the same was to be renewed at some frequency as per the RBI guideline. And very nonchalantly, but to my shock, he informed me that he had all my details viz PAN Card scan copy, my photograph etc in his laptop but all I was required to give was a printed photograph as the scanned one will not do. My banker has been very ‘liberal’ in providing a new relationship manager to me every 2 years and I was horrified to think as to how many laptops would have all my personal details that can be put to any use or misuse.
I have always been wary of sharing these details with strangers without a compelling reason. In one case, the agent had asked for a second set as he had lost the original set of copies that I had handed over to him. While I made a lot of fuss and insisted on a written undertaking for the second copy, I was wondering as to what would stop him or anyone else to create multiple copies of the same set of documents. Some of these agencies have insisted on self attestation and that at least checks against multiplication of these copies. However, this practice is not consistent with all the agencies seeking identity proofs. I think at least this practice of self attestation has to be mandated and insisted upon.
The identity proofs being so critical, there is a need for a central agency like UID to take complete charge of this aspect over a period of time. In an ideal situation, I would not want to share any details or copies of my identity documents and a number like the UID number should suffice. Any agency seeking my identity proof should have a binary confirmation on my existence through an automated UID-owned response center. There should be no need for multiple agencies providing same services.
If we do not put a leash on the free flow of these identity proofs passing through the fly by night small kiosks that work as outlets for growing cut-throat businesses, like the mobile network agencies, the day will not be far when we will find a SIM at the site of some terrorist act and the identity of such a SIM might lead to an unassuming you and me. As a statistic says, the 900 million mobile phone connections in India are registered in only 300 million names. I am not sure how many of these 600 million additional connections are in yours and my name without our knowledge.
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