Prevent misuse of data by private entities, SC tells government

The Supreme Court expressed concern on Monday about a commercial technological ecosystem that allegedly accesses, retrieves, and verifies sensitive individual information related to provident fund and income tax returns. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana heard a petition by Piyush Sharma, noting that the matter primarily falls within the policy domain.

The petitioner pointed out that upon providing only PAN and UAN details to a private verification workflow, he received the complete employment history corresponding to those identifiers, without any OTP authentication, explicit consent, or visible authorization-based identity verification process. The court emphasized the insecure status of individual data given to the government under legislative mandates, as it is accessed at will by private entities.

Despite the existing statutory architecture governing EPFO and I-T data, private employment verification ecosystems are increasingly relying on such data for various purposes, including employment verification, moonlighting detection, dual employment screening, labor market profiling, and employment decision-making. The court agreed that this is a serious matter but stated that it must be addressed through a policy decision.

The Supreme Court also asked the government to take necessary steps to prevent misuse of individual data by private enterprises following the petitioner's two comprehensive representations on the issue to the government.