SBI, Mercedes and ICICI Lombard among the 142 entities that bought vehicle registration data from government

You’re reading it here first: State Bank of India, Mercedes, ICICI Lombard and Bajaj Allianz are among the companies which purchased Vahan data, a government database of 25 crore vehicle registration records, managed by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. 127 private and 15 government entities have bought this data from the ministry, RTI documents obtained by MediaNama show. 30 public and private sector banks, 20 logistics solution providers, 19 finance organisations, 18 insurance organisations and 5 automobile manufacturers form the bulk of these 142 entities.

Between 2014-19, the government has pocketed over Rs 68 crore by selling this database; in 2019 alone, it has earned more than Rs 21 crore. Punjab National Bank, Citi Bank, Axis Bank and Yes Bank are among the 30 banks to have bought this data. Automakers like Volkswagen, Toyota and Nissan have also purchased it. BMW India Financial Services and Tata Finance are a few of the finance companies that have bought this data.

Here’s a year-wise breakdown of the money the government made by selling Vahan data:

Here’s the complete list of companies:

Some questions

What’s in the Vahan database? As discussed above, Vahan contains data of 25 crore vehicle registrations. However, it is unclear as to what kinds of details are available in this database, along with Sarathi which is a 15 crore strong database drivers’ licenses (also up for sale). Does the government redact personal identifiers from this database? Is there any measure in place to ensure that entities don’t use this data to specifically target unsuspecting individuals? This database can potentially be used for predatory insurance for some individuals – it can result in insurance cost going up for them.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

What data exactly did they get access to? This isn’t clear. Is there more to the Vahan database than just the vehicle colour, chassis number, fuel type and dealer?

What about consent? It is also unclear if the government has sought explicit consent from vehicle owners before selling their data to banks and financial institutions. Mind you, all this is happening in the absence of a proper data protection law – the fate of which still remains unclear.

How did the government decide on the price of the database? A thing to note here is that Road Transport minister, Nitin Gadkari had said that for the financial year 2019-20, Vahan and Sarathi database is up for sale for Rs 3 crores. First, does that mean that these prices are subject to year-on year changes? And second, how did the government determine that this would be the right amount to sell people’s vehicle and driving license data.

How can this data potentially be used? A twitter user @raggedtag posted a picture where Amazon showed her that a particular product would fit her vehicle. The user asked how Amazon might have known what car she drove.

How does Amazon know what car I drive?? pic.twitter.com/sHP9rcRnS6

— Ra Ch Na (@raggedtag) August 10, 2019

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

How could it have happened? Amazon had her phone number, which she might have also used during her vehicle’s registration, so Amazon could have had purchased that data from the Road Transport ministry. Alternatively, she could have searched Amazon for products related to that vehicle, and it could have been in their records.