Delhi HC disposes plea against sharing of sensitive user info by travel platforms

The HC bench said that the petitioner cannot come directly to the court before a representation is made to the government, the report said.

Delhi High Court on April 3 disposed of a public interest litigation (PIL) raising concerns of personal data being monetised by travel platforms such as MakeMyTrip, Goibibo and SkyScanner, and directed the Centre to examine the points raised by the petitioner.

The HC’s division bench, which was led by acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, disposed of the plea and asked the petitioner Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, a lawyer and a BJP leader, to approach the Union Government, LiveLaw reported.

The bench said that the petitioner cannot come directly to the court before a representation is made to the government, the report said.

“The petition is disposed of with a liberty to the petitioner to raise the grievance with the Union of India. If a representation is filed, the same be decided by way of a reasoned order in accordance with law as expeditiously as possible,” the court said according to LiveLaw.

Upadhyay, in his petition, said that the collection of sensitive information such as name, phone number, Aadhaar and passport by major travel platforms is a cause of concern as it compromises users’ privacy. He pointed out that some of these companies such as MakeMyTrip, Goibibo and SkyScanner are partly or wholly-owned subsidiaries of foreign firms and this can have far have far-reaching implications.

The BJP leader further said that these travel portals have sensitive information of law makers, judges, defence personnel, and civil servants, and they can ‘misuse’ citizens data.

“Petitioner submits that there are at least 03 foreign Companies i.e. MakeMyTrip, GoIbibo and SkyScanner; which are running their operations in India and are owned by Chinese investors. Petitioner is worried about the potential misuse of citizen's data, especially the passport details. Companies are owned by Chinese Investors and their parent company is Trip.com,” the plea stated according to LiveLaw.

He also requested the court to secure the data under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2003.

Soon after the case was taken up in the court, boycott trends against MakeMyTrip and Goibibo started gaining steam in the social media platforms.

An X user wrote, "So uninstall this app because this app is not safe anymore and don't use this app #Boycott_MakeMyTrip Uninstall Goibibo."

Another wrote, "Chinese apps stealing data of Indians... PIL in Delhi High Court #Boycott_MakeMyTrip Uninstall Goibibo."