A centralised database of citizens in the state of Telangana is under consideration

The state government of Telangana is said to be working on creating a database of its residents to strengthen security, ensure compliance across platforms and of course, solve crime. The database is said to include details like names, aliases, family details, addresses and information on various documents like Aadhaar cards, passports and driving licenses. The Hyderabad City Police has already compiled a similar comprehensive database of people in the city and hopes that it will be implemented across the state. Known as the Integrated People Information Hub (IPIH), it can offer a ‘360 degree view’ of every citizen, says City Police Commissioner M Mahender Reddy. The database is sourced from police records including information on arrested people, offenders lists, missing person reports, FIRs, case diaries as well as from external sources like phone / power / water connections, tax payments, voter IDs, RTA licenses, registration data, e-challans, passports and terrorist records. The data is combined and indexed by an Identity Resolution engine (IRE) to figure out the identity of a person which is then made available to authorities. Various authorities have already been using it to identify and remove duplicate ration cards, identify tax defaulters, compare scholarship data, and so on. “There are offenders who give different names and addresses when arrested for different crimes. But the IRE engine mines through the data and collects common points and gives a complete profile of the person from various data sources, along with previous offence details and even a family tree,” said an official. This kind of database of a city or even a state can be a great tool for the government and various authorities. However, the question of privacy lurks as there is policy around it. Which means there will be no clear liability in case there is a data breach that compromises the data of all citizens in the state.