Not a zero sum game : how to simultaneously maximize efficiency and privacy in data-driven urban governance

Abstract

India has been striving towards digitization of citizen data and government services using e-governance platforms to improve accountability, transparency, and efficiency. Accordingly, India launched the world's largest biometric ID system, Aadhaar, in 2009 and the "100 Smart Cities Mission" in 2015. However, with the immense wealth of personal data being digitized, guarantees on personal privacy were subsequently called into question. In August of 2017, the Supreme Court of India declared that privacy is a fundamental right. To examine the juxtaposition of governmental efficiency and personal privacy through rapid digitization, we investigate and collect city metadata by examining the architecture of the products of eGovernments Foundation, one of the leading providers of digital tools for ULBs, and by directly by interacting with cities.

In this particular study, we investigate New Property Tax Assessment applications, New Water Tap Connection applications, and Public Grievance Redressals for 112 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Through field work, collection of data, and further analysis, we observe which data fields are collected how they are used. We define a Government Efficiency Index (GEI) and Information Privacy Index (IPI) in order to provide a standard for understanding and analyzing the trade-offs between government efficiency and citizen privacy for these services across all ULBs. This thesis examines how ULBs perform on GEI and IPI axes through multiple lenses. Using real data, we demonstrate that both efficiency and privacy are measurable concepts in the context of urban governance.

Furthermore, the methodology of identifying top-performing cities outlined in this thesis allows us to conclude that there exist exemplar cases of ULBs that have high impact on both the GEI and IPI axes. Thus, this methodology for comparing efficiency and privacy provides a structure to understanding, evaluating, and comparing governmental processes.