confidentiality questioned as 9 private portals allowed to handle data
the goan I network
PANAJI
The wait for around 19,000 students who answered their Secondary School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) in April this year is finally over. The Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (GBSHSE) will be announcing the SSCE results on Tuesday at 11:30 am.
The websites which will allow students to check their results are already available on the GBSHSE website. Nine private websites have been announced: schools9.com, Indiatoday.in, boardresults.online, jagranjosh.com, results.shiksha, examresults.net, knowyourresult.com, indiaresults.com, and newsnation.in. The Board’s website itself has also been listed.
However, concerns have been raised with regard to the students’ personal information as far as these private websites are concerned. An IT professional told “The Goan” that now with the kind of technology we have, it’s not a huge task for the Board to solely handle results on their website without involving private players. “Earlier it was difficult, because when lots of users logged into a server, issues used to crop up. But even then, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) of the Government of India, who used to handle the 10th and 12th Standard Goa Board results, used to deal with the issues very well,” said the IT professional.
The concern the IT professional raised was that people giving their personal information to these third party websites, did not know if their information was being misused. “Whenever personal information is collected from someone, every website has to give a privacy declaration that the information collected is not going to be misused. But how many people verify if this privacy declaration is present for these private websites, as well as if these websites are misusing students’ personal information?” questioned the IT professional, adding that even giving information like a mobile number or an e-mail ID was enough for personal information to be obtained.
Other questions that remain unanswered are why the Board can’t handle the results when crores of rupees are being pumped into e-education and e-governance, said the professional.
As far as ICSE results are
concerned, even though lakhs of students are answering, the declaration of results doesn’t involve third party websites. Students are able to obtain their results from the ICSE website directly upon entering their roll number.
“The Goan” tried to get in touch with both the chairman and secretary of the Goa Board on Monday, but was unsuccessful.
