The Uttar Pradesh Power corporation Limited (UPPCL) has directed its five subsidiary power distribution companies to ensure the privacy of the data of the electricity consumers.
The order issued by UPPCL has asked the five discoms to ensure that the data of the consumers collected during KYC (know your customer) update like their email, mobile number, and WhatsAapp number are not shared with any other agency and institution.
The five discom subsidiaries are Madhyanchal, Purvanchal, Paschimanchal, Dakshinanchal power distribution corporations and KESCo (Kanpur Electricity Supply Company).
The issue of data privacy of electricity consumers was raised with the UPPCL by the UP Power Consumer Forum. Avadesh Verma, chairman of the forum, said there were 3.22 crore electricity consumers in the state and discoms were updating the KYC data of the consumers. He said Pankaj Kumar, MD of the UPPCL, had directed all five discoms to ensure the data privacy of the consumers.
Verma said strong measures for protection of data of consumers had become imperative in view of the online fraud being committed by the cyber criminals who were sending messages to consumers about bill payment, delay in payment and other issues.
He said messages were being sent on mobile phones and the consumers were being lured for chats. He said till September 11.73 crore electricity consumers had provided their mobile numbers to the discoms and 9.86 lakh consumers had provided their WhatsApp numbers while 24 lakh consumers had shared their email with the discoms.
