The unprecedented growth that the BPO industry in India has achieved in a short span can get neutralized if it can't ensure quality and the security of information being outsourced. The problems in data privacy and information security are not confined to technological aspects alone. Data privacy is also to be viewed as a social engineering challenge.

Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of state. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) accuses that employees of a Gurgaon-based call center in India are illegally transacting personal information of thousands of Australians for as little as 10 Australian dollars (Rs. 335) per head. ABC TV in its featured titled "Four Corners"-a program by undercover journalists-stated that its media persons were offered names, address, telephone numbers, birth details, Medicare numbers, driving license numbers, ATM card numbers, and even passport information of 1,000 Australians. According to a press report, "Fraudsters can make use of such information to assume false identities to make online transactions and ABC was able to verify that the information belonged to real people. ABC refused to disclose either the company operating the call center or the journalist who had earlier conducted a similar sting operation at a call center in Gurgaon."

Karan Bahree, an employee of a Gurgoan call center allegedly discloses personal details of over 1,000 Britons for $5 per person, reported Sun, the British tabloid in June, 2005. The above scenarios are not fictional. Unfortunately, these are real life incidents, which happened, in the recent past. Through this article, we attempt to highlight the importance of data privacy and information security especially in the BPO industry. Incidents like these have caused distress among the BPO firms, which collectively earned $5.2 bn through export of services in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005.