Comments on: Insecurities over Indian outsourcing

Arrest of former call center workers in India for account theft reignites controversy over safety of shipping sensitive data overseas.

[sanenazok]

It's happened here in the US

Within the last two months the Chicago Sun Times reported that DMV employees stole confidential information and used it to create new credit cards. This type of theft will happen anywhere proprietary information is found, just because that's where it's accessible. Afterall one robs the bank as that's where the money is.

[bobeld]

Outsourcing

Identity theft is a worldwide problem. Most employees of companies, outsourced or domestic, are honest but there are always a few who will abuse their position for personal gain.
My concern regarding outsourced identity theft would be in the legal remedies available to correct a problem outside of the U.S. Would the government of (place your favorite outsource nation here) have the resources (or the resolve)to follow through on thefts occuring to outsiders (i.e. U.S. citizens)?

[b2bhandshake]

One swallow doesn't make a summer

The expression that comes to mind reading this and other mentions of the incident in the press is ...One swallow doesn't make a summer... And to add to this the issue here is about Credit Card Fraud and not about BPO or Offshoring, though the fact that it happened in an offshored BPO context cannot be ignored?
- Mohan B, Author
http://www.offshoringmanagement.com

[Que.Ball]

Outsourcing to US is dangerous too.

It is interesting to note that the Canadian government is
currently concerned with outsourcing of government services
especially healthcare data to US based business. The reason is
that under the USA patriot act the USA government could
secretly request this data and there is nothing to prevent abuse.

See link for example:
http://www.nationalreviewofmedicine.com/issue/2004_04_22/
goverment_medicine01_08.htm

A very similar argument.

[vijaymaurya]

Insecurities arising over self diffidence

The US is paranoid over losing jobs due to their inadequecies. An easy option is to blame the Indian Outsourcing Firms - as if credit card and bank frauds are nonexistent in the US. I feel a more mature method has to evolve out of this exercise and further strenghten the system rather than dig holes.

[doctorsoos]

get real

US paranoid about losing jobs due to inadequecies. Get off your crack pipe pal. It is due to greedy corporations not our skills. You have no idea what you are talking about whatsoever. And you are insulting to those of us in the workforce in the US. Go to india and see if you can get a job (if you are not indian of course). You won't, they don't hire foreigners.

Unbelievable...that's all I can say about your comment. Certainly has no merit whatsoever.

India - the 51st state ?

The basic problem is that right now, other countries, where offshored jobs now reside are NOT accountable, in the same way, workers are in the US - they don't haveUS laws & regulations.

If India, Singapore, China, et al. want to continue to do these jobs, let them be subject to US laws & penalties. Make India the 51st state. Want to bet that, if workers (and companies) in other countries were subject to the same laws, regulations & penalties, the profit margin would start to shrink?

Clearly, there is a saving, hiring people with a lower cost of living, on lower wages. But accountability costs too.

India is digging it's own grave

The negligence from the part of Government of India (GOI) to make laws to guarantee the security of the data?s off shored are encouraging data theft by the BPO employees. The latest data theft is reported from Gurgaon , literally sitting under the nose of India's governing machinery. While similar laws (cyber law) have been implemented to prevent child porn being circulated and selling of unauthorized personal details, GOI is still lagging behind many developed countries to adopt a data protection standard. While ranked 7th in the internet penetration list, India still has no unified laws to regulate the Misuse of internet and related technologies