India Call Center Industry Defends Data Safety Record

by Mike Bevel, CollectionIndustry.com

India?s call center industry is not so fond of a documentary aired by Britain?s Channel 4, purporting to show how the data of thousands of British customers could be stolen and sold by call center employees for as little as US$15.

“Security is a number one priority,” said the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) president Kiran Karnik, in a statement.

The Channel 4 documentary purports to show people offering to sell credit card numbers, passwords and other information obtained from Indian call centers.

NASSCOM, which represents India’s US$24 billion information technology and outsourcing industry, is anxious to safeguard the sector’s reputation from any allegations that India is lax on security.

The group said it had written to the British program makers requesting their “immediate cooperation” and to provide details of the allegations “that would have enabled prompt action against the alleged criminals.” However, according to NASSCOM, so far Channel 4 has refused to cooperate.