Company Registered, Flooded with Spam Calls? MCA Breaks Silence on Data Privacy Concerns
Ministry of Corporate Affairs defends data practices amid viral concerns over post-registration spam.
A tweet from senior IPS officer Arun Bothra has sparked a debate on data privacy and regulatory transparency after he shared how a friend, soon after registering a company with the Registrar of Companies (ROC), began receiving unsolicited messages from banks, insurance firms, logistics companies, and software vendors. The friend had submitted official details through the...
A tweet from senior IPS officer Arun Bothra has sparked a debate on data privacy and regulatory transparency after he shared how a friend, soon after registering a company with the Registrar of Companies (ROC), began receiving unsolicited messages from banks, insurance firms, logistics companies, and software vendors.
The friend had submitted official details through the Ministry ofCorporate Affairs’ SPICe+ portal, a platform that integrates services such as PAN, TAN, EPFO, ESIC, and bank account creation under the AGILE Pro eForm. What was meant to be a seamless, one-window business registration experience turned into a flood of cold calls and promotional emails.
“He can’t even ask who stole and sold his data in the open market,” Bothra wrote, tagging the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and adding the hashtag #DataPrivacy.
As the tweet went viral, dozens of users echoed similar experiences. “Started 4 years back, and I still get 2-3 promotional emails daily,” one shared. Others were more scathing: “This is called data monetisation. Government might be making money through selling his data,”. “Corruption is so mainstream… they now look for new avenues like selling data and privacy,” said another.
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Some pointed out that RoC data is publicly accessible, at least in part, and may be scraped by third parties. But many questioned how quickly and specifically private businesses were able to target newly registered companies, suggesting a real-time data pipeline may be exploited.
In response to the growing backlash, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (@MCA21India) issued a statement on July 29. The ministry clarified that under its Ease of Doing Business initiative, certain data is shared only with the banks selected by applicants during the incorporation process, and only with consent
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“Dear Stakeholder,
As part of our ease of doing business initiative, MCA launched SPICe+ eforms, providing 11 services including PAN, TAN, EPFO, ESIC, Profession Tax, Shop & Establishment registration and bank account creation.
MCA is sharing the requisite information to the concerned banks chosen by stakeholders in AGILE Pro eForm for incorporation of a company, with their consent. Data is not shared with any other private entity.
No personal details like mobile, PAN of Indian Directors are available for public viewing.
In order to safeguard private details, public view of the DIR-12 eForm has been stopped since March 2024.”
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Despite this clarification, public distrust lingers. Many feel the safeguards are either insufficient or poorly implemented, and the lack of accountability in how private service providers obtain this data continues to fuel suspicions of institutional data misuse.
As India accelerates its digitization and ease-of-doing-business agenda, privacy advocates are urging the government to adopt clearer data protection protocols, robust audit mechanisms, and penalties for misuse.
For now, entrepreneurs may be getting fast-track company registration, but also an unwanted fast lane to the spam economy.
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