The Open Google Sheet Disaster
During fest preparations, someone creates a Google Sheet titled "Final Fest Registrations Master File (ALL COLLEGES)".
To help coordinate gate check-in and stage announcements, the link is shared with "Anyone on the internet with the link can edit", and posted into a 60-person volunteer WhatsApp group.
Within hours: Hundreds of female students' personal phone numbers and college hostel details are accessible to unvetted volunteers. Commercial coaching institutes and external promoters copy the entire sheet for unsolicited WhatsApp spam marketing. Under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act*, unauthorized exposure of student personal data exposes institutions to severe compliance liability.
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1. The Principle of Least Privilege in Event Tech
Junior gate volunteers do not need to download a complete export of 2,000 students' personal contact details. A gate volunteer only needs to know: Is this ticket code valid, and what is their entry status? Contact lists and financial records belong strictly to the Club Owner and Core Conveners.
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2. How Spark Enforces Column-Level Data Privacy
In Spark:
1. Row Level Security (RLS): Public anonymous clients and unauthorized accounts cannot SELECT from public.registrations.
2. Restricted Gate Roster RPCs: When volunteers open the check-in desk, they query dedicated stored procedures that return only operational fields (ticket_code, name, status, station).
3. No Unrestricted Spreadsheet Links: There are no public shareable URLs. Access is granted strictly to authenticated user accounts scoped to that specific event.
By replacing open spreadsheets with role-gated database procedures, clubs protect their attendees' privacy while maintaining flawless operational coordination.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do student phone numbers leak during college fests?
Organizers routinely share editable Google Sheets links containing hundreds of student phone numbers with dozens of volunteer desk staff, leading to unauthorized scraping and spam.
How does Spark protect attendee phone numbers from junior volunteers?
Spark enforces PostgreSQL Row Level Security (RLS). Gate volunteers can search and verify ticket validity, but raw attendee databases and contact lists remain masked and inaccessible.
Topics covered in this guide:
Next Step: Protect Attendee Data
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