A private NGO in Bengaluru has reportedly collected personal voter data from thousands of voters in Bengaluru by making their field agents pose as government officials.
The in-depth investigation carried out by TNM has revealed that the data breach comes at very a crucial time when Karnataka Assembly election are around the corner. This data is said to be of immense value to any political party who is interested in winning the upcoming polls.
Govt order allowed NGO to ‘create awareness’ about voter rights and revision of electoral rolls
The data theft started with a Government Order that allowed the NGO, Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Institute, to ‘create awareness’ about voter rights and revision of electoral rolls. One of the directors in the private NGO is linked with an election management company which raises serious questions about why the data was collected and who will benefit from it. The said data theft that was carried out even as Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Election Commission (EC) officials chose to look in the other direction.
The NGO received permission by the BBMP to conduct SVEEP (Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation). SVEEP is a special voter awareness drive by the Election Commission to revise the electoral rolls ahead of the Karnataka Assembly polls. The NGO misused the order and issued fake ID-cards to hundreds of their field agents, identifying them as Booth Level Officers (BLO) of the BBMP.
BLO's are govt/ ex-govt or quasi-govt officials who are also required to be residents of the polling station to which they are assigned.
The NGO filed workers made voters share personal information such as their age, gender, caste, mother tongue, marital status, employment and education details along with their phone numbers, Aadhaar number, address, Voter ID number and email address. The voters were even asked subjective questions about the performance of their elected representatives.
This data acquired by Chilume from voters has huge commercial value and private corporations would pay top dollar to obtain it. Moreover, for a politician looking to win the election by any means, the data is priceless.
Data still with Chilume
As soon as the BBMP learnt of reporters poking around the data breach, it hurriedly cancelled the permission given to the NGO. In this particular cancellation order by the BBMP, the officials do not make any effort to explain the reasons for the withdrawal of the permission given to Chilume. The BBMP and the EC officials have confirmed that despite the cancellation order, the data has not been retrieved from Chilume and its subcontractors.
