Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — As the electioneering for the Assembly polls in Karnataka is in full swing, a private firm in Bengaluru has been found selling voter data in bulk to political candidates in the state.
According to a report published by The News Minute, while the owners are yet to be traced, the company has been found advertising on its website openly that it has ‘sensitive information’ related to voters, including their mobile phone numbers and WhatsApp numbers.
The company reportedly had data on millions of voters, which it was offering to political parties and candidates for a fee. The data is said to be sourced from various government agencies, as well as private entities, and was being sold without the consent of the voters.
The potential clients are given login access by the company and can purchase the voters’ information and other services from the website, for as low a price as Rs 25,000.
Investigation on the domain details of the website revealed that it was registered in Delhi in April this year, but all other details on the website had been redacted by the company.
On entering the portal, according to the news report, a pop-up message comes with a barcode to scan and pay. The message was quoted as stating: “Win this election 2023 by getting your assembly data with all voters’ mobile numbers @ Rs.25,000 + 500 (Transaction Charge) only. Send your election manifesto through WhatsApp, voice call & SMS to all voters in your assembly. Above said amount remains as a deposit. Election losers can claim their refund of the deposit after the election rules are made liberal.”
The portal has an ‘Election Day’ dashboard with details of booths, and polled and unpolled votes. The booth-wise data contains details of the number of votes for each booth and provides a breakup.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) officials are investigating whether the company, whose owners have not yet been traced, could have been used to bribe voters by depositing money into their accounts using UPI (Unified Payments Interface).
The matter of the data sale by the company came to light when Raju, an independent candidate, informed the EC after he was called on phone and offered voter data for a price. Raju spoke to the officer in-charge of enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct, about the matter. The officer, in turn, roped in the police, who registered a complaint on April 24.
An FIR has also been registered by the Cyber Crime Branch (Southeast Division) officers in Bengaluru against the private company in this regard.
Sources in the EC have expressed concern that the format of the data being sold is similar to what is stored on Eronet, the government portal with the EC data on voters and which only election officials can access.
This is the second voter scam discovered in Karnataka in the last six months. In November 2022, ‘Chilume’, a private company, was found to have collected personal data from lakhs of Bengaluru voters. The company staff had posted it as officials of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Paliker (BBMP).
The selling of voter data is illegal under Indian law, and the Election Commission of India has strict guidelines in place to prevent such practices.
However, it appears that these guidelines are not being enforced effectively, and companies continue to flout the rules with impunity.
