Citizens can be illegally profiled during polls if voter ID, Aadhaar are linked, say ex-bureaucrats

As many as 104 former civil servants on Wednesday issued a statement against linking voter identification card to the Aadhaar card, calling it a “dangerous move” that could be used for illegal profiling or targeting of citizens during elections.

On December 21, Rajya Sabha passed the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which proposes to allow electoral registration officers to seek Aadhaar numbers of people who want to register as voters to establish their identity.

“There is a distinct possibility that Voter IDs linked to Aadhaar cards and thence to mobile phones could be linked to social media,” the statement read. “This social media can be linked to algorithms that are in turn linked to user interests/views. Without a robust Data Protection law and accompanying regulatory mechanisms in place, voter profiling, selective exclusion and targeted campaigns are all possible.”

The former civil servants said such profiling could result in a controversy similar to the one in which British data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica was involved.

The case pertains to the misuse of data of an estimated 87 million Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica, which shut down in May 2018. Without authorisation, the firm harvested the personal data of 50 million Facebook users through a seemingly harmless personality quiz.

This information was then allegedly used to…

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