Explained | What is the Karnataka voter data theft case?

Source: The post is based on the article “Explained | What is the Karnataka voter data theft case? ” published in The Hindu on 30th November 2022.

What is the News?

Bengaluru’s civic body has cancelled permissions granted to a trust to conduct house-to-house surveys to help create awareness about the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme. 

What is the voter theft data case in Karnataka?

In 2018, the Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Trust was granted permission to carry out house-to-house visits to create awareness on how to access online applications via the voters’ helpline mobile app. 

Later, the Bengaluru civic body revoked this permission after receiving several complaints from residents that the NGO was collecting personal details while conducting door-to-door surveys by deputing field-level workers. 

The BBMP has admitted that the personal information of the voters, including Aadhaar number, phone number and voter ID number, was uploaded on an app (Digital Sameeksha) developed by the Trust and not on the Election Commission’s voter registration app (Garuda) or voter helpline. 

The Opposition has accused the NGO of large-scale electoral fraud, malpractice and manipulation of voters’ lists.

What will happen to the data now?

According to experts, the data which was collected by the NGO has potential for misuse.

Such mass collection of data is violative of the fundamental right to privacy as defined in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (retd.) vs Union of India. The judgment formally recognised the right to privacy as being a fundamental right stemming from the right to life and personal liberty, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.