It was some relief that Mark Zuckerberg, the face of Facebook, assured that he would not let his company be misused to influence elections in India, apart from promising to do the needful, including a full forensic audit of all apps and restriction on developers access to user apps. The credit for this should go to Christopher Wylie who disclosed Cambridge Analytica’s ‘harvesting’ of Facebook user data and its use for unacceptable ends. We were pleased that the Election Commission took note of the scandal and assured that it would do its best to prevent political consultative firms like Cambridge Analytica from influencing voters and impacting elections. The Modi Government must now enact a legislation for data privacy and make data breach a prosecutable offence.
A number of Indians use the services of tech companies. Obviously, the abuse of personal data can go to make a significant difference to electoral outcomes and subvert democracy. The kind of technology used in social media platforms has been so designed that tracking the users and their ‘behaviour’ to create what is termed ‘psychographic profiles’ is the easiest thing to do. This is all the more reason why strict regulations should be put in place to protect data and ensure that service providers stay away from micro-targeting voters. It is a fallacy to say that tech companies provide services for free. ‘Information is power’, as the saying goes. Big data is a gold mine. ‘Information warfare’ launched by predatory companies and power-seeking political parties poses a real danger in these days of alternative facts and fake news, ads and blogs. It is time we gear up against it to protect our cherished freedom, democracy and humanity.