PMO asking NCC units to install NaMo App is unethical
In the time of Aadhaar data leaks, the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal and fears of global surveillance rapidly turning into everyday reality, it is safe to say that data is more precious and dangerous than oil. Given the ongoing debates on data and privacy that take place almost every day, it would not be presumptuous to suggest that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is aware of all of these concerns. Which begs the question: Why would he not just sanction, rather encourage the collection of a vast amount of private data on a privately owned mobile application?
The Print reported, on March 22, that the mobile numbers and e-mail IDs of more than 15 lakh students of the National Cadets Corps (NCC) are being collected for the PMO under the pretext that PM Modi wants to directly interact with the cadets. The report further added that the letter from the PMO bore another recommendation, that all students download the NaMo app on their smartphones. “The Honourable PM Narendra Modi has desired a direct interaction with maximum cadets of NCC. This is feasible by downloading the Narendra Modi app in the cell phones of the cadets,” read the letter dated February 23.
According to a Mumbai Mirror report, the letter addressed to principals and associate NCC officers, who manage the cadets’ training, also added, “This matter should be treated as very urgent.”
To understand why the recommendation to install and register with the NaMo app is highly problematic one has to understand two things. One, the app in question is owned and operated by Narendra Modi, not by the Indian government. Despite how it has been portrayed by the BJP government, the app is not a government initiative; hence, the data collected in the app cannot be safeguarded by the government, and belongs to Narendra Modi, and by association, perhaps the BJP.
Two, to use the app to register — one has to fill out a rather tedious enrolment form — and that requires handing out some sensitive information. The mandatory information in the registration form includes vital details such as name, phone number, email address, state, district, city, profession and interests. The non-mandatory fields include date of birth and voter ID number.
The non-mandatory questions are placed somewhat oddly between mandatory fields, giving off the impression that this too is information one has to necessarily provide.
Names, phone numbers, email addresses and possibly voter ID numbers from NCC units — of the 15 lakh enrolled cadets, nearly seven lakh are college students — in all 716 districts of the country: this is the information that the BJP would come to own all because the PM plans to address cadets over video conference, and it is expected that this information would somehow help the PMO find the “best possible method to directly communicate with the cadets”, said NCC director-general Lt-Gen BS Sahrawat.
According to the Indian Express, till date, data has been gathered for nearly nine lakh cadets but no date has been fixed for an appointment with the PM. This is of course not the first time PM Modi has tried to address large groups via the NaMo app, an application whose primary function is to update users on BJP’s achievements.
In December 2017, PM Modi addressed more than 7,500 BJP women workers via the NaMo App in Gujarat.
The important question one has to ask here is why students affiliated with the NCC are being asked to submit such sensitive and private data to an application that has no government sanction. It is also prudent to note that just like UIDAI databases, even the NaMo app database is vulnerable to attacks — a white hat hacker was able to access the email addresses of many, including Union information and broadcasting minister Smriti Irani — all in about “15-20 minutes”.
And finally, at a time it has been abundantly demonstrated with the Cambridge Analytica exposé that private social media information can be used to profile potential voters and target them with propaganda, why is it acceptable for the prime minister of a country to subtly use his power to collect voter data that will only help his party in the future?