NEW DELHI: India’s election regulator dropped plans yesterday to partner Google Inc on a project to ease voter access to information, after a backlash against the move from campaigners who fear Google and the US government could use it for spying.
India will go to the polls in a general election due by May. Google, the world’s No.1 search engine, had pitched a project to the Election Commission to create a simpler and faster search tool for voters to check whether they were registered correctly or not.
But the plan was opposed by the Indian Infosec Consortium, a government and private sector-backed alliance of cyber security experts, who feared Google would collaborate with “American agencies” for espionage purposes.
The Election Commission did not officially give a reason for dropping the plan.
“Google is committed to help make public information on the web easily accessible to internet users across the country,” Google said in a statement.
“It is unfortunate that our discussion with the Election Commission of India to change the way users access their electoral information, that is publicly available, through an online voter look up tool, were not fruitful,” it added.
A member of the ruling Congress Party said the plan was a “sensitive issue” and that political parties had not been consulted. A spokeswoman for the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party said that the Election Commission needed to protect voter data.
“After due consideration, the Commission has decided not to pursue the proposal any further,” the regulator said in a brief statement on its website yesterday.
AFP
