Privacy concerns over geotagging of 6 crore Indians on Har Ghar Tiranga site

In July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign to encourage people to bring the tricolour home and hoist it to mark the 75th year of India’s Independence. But now the campaign has raised concerns over data privacy of crores of Indians.

According to the Government of India (GoI), the idea behind the Har Gar Tiranga initiative was to “invoke the feeling of patriotism in the hearts of the people and to celebrate Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav in the spirit of Jan Bhagidari”.

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In a tweet, Modi had said: “This year, when we are marking Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, let us strengthen the Har Ghar Tiranga Movement. Hoist the Tricolour or display it in your homes between 13th and 15th August. This movement will deepen our connect with the national flag.”

This year, when we are marking Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, let us strengthen the Har Ghar Tiranga Movement. Hoist the Tricolour or display it in your homes between 13th and 15th August. This movement will deepen our connect with the national flag. https://t.co/w36PqW4YV3

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 22, 2022

6 crore-plus posted selfies

The government had launched a website www.harghartiranga.com under the Ministry of Culture, where Indian citizens could upload their selfies with the tricolour and also geotag their photos.

On August 16, Union Minister for Culture, Tourism G Kishan Reddy had thanked the citizens of the country and said, “The entire nation took part in Har Ghar Tiranga and more than 6 crore selfies have been taken and uploaded with the Tiranga till date. It reflects our love and pride for this great Nation. I would request all those who have taken selfies with the Tiranga to continue uploading pictures on the Har Ghar Tiranga Portal to continue the festive spirit.”

Thank you, India –

For furthering the clarion call of Hon Prime Minister Shri @NarendraModi ji to join the ‘#HarGharTiranga‘ movement and for the more than 5 Crore selfies with the Tiranga. It reflects our will to keep India at the top as the Supreme Nation.#AmritMahotsav
1/2 pic.twitter.com/h2cnODL3nk

— G Kishan Reddy (@kishanreddybjp) August 15, 2022

The homepage of the website said that as of September 25, 61,406,803 selfies have been uploaded. “Congratulations on pinning 5,00,00,000+ digital flags and being a part of this campaign!” it said.

Now, even after more than a month after Independence Day on August 15, the data is still available on the portal with nearly 5 crore people geotagging themselves.

Unprecedented scale of geotagging

According to the website, “once this campaign will be over all the images and information collected will be deleted”.

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But the portal is yet to delete those images and data, which has left digital rights activists raising alarm bells, according to a report.

“No country has ever executed such a massive scale of geotagging of its own citizens as we see in the Har Ghar Tiranga scheme,” Srinivas Kodali, a researcher with the Free Software Movement of India, told Rest of World, an international non-profit journalism organisation.

“Previously, some fragmented attempts have been made to geotag citizens with an intention of digital commerce; however, not at this scale with an intention of electioneering,” he added.

Digital rights activists believe that what seemed like an innocent voter outreach programme was a scheme to collect citizens’ data, which can be misused, the report said.

When siloed information, such as phone numbers, photographs, and location, is processed with other data sets, such as constituency population and voter preferences, it can make citizens vulnerable to “geo-propaganda,” Kodali said.

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“Such minute details of individuals can be used to microtarget them in a way that we cannot even anticipate its impact. For instance, such data can be used to target entire neighbourhoods of Muslims or people from opposition political beliefs,” he added.

What does website’s ‘Privacy Policy’ say?

Digital rights organisation Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) has raised concerns over the privacy policy of the website — particularly about who owns the submitted data, and what it could be used for.

“The privacy policy (of the website) seems like a collection of boilerplate clauses that have been thrown together. Wherever possible, the policy tries to shift responsibility away from itself,” Prateek Waghre, policy director at IFF, was quoted as saying in the report.

The website also uses cookies that track the browsing habits of users, Ayushman Kaul, a senior threat intelligence analyst with Logically, a technology company that specialises in analysing and fighting disinformation, the report added.

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The Har Ghar Tiranga website says that the data they store will be protected “within commercially acceptable means”.

“What data we store, we’ll protect within commercially acceptable means to prevent loss and theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification,” it said in its ‘Privacy Policy’ page.

On children’s information, it states, “We do not knowingly collect any Personal Identifiable Information from children under the age of 18. As a Parent/ Guardian, you are requested to not allow minors to share their Personal Identifiable Information on the website.”

While most of the websites are hosted on official servers at nic.in, the Har Ghar Tiranga portal is hosted via Amazon web servers and a private company Tagbin is behind its development, as per the report.

“It’s unclear where the data collected by the website is stored. The website also shares its IP address with more than 15 other websites, some with country code extensions from other parts of the world, leaving the private data of Indian citizens vulnerable to hacking,” it stated.

Who developed the website?

Last year, on Independence Day, Tagbin created rashtragaan.in, a website where over 2.5 crore visitors posted videos of themselves singing the National Anthem. Considering last year’s outcome, the Ministry entrusted the Har Ghar Tiranga initiative’s responsibility to Tagbin again, an ANI report said.

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Saurav Bhaik, the founder and CEO of Tagbin, was quoted as saying in the report, “The Har Ghar Tiranga initiative is a source of immense pride for us. All of us at Tagbin were behind this project because we believed it not only strengthens our team but the whole nation. We’re glad to have been able to bring people together so quickly in a short period of time.”

What about social media: BJP

Despite concerns, a BJP leader defended the website and the geotagging saying people share their photos on social media without any concerns over their privacy.

“When they upload it on the Har Ghar Tiranga website, then from where does this talk of privacy crop up? There is nothing private there. All these photographs are uploaded with consent. Modi ji gave a call and the whole nation followed him,” Mayank Goel, BJP vice president for western Uttar Pradesh, told Rest of World.

He said in his region alone, 50,000 party workers were on the ground for the implementation of the scheme. There were many BJP workers who organised “Tiranga marches” in different neighbourhoods, handing out free flags to citizens, according to the report.

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