HarGharTiranga data makes citizens vulnerable to 'geo-propaganda'

Ongole: If you have taken a selfie with the tricolour celebrating the 75 years of Independence of India and posted it on HarGharTiranga.com some of the sensitive data belonging to you might have already been in the public domain. The information can be used to do good or bad to you, depending on the intentions of the person who has his hands on it. Celebrating the 76th Independence Day, leaders across the country encouraged the public to post a selfie by holding the national flag or hoisting it on their house, as part of the Har Ghar Tiraga campaign.

The government administration also distributed the flags to hoist high on the houses of the public and show their patriotism. However, the campaign led the public to upload their selfies or photographs with the flags at HarGharTiranga.com, a website registered by unknown bodies but has the logo of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The VVIPs, VIPs and celebrities like Amit Shah, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajnikanth, Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Sonu Sood, and common people to a total of more than 6.14 crore uploaded their photos onto the website.

The EXIF data of some of these photos are revealing GPS coordinates, mobile phone manufacturer name, the software they are using, etc, risking the privacy of the uploaders. For example, when the EXIF data of Amit Shah is analysed, it revealed that the photo is taken with a Nikon camera of model D810 on August 12 without using the flash. A fashion photographer by the name of Sachin Gothwal, who lives in Delhi, took the photo, which was uploaded to the website on August 13, 2022.

When analysed, the EXIF data of a common man Naresh Ganji's revealed more sensitive data even by pinpointing his house in Janachaitanya Colony of Hyderabad, along with the information that he is using Oppo mobile of model A31.

The experts in the digital rights, and online privacy fields, expressed concern over the gathering of sensitive data by a website. They suspect that even if the EXIF data is now stripped off, the original data can be shared with their associated political parties, and marketing companies to run a campaign targeting a specific area, or even utilize the data to focus on specific people to get their work done.

The experts are suggesting the public to remove all EXIF data by using online tools, before uploading any photos onto social media or websites like HarGharTiranga.com, to serve the purpose but by not compromising their safety and security.