EC-Facebook

“The EC database is highly secure and is hosted on NIC and BSNL servers with multiple security walls and periodic security audits,” Zaidi added.

NIC is short for the National Informatics Centre and BSNL for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the state-owned telecom company.

In Zaidi’s tenure, EC first part- nered with Facebook, and the company came up with a ‘register now’ campaign aimed at encouraging citizens to register themselves with EC, and subsequently sent out reminders 13 Indian languages to those eligible to vote.

“Only alert were sent by Facebook to its own users from its own data base of users encouraging eligible users to register if not already registered. Nothing (was done) beyond this,” Zaidi said.

On March 28, the NDA government, which is a heavy user of social media, asked Facebook to clarify whether it or any associate or partner that has access to user data had engaged in manipulation of elections, or compromised personal data of voters.

Facebook did not respond to queries sent on Thursday. It said it was strongly committed to protecting people’s information in response to a query from HT on March 24.

“We have a lot of work to do to regain people’s trust and are working hard to tackle past abuse, prevent future abuse and will continue to engage with the EC of India and relevant stakeholders to answer any questions they may have,” an India-based Facebook spokesperson said.