Bangladesh: National ID card project for surveillance?

The Voter ID and the national ID card project in Bangladesh was completed recently by the caretaker (interim) government. The Bangla blogosphere has questioned the transparency of the project and is fearing whether the demographic information collected would be used for surveillance. Details are in E-Bangladesh.

4 comments

  • Other than surveillance, the real worry is the information on these database can be sold to just about anybody in the world for a price – for whatever reasons. Bangladesh still doesn’t have a data-protection law, and it wont surprise me if the same are passed on to the political parties.

    Jamaat will certainly have the GPS coordinates on who to slaughter once in Power!

    On the aside: I personally do not have a National ID, and whilst the prospects of my days ahead may be very heady and troublesome, I guess I have a fundamental right to privacy – as also a right NOT TO VOTE – ultimately the first reason this database was created.

  • RAB

    Don’t give your self importance. The comments you make seem quite childish – how do you know which organisation will use the info to harm someone – are you a prophet? Surely not. If you don’t have a national ID card you cant book hotels, get drivers license (even renewal), purchase property or do anything major in your life. If you are in Bangladesh then its a real problem for you but if you live overseas and never intend to return to Bangladesh than its ok. Be realistic and get a life you paranoid fool.

  • Mac Haque

    Dear RAB (or whoever) !

    Thank yo very much for your threat. You managed to indeed scare me very much. I will surely have sleepless nights :)

    No I am no Prophet – but neither are you. If you care to READ, then you will perhaps know that a right to privacy is enshrined as our constitutional rights. Sooner than not, the National ID Scam will be up for public scrutiny and also challenged in a Court of Law.

    Also…I really don’t need to stay in a Hotel, and I can always use a rickshaw like 90% of Bangladesh’s population.

    ‘Get a life’ is a fashion statement bordering on the kewl. If you claim who you are, perhaps you should read the articles and do some investigation on the corruption that went into making the Database. Be sure the Cyber Netizens will give yo a BIG MEDAL for your valor. Unless of course your ‘Jihad on Corruption’ is now relegated to comforts of you AC bedroom, where empty threats on the Internet are your only weapon of choice?

    From the comfort of your position which you claim to be – the next BIG THING that you can expect, is somebody will trace your IP and report it to RAB. You will be charged with impersonation. Imagine college kids who defaced your website – doing a favor to the nation by exposing you!

    Who is a FOOL will soon be revealed.

  • Jahid Hasan

    Could I get my national ID Card?

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