Sri Sri has asked the foundations teachers and volunteers to survey a hundred people each using a Happiness Survey. The survey starts with a profound question: Are you happy in life? But it soon moves to mundane ones on corruption and price rise. It asks you to rate the economic situation in the country, reveal the single most important criteria for you when you vote in 2014, and share what do you believe could bring in the maximum change in the country: existing ruling party, another national party, or a newly formed party? After finding out your political preferences, the survey asks you to share your voter ID card number. Since it has already taken down your location, email and mobile number, any political party that gets hold of the survey would find it easy to track you down to influence your voting decision before elections, which might be the least worrying possibility of what such data could be used for. What does gathering data on peoples political preferences have to do increasing voter awareness? What does the Art of Living foundation intend to do with the data it collects? Does it assure people that their data would be kept confidential and not be shared? Questions emailed to the campaign office went unanswered. An email circulating in Art of Living circles with instructions on how to carry out the survey offers further insight. The aim is not to tell people who to vote for but educate and inspire, it says. Yet it quickly follows up with what people should be inspired to think. Kindle the feeling that a stable, experienced government is required in todays situation and that it is a good practice to rotate power to prevent corruption and increase responsibility ... An inexperienced party will not provide confidence to investors and further erode the value of our currency. When you are driving on mountainous roads, will you prefer an experienced driver or a family member who has a learners License? If you should vote for neither the party in power, nor the inexperienced newbie, then it is quite apparent who Sri Sri wants you to vote for. And who he might be sharing your data with.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 05:53:02 +0000