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    It’s paisa vasool for voter data vendors

    Synopsis

    data is being sold by vendors or brokers, which include websites such as Fiverr, SMS Achariya, Dialme24, Indiaemaildatabase, who are advertising online about ways to purchase such data.

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    Depending on a company’s target, these databases are sold based on location, age, profession and gender.
    BENGALURU: Marketing agencies, which actively engage with political parties during election campaigning, are buying voter details online — including names, mobile numbers and locations — and privately sharing it on the Cloud at a paltry 1 paisa for each data set, industry players have said.

    The data is being sold by vendors or brokers, which include websites such as Fiverr, SMS Achariya, Dialme24, Indiaemaildatabase, who are advertising online about ways to purchase such data and can easily be tracked using Google search, which was not the case a few years ago. For instance, on indiaemaildatabase.com, an individual can buy 1,00,000 email and mobile records at a starting package of RS 899, the website says.

    ET spoke to multiple digital marketing agency owners that are handling campaigns for regional and national parties during the election. They usually send 50-60 lakh SMSes pan-India in a day and the automated work usually starts 2-3 months prior to elections. For a political party, one message costs around 8-9 paisa, while the rates are 14-16 paisa for each voice call. “You can Google for any location and come across hundreds of data vendors and buy them as per your requirement. Today, if one goes to a market and asks for all top executives of a company, he can buy that in CD format for around Rs 500,” says Ankit Grover of UAA Marketing, which is based in Delhi.

    Depending on a company’s target, these databases are sold based on location, age, profession and gender. Experts suggest data needs increase by 50% during election season, which is why purchasing of such data inevitably spikes. While such data was mostly sold in CD format or the dark web until a few years ago, sharing links through cloud based services has become the preferred choice now since bulk data can easily be shared.

    “We get funds directly from the candidates or the party for marketing. Depending on the location of the targeted voters, we purchase the data. As much as 75% of the purchased data is usually accurate,” says Sudhir Pratap of Inexus Technologies, a marketing firm.


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