Washington DC (USA): Sensitive information of nearly 200 million people in the US was accidentally leaked by a marketing firm contracted by the Republican National Committee, the country’s largest breach of electoral data to date, according to a media report.

The data leak by Deep Root Analytics contains personal information of roughly 61 per cent of the US population, technology news website Gizmodo reported.

The 1.1 terabytes of data seems to have been collected from a wide range of sources – from posts on controversial banned threads on a social network, to committees that raised funds for the Republican Party, the report said.

Apart from personal details, the data also contained citizens’ suspected religious affiliations, ethnicities and political biases, such as where they stood on controversial topics like gun control, the right to abortion and stem cell research, the report said.

The information was stored in spreadsheets uploaded to a server owned by Deep Root Analytics. It had last been updated in January when President Donald Trump, a Republican, was inaugurated and had been online for an unknown period of time.

“We take full responsibility for this situation. Based on the information we have gathered thus far, we do not believe that our systems have been hacked,” Deep Root Analytics’ founder Alex Lundry by quoted by the report.

“Since this event has come to our attention, we have updated the access settings and put protocols in place to prevent further access,” Lundry said.

Although it is known that political parties routinely gather data on voters, this is said to be the largest breach of electoral data in the US to date and privacy experts are concerned about the sheer scale of the data gathered.

There are fears that leaked data can easily be used for nefarious purposes, from identity fraud to harassment of people under protection orders, or to intimidate people who hold an opposing political view.

(Agencies)

Chennai: Hindu Makkal Katchi President Arjun Sampath on Monday said he has urged superstar Rajinikanth to join politics and was told he was “in preparation” for it.

After an hour-long interaction with the 67-year-old actor at his residence here, Sampath told reporters: “Rajinikath sir should free Tamil Nadu from the clutches of Dravidian rule for over five decades.”

He said that the “Kabali” star is well aware that the “system is corrupt”.

“We urged him to be the flag bearer of alternative politics. When we insisted him to join politics, he said he is in preparation for the same. He said he would feel guilty if he doesn’t do anything for the people of Tamil Nadu,” said Sampath.

Rajinikanth further added that only if he joins politics, can he realise his dream of interlinking Himalayan and peninsular rivers into one national grid.

Sampath also said Rajinikanth spoke about spiritualism.

(IANS)

New Delhi: The police on Monday registered a case of forgery on a complaint by a senior government official alleging that a fake letter issued by the cabinet secretariat about digitisation of land records, was being circulated with his forged signature.

The case was registered against unidentified persons on the complaint of Sheo Nath Singh, an undersecretary in the government whose signature is there on the letter, the police said.

The letter, which emerged on WhatsApp and has Cabinet Secretariat written on the top, reportedly mandated all the chief secretaries, additional chief secretaries of states and union territories to “complete the digitisation of land records, sale records from 1950 by August 14.”

It also said the government was “considering linking Aadhar numbers with the ownership of said properties” and that those properties that were not linked shall be considered for action under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amended Act, 2016.

In his complaint, Singh said it was only after he started getting calls from people asking about the cabinet notification dated June 15 that he came to know about the matter.

The police said they have lodged an FIR at South Avenue police station under various sections of IPC pertaining to forgery of government document.

Director General of Press Information Bureau (PIB), Frank Noronha also tweeted about the fake letter.

“The letter attributed to Cabinet Secretariat on #Aadhaar linking to Land records, is completely fake & mischievous,” he said.

(PTI)

New Delhi: Reminiscent of India’s tryst with destiny at the midnight of 15 August 1947, Parliament’s historic Central Hall will host a function on the intervening night of 30 June-1 July to ring in the nation’s biggest tax reform—the goods and services tax (GST).

Announcing that the switchover to the GST will kick in at the stroke of midnight, finance minister Arun Jaitley said the hour-long function will mirror the contribution made by different political parties and states to the revolutionary new tax regime. The circular-shaped Central Hall had previously hosted a function that marked 50 years of Independence.

President Pranab Mukherjee, who had piloted the first Constitutional Amendment Bill to bring in GST in 2011 when he was finance minister with the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, will share the dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion. Also on dais will be former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and H.D. Deve Gowda, apart from vice-president Hamid Ansari and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

All Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Members of Parliament have been invited as also chief ministers and state finance ministers, Jaitley said, adding that all the members—past and present—chairmen of the GST Council and the Empowered Committee of state finance ministers have been invited.

GST, he said, over the medium to long term will lead to a rise in revenues of the Centre and states as the size of the formal economy will grow. GST being a more efficient system will also result in better tax compliance, the finance minister stressed.

However, in the short term, “there will be some challenges” in switchover to GST, he pointed out without elaborating. Asked about industry bodies talking about small and medium enterprises not being prepared for the switchover to GST, Jaitley said 1 July as the rollout date has been announced well in advance and so “nobody had any business not to be ready”.

Besides, additional time has been given in the initial period for filing of the results, thus giving enough time to prepare for the transition, he said. On the anti-profiteering clause in the GST law, he said the provision has been made as a deterrent which is not intended to be used unless forced to.

(PTI)

New Delhi: He is a born frequent flier — a baby boy, born Sunday 35,000 feet above sea level on a Jet Airways plane from Saudi Arabia to India, has received a free lifetime pass from the airline as his first birthday gift.

Jet Airways flight 9W 569 took off from Dammam for Kochi at 2.55 am Sunday and when an expectant mother from Kerala travelling onboard went into premature labour the crew declared a medical emergency and diverted the flight to Mumbai.

While the Boeing 737 with 162 passengers on board was still over the Arabian Sea, the cabin crew requested on the public announcement system for a doctor to come forward. But since there was none a female nurse travelling to Kerala, named Wilson, volunteered to help deliver the child along with the airline staff.

After the plane landed in Mumbai, both the mother and the baby were rushed to a hospital and were said to be doing well, according to the airline. “Being the first baby to be born in-flight for the airline, Jet Airways is pleased to offer the newly-born a free lifetime pass for all his travel on Jet Airways,” the airline said in a statement.

The plane later resumed its onward journey to Kochi and reached its destination at 12.45 pm after a delay of 90 minutes.

(IANS)

Dhar/Narsinghpur: Two more farmers committed suicide in Madhya Pradesh, taking to 10 the number of farmer suicides in the state this week.

Jagdish More, 35, consumed poison in Rampura area of Dhar Police Station on Friday. He died later in the day.

Rajendra Navaria, the in-charge of Dhar Police Station, confirmed that the farmer committed suicide.

The deceased farmer’s family told the police that he committed suicide as he was upset over the pressure built by the bank for repayment of debt.

Another farmer named Imrat died after consuming sulphas pills in Chandlaun village in Gotegaon, Narsinghpur. He breathed his last enroute to Jabalpur for treatment.

R.K. Soni, the in-charge of Narsinghpur Police Station, told IANS that the farmer bought a piece of land 10 years ago but could not get it registered till date.

“He was disturbed as he could not get his agricultural land registered. So, he consumed sulphas pills and committed suicide. Even his family has acknowledged that he was depressed,” he said.

Madhya Pradesh has been witnessing widespread protests by farmers demanding loan waiver and remunerative prices for their produce. On June 6, five farmers were killed in police firing while another died of his injuries later in Mandsaur district.

(IANS)