Signatures of Surveillance

Political operatives, in their quest for hyper-personalised political campaigns, spend time learning how to turn fragments, such as a cause an individual has signed for, a town they live in, and the kind of comment they make, into an inferential profile of their beliefs, fears, and likely actions. This technique, known as microtargeting, is not hypothetical; it forms the foundation of modern political persuasion. Academics and watchdogs have documented the mechanics: collect identifiers, append other demographic or behavioural signals, then craft hyper-personalised messages that land in the quiet spaces of the person’s inbox or social feed

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In recent years, the trend of online petitions has increased manifold, with websites like the US-based organisation Change.org having 56.5 million registered users worldwide and approximately 7-8 million registered users in India since 2011. The number has continued to increase since the launch of its Hindi edition a decade ago. By 2022, the platform claimed to have hosted approximately 520,000 petitions. Similarly, another online petition platform registered in India has data on 1,805 petitions from the last nine months of 2025. A US-based platform, Avaaz, had nine crore members in 193 countries by April 2025. Most of these have been found to have run online campaigns on election protests, climate change, human rights, and religious issues.

In today’s digital age, online petitions have emerged as powerful tools for civic engagement, enabling individuals to voice their concerns and advocate for change. This practice of running and supporting online petitions and social media has also been nicknamed as slacktivism, which involves very little commitment or effort. However, beneath their seemingly innocuous interface lies a complex web of data collection practices that pose significant threats to personal privacy and societal cohesion.

While these platforms purport to champion democratic participation, they often serve as conduits for harvesting sensitive personal information, including political and religious affiliations, without the informed consent of the users and petitioners. This data is subsequently utilised to tailor algorithmic feeds, subtly influencing individuals’ perceptions and behaviours. Such practices not only compromise data privacy but also have profound implications for national security, potentially facilitating radicalisation and recruitment by malicious actors. Consequently, this trend of online petitions and slacktivism has emerged as another threat vector impacting India’s national security.