Plowing Through Privacy: Google's AgriStack Raises Eyebrows

Google is building a digital AgriStack for India based on satellite imagery to trace farm boundaries and identify crops. The base layer will attribute unique IDs to farms, along the lines of Aadhaar, and may be utilized for uses such as subsidy disbursal and loans for farms. Though the project seeks to transform agriculture, it has raised concerns regarding data privacy and farmers' rights. Critics point out that in the absence of strong data protection legislation, farmers' personal data may be misused. There are also fears of exclusion of tenant farmers and farm workers from the centralized database. The implementation of the project without consulting farmers has also been criticized by different stakeholders.
Source: Business Standard