Taliban may use US-built databases as a tool for repression and surveillance

The Afghan Personnel and Pay System has data of more than 700,000 security forces members dating back 40 years.

Boston: Over two decades, the United States and its allies spent hundreds of millions of dollars building databases for the Afghan people. The nobly stated goal: Promote law and order and government accountability and modernize a war-ravaged land. But in the Taliban's lightning seizure of power, most of that digital apparatus including biometrics for verifying identities apparently fell into the Taliban hands. Built with few data-protection safeguards, it risks becoming the high-tech jackboots of a surveillance state. As the Taliban get their governing feet, there are worries it will be used for social control and to punish perceived foes. Putting such data to work constructively boosting education, empowering women, battling corruption requires democratic stability, and these systems were not architected for the prospect of defeat.