“Iraq will expose its demographic composition to 4 companies.” Representatives warn of the dangers o

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[size=52]“Iraq will expose its demographic composition to 4 companies.” Representatives warn of the dangers of the census[/size]

[size=45]Omar Al-Hilali[/size]
[size=45]Representatives warned against leaking Iraqis' information to four foreign companies when they carry out the population census this year.[/size]
[size=45]The representatives said that contracting with these companies to conduct the census exposes national security to danger.[/size]
[size=45]The Ministry of Planning tried to reduce these fears, and said that “the Iraqis’ data is preserved and cannot be leaked,” but the representatives recorded observations about the “waste of money” and called for contracting with local companies.[/size]
[size=45]The Statistics and Information Systems Authority at the Ministry of Planning announced that it had concluded a contract with 4 specialized international companies to complete the operations of the general population census, from the United States of America, Finland, Canada, and China.[/size]
[size=45]Each company undertakes to accomplish one of the basic tasks of the census, as one of them manufactures more than 120,000 tablets to conduct the population census electronically.[/size]
[size=45]The second company, according to official data, is establishing the private information center and census operations room, while the third is establishing a communications center.[/size]
[size=45]The fourth company is scheduled to supervise the preparation of electronic applications and software for the General Population Census.[/size]
[size=45]Last November, Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani announced his intention to conduct a population census this year (2024), 27 years after the last census was conducted in the country.[/size]
[size=45]The 1997 census showed that the population of Iraq was 22.33 million people, while the Ministry of Planning estimated, in its official data, that the population for the year 2022 amounted to 42 million 248 thousand and 883 people, with an annual increase rate of 2.5 percent.[/size]
[size=45]Last January, Iraq announced that its population exceeded 43 million people by the end of last year.[/size]
[size=45]Yasser Al-Husseini - Member of Parliament:
It is not possible for foreign companies to access the database of the Iraqi people, under the pretext of the lack of competencies managing the general population census file.[/size]
[size=45]Contracting with foreign companies to carry out private census operations will increase the waste of money and exacerbate unemployment.[/size]
[size=45]It is possible for the Ministry to rely on universities and import the equipment required to do this, and then introduce the staff to intensive training courses on them, so that the Ministry will have achieved a lot to employ and invest in national expertise, preserve Iraqi funds, and maintain the confidentiality of national information.[/size]
[size=45]Asaad Al-Bazouni - Member of Parliament:
Citizens’ information should be exclusively in the hands of the state.[/size]
[size=45]It is dangerous to grant absolute powers to foreign companies, so that they have all the information of the Iraqi people.[/size]
[size=45]This must be put to an end and the work of these companies must be followed up within the General Population and Housing Census project.[/size]
[size=45]Saif Raad - security expert:
From a security standpoint, it is not possible to rely on international and foreign companies, regardless of their nationalities, and contract with them to conduct the population census.[/size]
[size=45]The composition of the population, its categories, and its information will be exposed, and this cannot happen because it causes harm to the societal security of the Iraqi individual, in addition to the possibility of harming the national security of the state and its future, as the citizen’s personal information must be confidential and access limited, even within the state.[/size]
[size=45]Abdul Zahra Al-Hindawi, Planning Spokesman:
The Statistics and Geographic Information Systems Authority has established security rules for the data and it will be stored in special centers.[/size]
[size=45]The Statistics Law prohibits the disclosure of any individual and personal information.[/size]
[size=45]The data is encrypted and no one can view or acquire it, indicating the Ministry’s readiness to explain its procedures to the competent authorities and remove concerns.[/size]
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