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daily12008-09-21T13:15:08ZPDC 2022
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/pdc-2022
<b>Divyansha Sehgal and Yatharth presented their work - Designing Domestic Work Platforms - on critical design assessments of gig work platforms at the Participatory Design Conference.</b>
<p>For more detail on the conference held from 19 August to 1 September 2022, <a class="external-link" href="https://pdc2022.org/">click here</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/pdc-2022'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/pdc-2022</a>
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No publisherAdminLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T07:05:09ZNews ItemWomen in Gig Work
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/women-in-gig-work
<b>Aayush Rathi was a speaker on a panel on domestic work and digital platforms, as part of WageIndicator Foundation’s 5th webinar on women and gig work.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">According to the International Labour Organisation, the number of digital labour platforms has multiplied by five in just the last ten years. The Covid-19 pandemic has further accelerated the digitalisation of the workplace and the expansion of the gig economy across different sectors.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Gig work can offer women opportunities, for example, to enter or re-enter the labour market, earn an income, gain financial independence and flexibility… At the same time, however, many women across the world are encountering significant challenges in finding decent work in the gig economy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Women in Gig Work is a two-part webinar event. The first webinar on 27 October <b>will focus on domestic work, one of the sectors where digital platforms are expanding across the world</b>. Domestic workers are, according to the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), the “original gig workers”. The sector is characterized for <b>being highly informal</b>, <b>highly feminized</b> and <b>racialised</b>, and for <b>having precarious working conditions</b>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The second session of Women in Gig Work in March 2023 will focus on women's experiences in online web-based platforms.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">For more information <a class="external-link" href="https://wageindicator.org/about/events/2022/women-in-gig-work-october-27-2022">click here</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/women-in-gig-work'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/women-in-gig-work</a>
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No publisherAdminLabour FuturesReserve Bank of India2023-07-04T07:00:19ZNews ItemAs Equals: Frequently Asked Questions
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/as-equals-frequently-asked-questions
<b>Chiara Furtado was a panellist on the ‘As Equals’ series hosted by CNN since 2018 which aims to reveal what systemic gender inequality looks like. Chiara participated in a roundtable on digital harms and gender equality. </b>
<p>For more information, <a class="external-link" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/06/world/as-equals-frequently-asked-questions-intl/index.html">click here</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/as-equals-frequently-asked-questions'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/as-equals-frequently-asked-questions</a>
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No publisherAdminLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T06:54:59ZNews ItemOnline cab booking | Why finding a cab is a nightmare now
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/money-control-july-14-2022-why-finding-a-cab-is-now-a-nightmare
<b>Many drivers said the rise in commissions payable to ride-hailing platforms and higher fuel costs, among other expenses, have made it impossible for them to survive in the once-lucrative profession.</b>
<p>Aayush Rathi was quoted in this news article on how corporate policy is leading to difficulties in hailing cabs online:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Grassroots organisers have indicated a sizeable reduction in fleet sizes of Ola and Uber compared to pre-March 2020. There are numerous possible reasons for this,” said Aayush Rathi, a senior researcher at the Centre for Internet and Society. “One is the cost-of-living crisis in urban India that has solidified the reverse migration of the early Covid days. Then, the so-called moratoriums on loan repayments ended up increasing the total liability on drivers. Many drivers may have sold their cars or defaulted on loan payments.”</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Click to read the <a class="external-link" href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/why-finding-a-cab-is-now-a-nightmare-8823881.html">full article</a> published by Money Control on July 14, 2022</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/money-control-july-14-2022-why-finding-a-cab-is-now-a-nightmare'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/money-control-july-14-2022-why-finding-a-cab-is-now-a-nightmare</a>
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No publisherHaripriya SureshLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T06:34:22ZNews ItemWomen at (gig) work: When financial freedom comes at a cost
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-may-14-2023-aiswarya-raj-women-at-gig-work-unruly-customers-job-insecurity-prejudice-against-women-financial-freedom-comes-at-a-cost-for-women-working-as-delivery-executives-cab-drivers
<b>Chiara Furtado was quoted in a news article on women’s experiences working on ride-hailing and delivery platforms. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Chiara Furtado, researcher at the Centre for Internet and Society, says since women make up only 0.5 and 1% of the workforce in these two sectors – food delivery and cab-hailing industry – the standardised policies for workers end up being gendered. “Algorithm incentivises longer hours of work, late shifts, peak hours and consecutive rides, which prove to be discriminating against women,” she adds.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Furtado says that findings have revealed that in times of crisis, most safety mechanisms tend to be more restrictive and end up curtailing the freedom and agency of women. Khatoon elucidates Furtado’s point with her own example. “I ride an e-scooter and don’t get orders to spots above a distance of 5 km. This decreases my area and income. Those who can travel 20 km get Rs 100 per ride,” she says.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Companies claim to offer insurance, but the way they externalize fuel costs, they externalize risk and safety costs too. Apart from general safety, they have other grievances, such as toilets, which have gender underpinnings to it,” says Furtado.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Click to read the full article published in the Indian Express <a class="external-link" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/women-at-gig-work-unruly-customers-job-insecurity-prejudice-against-women-financial-freedom-comes-at-a-cost-for-women-working-as-delivery-executives-cab-drivers-8607997/">here</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-may-14-2023-aiswarya-raj-women-at-gig-work-unruly-customers-job-insecurity-prejudice-against-women-financial-freedom-comes-at-a-cost-for-women-working-as-delivery-executives-cab-drivers'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-may-14-2023-aiswarya-raj-women-at-gig-work-unruly-customers-job-insecurity-prejudice-against-women-financial-freedom-comes-at-a-cost-for-women-working-as-delivery-executives-cab-drivers</a>
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No publisherAiswarya RajLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T06:12:05ZNews ItemGig Workers Are Being Stabbed, Beaten, and Abused in India
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/wired-uk-april-12-2023-varsha-bansal-gig-workers-are-being-stabbed-beaten-and-abused-india
<b>An Uber driver was mugged. An Ola driver was beaten and left in a coma. Platform workers say tech companies are doing little to protect them.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Aaysh Rathi, was quoted in a news article on the violence that platform workers face in their line of work. Wired UK published the article, as part of the Pulitzer Centre’s support for reportage on the harms of technological systems.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Rathi says that a responsive grievance mechanism for gig workers is “completely absent” and continues to be “one of the top three demands” that workers have. “The firms are able to provide more responsive services to customers,” he says. “The workers are as important if not more [than customers], and they should be able to extend the same kind of mechanisms, practices, and policies to workers.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"For one in three people while going to work fearing that they might be robbed today or face physical assault is alarmingly high."</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/gig-workers-are-being-stabbed-beaten-and-abused-india">Click</a> to read the full article published in the Pulitzer Center on April 12, 2023</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/wired-uk-april-12-2023-varsha-bansal-gig-workers-are-being-stabbed-beaten-and-abused-india'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/wired-uk-april-12-2023-varsha-bansal-gig-workers-are-being-stabbed-beaten-and-abused-india</a>
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No publisherVarsha BansalLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T06:04:07ZNews ItemIndia’s gig economy drivers face bust in the country’s digital boom
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/tech-crunch-jagmeet-singh-india-gig-workers-problems
<b>Workers on platforms like Uber, Ola and Swiggy deal with blocked accounts, other backlash for speaking out over poor conditions</b>
<p>Aayush Rathi was quoted in a news article published by TechCrunch, a leading publication on technology and business reporting:</p>
<blockquote class="quoted">“Whenever a worker faces a challenge, it’s very hard for them to get recourse from anywhere. Most of these big platforms are geared toward alleviating customers’ grievances,” said Aayush Rathi, research and programs lead at the Centre for Internet and Society.</blockquote>
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<p><br />To read the full article published by TechCrunch on 25 January 2023, <a class="external-link" href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/25/india-gig-workers-problems/">click here</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/tech-crunch-jagmeet-singh-india-gig-workers-problems'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/tech-crunch-jagmeet-singh-india-gig-workers-problems</a>
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No publisherJagmeet SinghLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T05:02:22ZNews ItemProcurement Through Digital Platforms: Women's Worker Collectives
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/procurement-through-digital-platforms-womens-worker-collectives
<b>CIS experimented with the informal nature of Twitter Spaces to host a dissemination event (in Hindi) along with SEWA. The event moderated by Chiara Furtado was held on the Twitter platform on September 13, 2022. </b>
<p><a class="external-link" href="https://twitter.com/cis_india/status/1569656648897277952">Click</a> to listen to the recording.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/procurement-through-digital-platforms-womens-worker-collectives'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/procurement-through-digital-platforms-womens-worker-collectives</a>
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No publisherAdminReserve Bank of India2023-07-04T04:52:08ZNews ItemGlobal Perspectives on Women, Work and Digital Labour Platforms
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/global-perspectives-on-women-work-and-digital-labour-platforms
<b>Ambika Tandon was a panellist at the launch event for the Global Perspectives on Women, Work and Digital Labour Platforms organized by Digital Future Society on July 13, 2022 on online platform.</b>
<p>The panel discussed the gendered nature of gig work across different global south contexts. The other panellists were Francisca Pereyra, from the Instituto de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento, and Uma Rani, from the International Labour Organization.</p>
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<p>For more information follow <a class="external-link" href="https://digitalfuturesociety.com/agenda/global-perspectives-on-women-work-and-digital-labour-platforms/">this link</a>.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/global-perspectives-on-women-work-and-digital-labour-platforms'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/global-perspectives-on-women-work-and-digital-labour-platforms</a>
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No publisherAdminLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T04:43:13ZNews ItemPanel discussion on 'How to Avoid Digital ID Systems That Put People at Risk: Lessons from Afghanistan' at Freedom Online Conference
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/panel-discussion-how-to-avoid-digital-id-systems-that-put-people-at-risk
<b>Amber Sinha participated as a panelist in a panel discussion on How to Avoid Digital ID Systems That Put People at Risk: Lessons from Afghanistan at the Freedom Online Conference yesterday.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) was established in 2011 in response to the growing recognition of the importance of the Internet for the enjoyment of human rights. Periodically, the FOC holds a multistakeholder Conference that aims to deepen the discussion on how online freedoms are helping to promote social, cultural and economic development. The ownership of the Conference program and outputs lies with the host country, most often the Chair of the Coalition during that year.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The aim of the panel was to use the lessons learned from the Afghanistan case to take a critical and realistic look at the implementation of digital identification programs around the world. A video of the panel can be <a class="external-link" href="https://www.freedomonlineconference.com/session/how-to-avoid-digital-id-systems-that-put-people-at-risk-lessons-from-afghanistan">accessed here</a>.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/panel-discussion-how-to-avoid-digital-id-systems-that-put-people-at-risk'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/panel-discussion-how-to-avoid-digital-id-systems-that-put-people-at-risk</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaFreedom of Speech and ExpressionDigital IDInternet Governance2021-12-03T14:52:35ZNews ItemBodh: a new tool for Wikidata lexicographical data
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/bodh-a-new-tool-for-wikidata-lexicographical-data
<b>We are happy to announce that a new tool, named Bodh, has been developed by Jay Prakash, as a CIS-A2K assignment, to add or modify statements for lexemes, senses and forms.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://bodh.toolforge.org/">This tool </a>presents lexicographical data in tabular format generated from SPARQL queries or from manual lists. Users can switch whether to work on lexeme proper, sense or form and add or modify statements there.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The idea of this tool was inspired by the one and only <a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q13520818">Magnus Manske's</a> <a href="https://tabernacle.toolforge.org/#/">Tabernacle</a> which helps editors to add or modify statements, labels, descriptions and aliases for Wikidata's entity data.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The tool is going to be documented <a>here</a>. Users of this tool can request for more features or report for bugs using this <a href="https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/profile/5166/">phabricator project profile</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Happy editing!</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/bodh-a-new-tool-for-wikidata-lexicographical-data'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/bodh-a-new-tool-for-wikidata-lexicographical-data</a>
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No publisherBodhisattwa MandalWikimediaCIS-A2KWikipedia2021-06-28T01:19:11ZNews ItemAdvanced biometric technologies and new market entries tackle fraud, chase digital ID billions
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/biometric-update-june-26-2021-chris-burt-advanced-biometric-technologies-and-new-market-entries-tackle-fraud-chase-digital-id-billions
<b>Amid forecasts of rapid growth and huge market potential, digital ID platforms launches by Techsign and Ping Identity, new services, features and even an investment fund have been launched.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The blog post by Chris Burt was <a class="external-link" href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/202106/advanced-biometric-technologies-and-new-market-entries-tackle-fraud-chase-digital-id-billions">published by Biometric Update</a> on June 26, 2021.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A new camera solution for under-display 3D face biometrics from Infineon and partners, and IPO filings by Clear and SenseTime show parallel investment activity in biometrics, meanwhile, and experts from Veridium and Intellicheck provide insight into the shifting technology and fraud landscapes, among the most widely-read stories this week on Biometric Update.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">Top biometrics news of the week</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Several areas of the digital identity market continued to be very active, with a new investment fund launched to support startups in digital commerce and payments, Yoti joining a regulatory sandbox, Techsign launching a digital ID platform, and Mastercard and b.well reporting positive results from a recent pilot for their biometric healthcare platform. All this activity contributes to explaining Juniper Research’s <a href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/202106/digital-identity-verification-market-forecast-to-reach-16-7b-by-2026">forecast of rapid growth</a> in the sector to $16.7 billion in 2026, driven largely by spending on remote onboarding.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Okta CEO Todd McKinnon, meanwhile, told Barron’s that the total addressable market for identity and access management providers like Okta is something like <a href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/202106/okta-ceo-says-total-addressable-identity-and-access-management-market-near-80b">$80 billion</a>, as well as that effective integration is the key to solving biometrics challenges in the space. Entrust and Yubico formed an integration partnership, LoginRadius launched a new feature, Jamf launched a biometric tool for enterprises, and a certification program for IAM professionals was launched.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A list of goods for sale on the dark web includes a listing for <a href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/202106/biometric-selfies-and-forged-passports-identities-for-sale-on-the-dark-web">selfies holding an American ID credential</a>, which in theory could be used in a biometric spoofing attack. Cybersecurity researcher Luana Pascu helps guide readers through the report, and shares insights such as on the status of faked vaccination certificates on dark web marketplaces.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Ensuring the validity of the ID document a biometric identity verification process is based on, without adding too much friction, often means adopting <a href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/202106/intellicheck-ceo-on-building-the-foundations-for-biometric-verification-and-fraud-protection">layered risk profiling</a>, Intellicheck CEO Bryan Lewis tells <em>Biometric Update</em> in a sponsored post. The company has deep roots in detecting fraudulent documents and has found that even scanning the barcode on an identity document will not necessarily catch a fake if the unique security elements are not validated as part of the scan.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Fourthline Anti-Financial Crime Head Ro Paddock writes in a Biometric Update guest post about the ever-increasing sophistication of fraud attacks, which reached the level of computer-generated <a href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/202106/the-fraudsters-new-game-face">3D masks and deepfakes</a> during the pandemic,. In response, information-sharing between organizations will be necessary to understand the scope of these new threats, and how to defend against them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Philippines’ election commission has launched an app to allow people to preregister for the <a href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/202106/philippines-launches-app-to-fast-track-biometric-voter-registration">voter roll online</a> before enrolling their biometrics in person, as the country continues digitizing its public services. Governments in Pakistan, Haiti and Nigeria are also making moves to improve the accessibility and trustworthiness of their electoral processes.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A partnership between Research ICT Africa and the Centre for Internet and Society, supported by the Omidyar Network, to explore the development of digital ID systems for the African context is explained in a <a href="https://researchictafrica.net/2021/06/21/why-digital-id-matters/" target="_blank">blog post</a>. The project will be based on an adaptation of the Evaluation Framework for Digital Identities which the CIS used to assess India’s Aadhaar system, with rule of law, rights and risk-based tests, and presented in a series of posts.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Details of Clear’s IPO plans emerged, including its intention to raise up to <a href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/202106/clear-ipo-could-raise-up-to-396m-in-hot-biometrics-investment-market">$396 million</a> on the NYSE. The $2.2 billion valuation aligns with some comparable companies, by revenue multiple, but the lower voting power of the shares on offer could be a restraining factor.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">An even bigger IPO could be held by SenseTime later this year, with the Chinese AI firm looking to raise up to $2 billion <a href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/202106/not-smarting-from-us-sanctions-sensetime-says-its-ipo-is-on-again">on the Hong Kong exchange</a>. The company has been talking about a public stock launch since before the company was hit with restrictions to U.S. trade, which it indicates have had little impact.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The latest major funding round in digital identity is the largest yet, with <a href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/202106/transmit-security-raises-543m-to-grow-biometric-passwordless-authentication">Transmit Security raising $543 million</a> at a $2.2 billion valuation to expand the market reach of its passwordless biometric authentication technology. The company claims it is the highest ever Series A funding round in cybersecurity.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Bob Eckel, Aware CEO and International Biometrics + Identity Association (IBIA) Director and Board Member, discusses why people should own their own identity, identifying things and protecting supply chains, and his background in setting up air traffic control systems used all over the world with the Requis <a href="https://requis.com/podcasts/podcast-bob-eckel-biometrics-future-secured-identities/" target="_blank">Supply Chain Next podcast</a>. In the longer term Eckel sees biometric replacing passwords, and in the shorter term being used to make processes touchless.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Veridium CTO John Callahan guides Biometric Update through recent NIST guidance on the <a href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/202106/nist-touchless-fingerprint-biometrics-guidance-confirms-interoperability">interoperable use of contactless fingerprints</a> with contact-based back-end AFIS systems. The guidance, which changes definitions within the NIST ITL biometric container standard, but advises that the associated image quality metric does not apply to contactless prints, could spark further investment in the modality.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A new time-of-flight 3D imaging solution that could be used to implement facial authentication from <a href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/202106/under-display-camera-for-3d-face-biometrics-developed-by-infineon-pmd-arcsoft">under the display of mobile devices</a> without notches or bezels has been developed by partners Infineon, pmdtechnologies and ArcSoft. Based on the REAL3 sensor and ArcSoft’s computer vision algorithms, the solution is expected to reach availability in Q3 2021.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/202106/ping-identity-adds-behavioral-biometrics-and-bot-detection-with-securedtouch-acquisition">Ping Identity has acquired SecuredTouch</a> in a deal with undisclosed financial details to integrate its behavioral biometrics-based continuous user authentication with the PingOne enterprise cloud platform. Ping also launched a consumer application for reusable credentials and added unified management features to its cloud platform at its Identiverse 2021 event.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Notre Dame-IBM Technology Ethics Lab Founding Director Elizabeth Renieris joins the MIT Sloan Management Review’s <a href="https://sloanreview.mit.edu/audio/starting-now-on-technology-ethics-elizabeth-renieris/" target="_blank">Me, Myself and AI podcast</a> to discuss the role of the lab, her path past and through some of the digital identity space’s key ethical developments, and the need to take the long view on technology to understand its ethical implications. Renieris makes a pitch for process-oriented regulations, based on the best understanding we have at the time.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">ProctorU’s announcement that it will no longer sell fully-automated remote proctoring services is seen as a win in the battle against “the AI shell game” by the <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/06/long-overdue-reckoning-online-proctoring-companies-may-finally-be-here" target="_blank">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a>. The descriptions of the balance between the automated and human decision-making by AI proctoring providers amount to doublespeak, the EFF says, before panning their human review processes, accuracy rates, and use of facial recognition.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/biometric-update-june-26-2021-chris-burt-advanced-biometric-technologies-and-new-market-entries-tackle-fraud-chase-digital-id-billions'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/biometric-update-june-26-2021-chris-burt-advanced-biometric-technologies-and-new-market-entries-tackle-fraud-chase-digital-id-billions</a>
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No publisherChris BurtPrivacyInternet GovernanceUIDAIBiometricsAadhaar2021-06-28T01:13:05ZNews ItemFacebook launches India tech scholars programme for law students
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/times-of-india-june-4-2021-facebook-launches-india-tech-scholars-programme-for-law-students
<b>Facebook India on Friday announced a new initiative - the Facebook India Tech Scholars (FITS) programme - for law students in the country.</b>
<p>The article was <a class="external-link" href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/facebook-launches-india-tech-scholars-programme-for-law-students/articleshow/83235723.cms">published in the Times of India</a> on June 4, 2021.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">The novel programme aims to provide students from select leading law schools in the country a platform for research and mentorship on topics related to technology law and policy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The first edition, the FITS programme 2021-2022, will offer eight law students an opportunity to work on a research project with leading Indian thinktanks who will also extend mentorship support to the students. It will be open to 4th and 5th year students from the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, the WB National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, the National Law University, Delhi, and the National Law University, Jodhpur.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"With rapid advancements in technology and the evolution of technology law and policy in India, the programme is designed to encourage students to develop an independent voice on pressing topics that will have a bearing on future policy discussions in this area," the social networking giant said in a statement.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"We hope to expand the FITS programme to more students in coming years," it added.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The FITS programme 2021-2022 will see the Centre for Internet and Society, the Observer Research Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace India, and the Software Freedom Law Center participating as mentoring institutions. Facebook is also guided by an experienced and expert Advisory Committee for the duration of the programme. Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. will be a knowledge partner.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Applications will close on June 20. The FITS programme will run for a period of nine months, commencing in Summer 2021.<br /></p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/times-of-india-june-4-2021-facebook-launches-india-tech-scholars-programme-for-law-students'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/times-of-india-june-4-2021-facebook-launches-india-tech-scholars-programme-for-law-students</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaTechnological Protection MeasuresInternet Governance2021-06-26T04:55:39ZNews ItemNo such rule, but many vaccination centres are insisting on Aadhaar as proof
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-news-minute-june-4-2021-sreedevi-jayarajan-no-such-rule-but-many-vaccination-centres-are-insisting-on-aadhaar-as-proof
<b>Radhika Radhakrishnan saw three words swimming before her as she inched closer to the hospital lobby. </b>
<p>The blog post by Sreedevi Jayarajan was <a class="external-link" href="https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/no-such-rule-many-vaccination-centres-are-insisting-aadhaar-proof-covid150080">published in the News Minute</a> on June 4, 2021. Pranesh Prakash was quoted.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">The words were written on a white board inside the private hospital she had visited in Bengaluru on May 21, three weeks after the Union Government opened up COVID-19 vaccinations for the 18+ category after online registration. “I had booked a vaccine slot and visited the hospital and the words on the board read ‘Aadhaar is mandatory’, along with other dos and don’ts of the vaccination process that the hospital followed,” she tells TNM. On the morning of her vaccination date, Radhika had registered on the Union Health Ministry’s CoWin portal for a vaccine slot in the 18+ age group. She had given her PAN number when the portal asked for a government ID proof. The appointment slip on CoWin also showed her PAN, she says.</p>
<p class="_yeti_done" style="text-align: justify; ">But on the day of vaccination, authorities at the private hospital refused to accept her PAN card. Radhika says that they insisted on her Aadhaar number in order to authenticate her vaccination appointment, despite her telling them that it is illegal to demand her Aadhar card. “The hospital authorities told me that they only used Aadhaar cards to register people for vaccination or authenticate CoWin appointments. They said that if I did not want to give my Aadhaar number, I would have to wait a few more hours for them to figure out a different process,” she tells TNM. By this time, Radhika had already waited three hours in the hospital queue.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Bengaluru-based journalist Biswak* too recounts a similar experience at a government run vaccination centre he had visited on May 5. The 25-year-old had registered on CoWin using his Driving License, one of five government ID proofs that the Health Ministry portal accepts for booking vaccination slots. But at the centre, Biswak says that the officials insisted on his Aadhaar number. “Thankfully I had the number despite not carrying my card. I got vaccinated and the vaccination certificate issued on my CoWin account showed the last four digits of my Aadhaar, and did not mention my driving license which was my ID proof of choice,” he says.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">TNM got in touch with several people from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka among other states who confirmed that their vaccination centres refused to accept any other ID proof, and insisted on Aadhaar. This despite the Union government not making Aadhaar mandatory for CoWin registration, for on-the-spot registrations, and even for authentication of appointments at vaccination centres.</p>
<h3 id="_mcePaste">Co-Win does not insist on Aadhaar</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A quick look at the CoWin portal will tell you that you can register with any of six government ID proofs other than your Aadhaar card. These are Driving License, PAN card, Passport, Pension Passbook, NPR Smart Card and Voter ID (EPIC). To the vaccine centres, registered citizens should carry the very same ID proof they have used to register on the Co-Win portal, along with a printout or screenshot of their appointment slip. This means, if a person has registered on the portal using an Aadhaar card, the vaccination centre will ask for the same for authentication.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Once vaccinated, citizens get a certificate with their vaccination status (one dose or fully vaccinated) on their phones. This certificate contains the person’s name, age, type of vaccine (Covishield or Covaxin) and the last four digits of the ID proof used for registration.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">While Radhika and Biswak say that their appointment slips had their PAN and Driving License numbers respectively, after they were coerced to give their Aadhaar numbers, the vaccination certificate on the Co-Win portal showed their Aadhaar number. “This means that they have forced me to give my Aadhaar number and then used this, despite me giving a different ID proof,” Radhika says. Multiple private hospitals in Chennai too currently insist on Aadhaar card for vaccinations, while Tamil Nadu government maintains that Aadhaar is not mandatory.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">TNM spoke to a senior official in the Revenue and Finance Department of the Greater Chennai Corporation who confirmed that centres, both private and government, did not have the right to demand Aadhaar for vaccination. “There is no such rule that Aadhaar has to be submitted by citizens. In fact, the Co-Win portal also has a section to register those who have no ID proof, i.e homeless persons or those from marginalised sections. The portal finds another way to register these people. So insisting on an Aadhaar number is out of the question,” he says. In the neighbouring state of Kerala, the government recently announced that persons who had to travel abroad for various reasons should register on the government portal only using their passports. This, so that their vaccination certificate would generate their passport number as ID proof.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">A matter of convenience?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the absence of a law which mandates Aadhaar to be used for the purpose of universal COVID-19 vaccination, there is no legal basis for hospitals and vaccination centres to insist on Aadhaar numbers to vaccinate people. “Unlike a law passed by the Union government which makes it compulsory for your PAN to be linked to your Aadhaar, there is no law which the government has passed to make Aadhaar compulsory for vaccination. The Union government does, however, have the legislative competence to pass such a law. Which means that if they want to make Aadhaar mandatory for vaccination, they can. So far they have not. And therefore, nobody has the right to demand Aadhaar to vaccinate people,” says Pranesh Prakash of the Centre for Internet and Society.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">However, it could be a matter of convenience for hospitals to use one type of ID proof, to be able to streamline their data entry process. “As (I believe) Aadhaar is the most widespread ID card in the country right now, when compared to other ID proofs, it makes it simple for vaccination centres to ask for Aadhaar numbers and key this in," Pranesh adds.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">To a query that TNM posted on Twitter, we got varied responses from people. While many said that the centres did not insist on a particular ID card, many others said they had to give their Aadhaar. The insistence for Aadhaar by vaccination centres, both private and government, seems to be random, with no proper pattern or rule in place.</p>
<h3>System does not support other ID proofs?</h3>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">From Radhika’s experience, the hospital she visited for vaccination could not support any other ID proof, as they, in their own words “followed a system of using just Aadhaar cards”. This indirectly coerces unwilling citizens to part with their Aadhaar details, and offers no choice for those who registered with other ID proofs.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">“I had to finally give my Aadhaar number but it said that there was a mismatch. Later we found out that my name on my PAN was a bit different from the name on my Aadhaar card. Since I had used the PAN to register on Co-Win, the portal could not authenticate me with the Aadhaar number. Finally I had to re-register on the spot and give a different phone number as the phone number I had given was already linked to my Aadhaar and PAN,” she says, adding that all of this could have been avoided if the hospital had accepted her PAN in the first place.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, a private hospital that has been doing vaccinations in many places across India told TNM that they had no instructions from the state or Union government to use only Aadhaar and claimed that they only asked for Aadhaar if the person had used it during registration. However, many people who responded to TNM named this private hospital and many others too as those insisting on Aadhaar as proof.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-news-minute-june-4-2021-sreedevi-jayarajan-no-such-rule-but-many-vaccination-centres-are-insisting-on-aadhaar-as-proof'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-news-minute-june-4-2021-sreedevi-jayarajan-no-such-rule-but-many-vaccination-centres-are-insisting-on-aadhaar-as-proof</a>
</p>
No publisherSreedevi JayarajanAadhaarInternet Governance2021-06-26T04:43:13ZNews ItemNew rules leave social media users vulnerable: Experts
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/deccan-herald-krupa-joseph-june-10-2021-new-rules-leave-social-media-users-vulnerable
<b>They analyse the implications of the government vs Twitter controversy on individual privacy</b>
<p>The article by Krupa Joseph was <a class="external-link" href="https://www.deccanherald.com/metrolife/metrolife-your-bond-with-bengaluru/new-rules-leave-social-media-users-vulnerable-experts-993460.html">published in the Deccan Herald</a> on 10 June 2021. Torsha Sarkar has been quoted.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">The government had notified the changes on February 25, and allowed social media companies three months to comply. Twitter and WhatsApp had then separately approached the Delhi High Court against the new regulations, fearing they could compromise user privacy.</p>
<p class="Default" style="text-align: justify; ">On Monday, the court gave Twitter three weeks to file a response to the government’s charge that it had not appointed a grievance officer as claimed.</p>
<p class="Default"><strong>Vague rules</strong></p>
<p class="Default" style="text-align: justify; ">Karthik Srinivasan, communications consultant, who uses his blog Beast of Traal to comment on social media, says the new rules are “vague and open-ended”.</p>
<p class="Default" style="text-align: justify; ">“Coupled with the fact that we still do not have a data protection law, the rules could be severely misused both by government and private entities,” he says.</p>
<p class="Default" style="text-align: justify; ">Users are particularly vulnerable in a country where anything and everything offends a lot of people, he says.</p>
<p class="Default"><strong>Law overreach</strong></p>
<p class="Default" style="text-align: justify; ">Torsha Sarkar, researcher with the Centre for Internet and Society, says the rules introduce additional obligations for social media platforms and classify intermediaries.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Intermediaries with over five million users would have obligations to introduce traceability, instal automated filtering, provide detailed grievance redressal mechanisms, and publish compliance <span> reports detailing action taken on takedown orders,” she says.</span></p>
<p class="Default" style="text-align: justify; ">While some of these obligations are similar to those laid down internationally, some alterations are causing concern. The traceability requirement, for example, is highly contentious as it would erode user privacy.</p>
<p class="Default" style="text-align: justify; ">“It is also concerning that the user threshold, for a country like India, with such vast Internet usage, is set at a very low level. This means that even smaller social media platforms might becompelled to carry out economically crippling obligations,” she explains.</p>
<p class="Default" style="text-align: justify; ">The legislative overreach is seen in how the initial draft , which only covered entities like Twitter and Facebook, now seeks to cover digital news media and content curators like Netfl ixand Hulu, she says.</p>
<p class="Default">Stretching the scope of the legislation this way is undemocratic since it was not subject to any public consultation, she notes.</p>
<p class="Default"><b>Case in High Court</b></p>
<p class="Default" style="text-align: justify; ">Mishi Choudhary, technology lawyer and founder of SFLC.in, a legal services organisation specialising in law, technology and policy, says the IT rules notified by the government are unconstitutional. “In the garb of addressing misinformation and regulating technology companies, the government has been exceeding the powers granted through subordinate legislation and using it for political purposes,” she says. It is on these grounds that the Free and Open Source Software community has challenged the new rules in the Kerala High Court. “Technology companies need regulation but not at the expense of user rights,” she says.</p>
<p class="Default"><b>Congress </b><span>‘</span><b>toolkit</b><span>’ </span><b>row</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A few weeks after social media platforms were asked to take down posts critical of thegovernment’s management of India’s Covid-19 crisis, Twitter once again found itself at thereceiving end. Last week, Twitter labelled a tweet by BJP leader Sambit Patra, accusing theCongress of working with a ‘toolkit, as ‘manipulated media’. Twitter says it gives the label totweets that include media (videos, audio, and images) that are “deceptively altered orfabricated”. The Delhi police then sent a notice to Twitter in connection and asked the micro-blogging site to explain the reasons for assigning the tag. The police also conducted raids onTwitter offices in India. Things escalated when Twitter said the government was intimidating it. The government hit back saying law-making was its privileges, and Twitter, being a social media platform, should not dictate legal policy framework.</p>
<p class="Default"><b>New rules</b></p>
<p class="Default" style="text-align: justify; ">Under the new IT rules, social media companies like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter will be responsible for identifying the originator of a flagged message within 36 hours. They also have to appoint a chief compliance officer, a nodal contact person and a resident grievance officer. Failing to comply with these rules would cause the platforms to lose their status as intermediaries, and make them liable for whatever is posted on their platforms.</p>
<p class="Default"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><br /></span></p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/deccan-herald-krupa-joseph-june-10-2021-new-rules-leave-social-media-users-vulnerable'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/deccan-herald-krupa-joseph-june-10-2021-new-rules-leave-social-media-users-vulnerable</a>
</p>
No publisherKrupa JosephFreedom of Speech and ExpressionSocial MediaInternet Governance2021-06-14T11:27:53ZNews Item