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WSIS+10 High Level Event: A Bird's Eye Report
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/wsis-10-high-level-event-a-birds-eye-report
<b>The WSIS+10 High Level was organised by the ITU and collaborative UN entities on June 9-13, 2014. It aimed to evaluate the progress on implementation of WSIS Outcomes from Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005, and to envision a post-2015 Development Agenda. Geetha Hariharan attended the event on CIS' behalf.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>The World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) +10 </span><a href="http://www.itu.int/wsis/implementation/2014/forum/">High Level Event</a><span> (HLE) was hosted at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva, from June 9-13, 2014. The HLE aimed to review the implementation and progress made on information and communication technology (ICT) across the globe, in light of WSIS outcomes (</span><a href="http://www.itu.int/wsis/index-p1.html">Geneva 2003</a><span> and </span><a href="http://www.itu.int/wsis/index-p2.html">Tunis 2005</a><span>). Organised in three parallel tracks, the HLE sought to take stock of progress in ICTs in the last decade (High Level track), initiate High Level Dialogues to formulate the post-2015 development agenda, as well as host thematic workshops for participants (Forum track).</span><span> </span></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">The High Level Track:</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/copy2_of_HighLevelTrack.jpg/@@images/be5f993c-3553-4d63-bb66-7cd16f8407dc.jpeg" alt="High Level Track" class="image-inline" title="High Level Track" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>Opening Ceremony, WSIS+10 High Level Event </i>(<a class="external-link" href="https://twitter.com/ITU/status/334587247556960256/photo/1">Source</a>)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The High Level track opened officially on June 10, 2014, and culminated with the endorsement by acclamation (as is ITU tradition) of two <a href="http://www.itu.int/wsis/implementation/2014/forum/inc/doc/outcome/362828V2E.pdf">Outcome Documents</a>. These were: (1) WSIS+10 Statement on the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes, taking stock of ICT developments since the WSIS summits, (2) WSIS+10 Vision for WSIS Beyond 2015, aiming to develop a vision for the post-2015 global information society. These documents were the result of the WSIS+10 <a href="http://www.itu.int/wsis/review/mpp/">Multi-stakeholder Preparatory Platform</a> (MPP), which involved WSIS stakeholders (governments, private sector, civil society, international organizations and relevant regional organizations).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The <strong>MPP</strong> met in six phases, convened as an open, inclusive consultation among WSIS stakeholders. It was not without its misadventures. While ITU Secretary General Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré consistently lauded the multi-stakeholder process, and Ambassador Janis Karklins urged all parties, especially governments, to “<i>let the UN General Assembly know that the multi-stakeholder model works for Internet governance at all levels</i>”, participants in the process shared stories of discomfort, disagreement and discord amongst stakeholders on various IG issues, not least human rights on the Internet, surveillance and privacy, and multi-stakeholderism. Richard Hill of the Association for Proper Internet Governance (<a href="http://www.apig.ch/">APIG</a>) and the Just Net Coalition writes that like NETmundial, the MPP was rich in a diversity of views and knowledge exchange, but stakeholders <a href="http://www.ip-watch.org/2014/06/16/what-questions-did-the-wsis10-high-level-event-answer/">failed to reach consensus</a> on crucial issues. Indeed, Prof. Vlamidir Minkin, Chairman of the MPP, expressed his dismay at the lack of consensus over action line C9. A compromise was agreed upon in relation to C9 later.<span> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Some members of civil society expressed their satisfaction with the extensive references to human rights and rights-centred development in the Outcome Documents. While governmental opposition was seen as frustrating, they felt that the <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">MPP had sought and achieved a common understanding</span></strong>, a sentiment <a href="https://twitter.com/covertlight/status/476748168051580928">echoed</a> by the ITU Secretary General. Indeed, even Iran, a state that had expressed major reservations during the MPP and felt itself unable to agree with the text, <a href="https://twitter.com/covertlight/status/476748723750711297">agreed</a> that the MPP had worked hard to draft a document beneficial to all.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Concerns around the MPP did not affect the <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">review of ICT developments</span></strong> over the last decade. High Level Panels with Ministers of ICT from states such as Uganda, Bangladesh, Sweden, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and others, heads of the UN Development Programme, UNCTAD, Food and Agriculture Organisation, UN-WOMEN and others spoke at length of rapid advances in ICTs. The focus was largely on ICT access and affordability in developing states. John E. Davies of Intel repeatedly drew attention to innovative uses of ICTs in Africa and Asia, which have helped bridge divides of affordability, gender, education and capacity-building. Public-private partnerships were the best solution, he said, to affordability and access. At a ceremony evaluating implementation of WSIS action-lines, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), India, <a href="https://twitter.com/covertlight/status/476748723750711297">won an award</a> for its e-health application MOTHER.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>The Outcome Documents themselves shall be analysed in a separate post. But in sum, the dialogue around Internet governance at the HLE centred around the success of the MPP. Most participants on panels and in the audience felt this was a crucial achievement within the realm of the UN, where the Tunis Summit had delineated strict roles for stakeholders in paragraph 35 of the </span><a href="http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs2/tunis/off/6rev1.html">Tunis Agenda</a><span>. Indeed, there was palpable relief in Conference Room 1 at the </span><a href="http://www.cicg.ch/en/">CICG</a><span>, Geneva, when on June 11, Dr. Touré announced that the Outcome Documents would be adopted without a vote, in keeping with ITU tradition, even if consensus was achieved by compromise.</span></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">The High Level Dialogues:</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/HighLevelDialogues.jpg/@@images/3c30d94f-7a65-4912-bb42-2ccd3b85a18d.jpeg" alt="High Level Dialogues" class="image-inline" title="High Level Dialogues" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>Prof. Vladimir Minkin delivers a statement.</i> (<a class="external-link" href="https://twitter.com/JaroslawPONDER/status/476288845013843968/photo/1">Source</a>)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The High Level Dialogues on developing a post-2015 Development Agenda, based on WSIS action lines, were active on June 12. Introducing the Dialogue, Dr. Touré lamented the Millennium Development Goals as a “<i>lost opportunity</i>”, emphasizing the need to alert the UN General Assembly and its committees as to the importance of ICTs for development.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As on previous panels, there was <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">intense focus on access, affordability and reach in developing countries</span></strong>, with Rwanda and Bangladesh expounding upon their successes in implementing ICT innovations domestically. The world is more connected than it was in 2005, and the ITU in 2014 is no longer what it was in 2003, said speakers. But we lack data on ICT deployment across the globe, said Minister Knutssen of Sweden, recalling the gathering to the need to engage all stakeholders in this task. Speakers on multiple panels, including the Rwandan Minister for CIT, Marilyn Cade of ICANN and Petra Lantz of the UNDP, emphasized the need for ‘smart engagement’ and capacity-building for ICT development and deployment.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A crucial session on cybersecurity saw Dr. Touré envision a global peace treaty accommodating multiple stakeholders. On the panel were Minister Omobola Johnson of Nigeria, Prof. Udo Helmbrecht of the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA), Prof. A.A. Wahab of Cybersecurity Malaysia and Simon Muller of Facebook. The focus was primarily on building laws and regulations for secure communication and business, while child protection was equally considered.<span> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The lack of laws/regulations for cybersecurity (child pornography and jurisdictional issues, for instance), or other legal protections (privacy, data protection, freedom of speech) in rapidly connecting developing states was noted. But the <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">question of cross-border surveillance and wanton violations of privacy went unaddressed</span></strong> except for the customary, unavoidable mention. This was expected. Debates in Internet governance have, in the past year, been silently and invisibly driven by the Snowden revelations. So too, at WSIS+10 Cybersecurity, speakers emphasized open data, information exchange, data ownership and control (the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ecj-rules-internet-search-engine-operator-responsible-for-processing-personal-data-published-by-third-parties">right to be forgotten</a>), but did not openly address surveillance. Indeed, Simon Muller of Facebook called upon governments to publish their own transparency reports: A laudable suggestion, even accounting for Facebook’s own undetailed and truncated reports.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In a nutshell, the post-2015 Development Agenda dialogues repeatedly emphasized the importance of ICTs in global connectivity, and their impact on GDP growth and socio-cultural change and progress. The focus was on taking this message to the UN General Assembly, engaging all stakeholders and creating an achievable set of action lines post-2015.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">The Forum Track:</h3>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/copy_of_ForumTrack.jpg/@@images/dfcce68a-18d7-4f1e-897b-7208bb60abc9.jpeg" alt="Forum Track" class="image-inline" title="Forum Track" /></p>
<p><i>Participants at the UNESCO session on its Comprehensive Study on Internet-related Issues</i> (<a class="external-link" href="https://twitter.com/leakaspar/status/476690921644646400/photo/1">Source</a>)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The HLE was organized as an extended version of the WSIS Forum, which hosts thematic workshops and networking opportunities, much like any other conference. Running in parallel sessions over 5 days, the WSIS Forum hosted sessions by the ITU, UNESCO, UNDP, ICANN, ISOC, APIG, etc., on issues as diverse as the WSIS Action Lines, the future of Internet governance, the successes and failures of <a href="http://www.internetgovernance.org/2012/12/18/itu-phobia-why-wcit-was-derailed/">WCIT-2012</a>, UNESCO’s <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/internetstudy">Comprehensive Study on Internet-related Issues</a>, spam and a taxonomy of Internet governance.<span> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Detailed explanation of each session I attended is beyond the scope of this report, so I will limit myself to the interesting issues raised.<span> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">At ICANN’s session on its own future (June 9), Ms. Marilyn Cade emphasized the <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">importance of national and regional IGFs</span></strong> for both issue-awareness and capacity-building. Mr. Nigel Hickson spoke of engagement at multiple Internet governance fora: “<i>Internet governance is not shaped by individual events</i>”. In light of <a href="http://www.internetgovernance.org/2014/04/16/icann-anything-that-doesnt-give-iana-to-me-is-out-of-scope/">criticism</a> of ICANN’s apparent monopoly over IANA stewardship transition, this has been ICANN’s continual <a href="https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/process-next-steps-2014-06-06-en">response</a> (often repeated at the HLE itself). Also widely discussed was the <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">role of stakeholders in Internet governance</span></strong>, given the delineation of roles and responsibilities in the Tunis Agenda, and governments’ preference for policy-monopoly (At WSIS+10, Indian Ambassador Dilip Sinha seemed wistful that multilateralism is a “<i>distant dream</i>”).<span> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This discussion bore greater fruit in a session on Internet governance ‘taxonomy’. The session saw <a href="https://www.icann.org/profiles/george-sadowsky">Mr. George Sadowsky</a>, <a href="http://www.diplomacy.edu/courses/faculty/kurbalija">Dr. Jovan Kurbalija</a>, <a href="http://www.williamdrake.org/">Mr. William Drake</a> and <a href="http://www.itu.int/wsis/implementation/2014/forum/agenda/session_docs/170/ThoughtsOnIG.pdf">Mr. Eliot Lear</a> (there is surprisingly no official profile-page on Mr. Lear) expound on dense structures of Internet governance, involving multiple methods of classification of Internet infrastructure, CIRs, public policy issues, etc. across a spectrum of ‘baskets’ – socio-cultural, economic, legal, technical. Such studies, though each attempting clarity in Internet governance studies, indicate that the closer you get to IG, the more diverse and interconnected the eco-system gets. David Souter’s diagrams almost capture the flux of dynamic debate in this area (please see pages 9 and 22 of <a href="http://www.internetsociety.org/sites/default/files/ISOC%20framework%20for%20IG%20assessments%20-%20D%20Souter%20-%20final_0.pdf">this ISOC study</a>).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There were, for most part, insightful interventions from session participants. Mr. Sadowsky questioned the effectiveness of the Tunis Agenda delineation of stakeholder-roles, while Mr. Lear pleaded that techies be let to do their jobs without interference. <a href="http://internetdemocracy.in/">Ms. Anja Kovacs</a> raised pertinent concerns about <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">including voiceless minorities in a ‘rough consensus’ model</span></strong>. Across sessions, <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">questions of mass surveillance, privacy and data ownership rose</span></strong> from participants. The protection of human rights on the Internet – especially freedom of expression and privacy – made continual appearance, across issues like spam (<a href="http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/CDS/sg/rgqlist.asp?lg=1&sp=2010&rgq=D10-RGQ22.1.1&stg=1">Question 22-1/1</a> of ITU-D Study Group 1) and cybersecurity.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Conclusion:</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The HLE was widely attended by participants across WSIS stakeholder-groups. At the event, a great many relevant questions such as the future of ICTs, inclusions in the post-2015 Development Agenda, the value of muti-stakeholder models, and human rights such as free speech and privacy were raised across the board. Not only were these raised, but cognizance was taken of them by Ministers, members of the ITU and other collaborative UN bodies, private sector entities such as ICANN, technical community such as the ISOC and IETF, as well as (obviously) civil society.<span> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Substantively, the HLE did not address mass surveillance and privacy, nor of expanding roles of WSIS stakeholders and beyond. Processually, the MPP failed to reach consensus on several issues comfortably, and a compromise had to be brokered.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>But perhaps a big change at the HLE was the positive attitude to multi-stakeholder models from many quarters, not least the ITU Secretary General Dr. Hamadoun Touré. His repeated calls for acceptance of multi-stakeholderism left many members of civil society surprised and tentatively pleased. Going forward, it will be interesting to track the ITU and the rest of UN’s (and of course, member states’) stances on multi-stakeholderism at the ITU Plenipot, the WSIS+10 Review and the UN General Assembly session, at the least.</span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/wsis-10-high-level-event-a-birds-eye-report'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/wsis-10-high-level-event-a-birds-eye-report</a>
</p>
No publishergeethaWSIS+10PrivacyCybersecurityHuman Rights OnlineSurveillanceFreedom of Speech and ExpressionInternet GovernanceFacebookData ProtectionMulti-stakeholderICANNInternet AccessITUInternet StudiesE-GovernanceICT2014-06-20T15:57:32ZBlog EntryWorkshop on Democratic Accountability in the Digital Age (Delhi, November 14-15)
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/workshop-on-democratic-accountability-in-the-digital-age-delhi-november-14-15
<b>IT for Change, along with Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) and National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI), is organising a two day workshop on ‘Democratic Accountability in the Digital Age’. The workshop will focus on evolving a comprehensive policy approach to data based governance and digital democracy, grounded in a rights and social justice framework. It will be held at the United Service Institution of India, Delhi, during November 14-15, 2016. The CIS team to participate in the workshop includes Sumandro Chattapadhyay (speaker), Amber Sinha (speaker), Vanya Rakesh (participant), and Himadri Chatterjee (participant).</b>
<p> </p>
<p>The workshop aims to:</p>
<ul><li>
<p>Discuss the institutional norms, rules and practices appropriate to the rise of ‘governance by networks’ and ‘rule by data’ that can guarantee democratic accountability and citizen participation, and</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Articulate the steps to claim the civic-public value of digital technologies so that data and the new possibilities for networking are harnessed for a vibrant grassroots democracy.</p>
</li></ul>
<p>We hope the workshop can create a civil society coalition that can build effective strategies for legal and policy reform to further participatory democracy in the digital age. On the first day, the workshop will set the context through knowledge sharing and thematic presentations and discussions. On the second day, we aim to concretize strategies for collective action to further democratic accountability in the digital age.</p>
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<h4><a href="http://itforchange.net/mavc/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Workshop-Agenda-Democratic-accountability-in-the-digital-age-14-to-15-Nov-2016-2.pdf">Workshop Agenda</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4><a href="http://itforchange.net/mavc/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Background-note-for-workshop-on-Democracy-in-Digital-Age-Sep21.odt">Background Note</a> (ODT)</h4>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/workshop-on-democratic-accountability-in-the-digital-age-delhi-november-14-15'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/workshop-on-democratic-accountability-in-the-digital-age-delhi-november-14-15</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroDigital IDDigital GovernancePrivacyUIDInternet GovernanceAccountabilityDigital IndiaAadhaarWelfare GovernanceE-GovernanceDigital Rights2016-12-15T09:27:22ZEventWorkshop on Big Data in India: Benefits, Harms, and Human Rights (Delhi, October 01)
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/big-data-in-india-benefits-harms-and-human-rights-oct-01-2016
<b>CIS welcomes you to participate in the workshop we are organising on Saturday, October 01 at India Habitat Centre, Delhi, to discuss benefits, harms, and human rights implications of big data technologies, and explore potential research questions. A quick RSVP will be much appreciated.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Workshop invitation: <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/big-data-in-india-invitatation-to-workshop/at_download/file">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4>Workshop agenda: <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/big-data-in-india-workshop-agenda/at_download/file">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<hr />
<p>In the last few years, there has been an emergence of the discourse of big data viewing it as an instrument not just for ensuring efficient, targeted and personalised services in the private sector, but also for development, social and policy research, and formalising and monetising various sections of the economy. This possibility is premised upon the idea that there is great knowledge that resides in both traditional and new forms of data made possible by our digital selves, and that we may now have the capability to tap into that knowledge for insights across diverse sectors like healthcare, finance, e-governance, education, law enforcement and disaster management, to name but a few. Alongside, various commentators have also pointed to the new problems and risks that big data could create for privacy of individuals through greater profiling, for free speech and economic choice by strengthening monopolistic tendencies, and for socio-economic inequalities by making existing disparities more acute and facilitating algorithmic bias and exclusion.</p>
<p>From a regulatory perspective, big data technologies pose fundamental challenges to the national data regulatory frameworks that have existed since many years. The nature of collection and utilisation of big data, which is often not driven by immediate purpose of the collected data, conflict with the principles of data minimisation and collection limitation that have been integral to data protection laws globally. This compels us to revisit existing theories of data governance. Additionally, use of big data in public decision-making highlights the question of how algorithmic control and governance must be regulated. This raises concerns around taking determining a balanced position that recognises the importance of big data, including for development actions, and ensures unhindered innovation with simultaneous focus on greater transparency and anonymisation to protect individual privacy, and various big data risks faced by population groups. In order to answer these questions, we need to begin with identifying the different harms and benefits of big data that could arise through its use across sectors and disciplines, especially in the context of human rights.</p>
<p>This workshop is designed around an extensive study of current and potential future uses of big data for governance in India that CIS has undertaken over the last year. The study focused on key central government projects and initiatives like the UID project, the Digital India programme, the Smart Cities Challenge, etc.</p>
<p>We will initiate the workshop with a detailed presentation of our findings and key concerns, which will then shape the discussion agenda of the workshop. We look forward to discuss aspects of big data technologies through the entry points of harms, opportunities, and human rights.</p>
<p>The final session of the workshop will focus on identifying key research questions on the topic, and exploring potential alliances of scholars and organisations that can drive such research activities.</p>
<p>We look forward to making this a forum for knowledge exchange for our friends and colleagues attending the discussion and discuss the opportunity to for potential collaboration.</p>
<p><strong>RSVP:</strong> Please send an email to Ajoy Kumar at <<a href="mailto:ajoy@cis-india.org">ajoy@cis-india.org</a>>.</p>
<p><strong>Organisers:</strong> Amber Sinha <<a href="mailto:amber@cis-india.org">amber@cis-india.org</a>> and Sumandro Chattapadhyay <<a href="mailto:sumandro@cis-india.org">sumandro@cis-india.org</a>>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/big-data-in-india-benefits-harms-and-human-rights-oct-01-2016'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/big-data-in-india-benefits-harms-and-human-rights-oct-01-2016</a>
</p>
No publishervanyaDevelopmentBig DataInternet GovernanceDigital SecurityDigital IndiaDigitisationDigital subjectivitiesBiometricsBig Data for DevelopmentE-GovernanceDigital Rights2016-09-28T05:53:55ZEventTechno-solutionist Responses to COVID-19
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/economic-and-political-weekly-july-17-2021-amber-sinha-pallavi-bedi-aman-nair-techno-solutionist-responses-to-covid-19
<b>The Indian state has increasingly adopted a digital approach to service delivery over the past decade, with vaccination being the latest area to be subsumed by this strategy. In the context of the need for universal vaccination, the limitations of the government’s vaccination platform Co-WIN need to be analysed.</b>
<p><span style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Amber Sinha, Pallavi Bedi, and Aman Nair was published in the </span><a class="external-link" href="https://www.epw.in/journal/2021/29/commentary/techno-solutionist-responses-covid-19.html" style="text-align: justify; ">Economic & Political Weekly</a><span style="text-align: justify; ">, Vol. 56, Issue No. 29, 17 Jul, 2021.</span></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Over the last two decades, slowly but steadily, the governance agenda of the Indian state has moved to the digital realm. In 2006, the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was approved by the Indian state wherein a massive infrastructure was developed to reach the remotest corners and facilitate easy access of government services efficiently at affordable costs. The first set of NeGP projects focused on digitalising governance schemes that dealt with taxation, regulation of corporate entities, issuance of passports, and pensions. Over a period of time, they have come to include most interactions between the state and citizens from healthcare to education, transportation to employment, and policing to housing. Upon the launch of the Digital India Mission by the union government, the NeGP was subsumed under the e-Gov and e-Kranti components of the project. The original press release by the central government reporting the approval by the cabinet of ministers of the Digital India programme speaks of “cradle to grave” digital identity as one of its vision areas. This identity was always intended to be “unique, lifelong, online and authenticable.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Since the inception of the Digital India campaign by the current government, there have been various concerns raised about the privacy issues posed by this project. The initiative includes over 50 “mission mode projects” in various stages of implementation. All of these projects entail collection of vast quantities of personally identifiable information of the citizens. However, most of these initiatives do not have clearly laid down privacy policies. There is also a lack of properly articulated access control mechanism and doubts exist over important issues such as data ownership owing to most projects involving public–private partnership which involves a private organisation collecting, processing and retaining large amounts of data. Most importantly, they have continued to exist and prosper in a state of regulatory vacuum with no data protection legislation to govern them. Further, the state of digital divide and digital literacy in India should automatically underscore the need to not rely solely on digital solutions.</p>
<hr />
<p><span>Click to </span><a class="external-link" href="https://www.epw.in/journal/2021/29/commentary/techno-solutionist-responses-covid-19.html">read the full article here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/economic-and-political-weekly-july-17-2021-amber-sinha-pallavi-bedi-aman-nair-techno-solutionist-responses-to-covid-19'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/economic-and-political-weekly-july-17-2021-amber-sinha-pallavi-bedi-aman-nair-techno-solutionist-responses-to-covid-19</a>
</p>
No publisherAmber Sinha, Pallavi Bedi and Aman NairDigital GovernancePrivacyDigitalisationCo-WINCovid19Digital TechnologiesInternet GovernanceTechnologyE-Governance2021-08-10T15:34:06ZBlog EntryStudying the Emerging Database State in India: Notes for Critical Data Studies (Accepted Abstract)
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/studying-the-emerging-database-state-in-india-accepted-abstract
<b>"Critical Data Studies (CDS) is a growing field of research that focuses on the unique theoretical, ethical, and epistemological challenges posed by 'Big Data.' Rather than treat Big Data as a scientifically empirical, and therefore largely neutral phenomena, CDS advocates the view that data should be seen as always-already constituted within wider data assemblages." The Big Data and Society journal has provisionally accepted a paper abstract of mine for its upcoming special issue on Critical Data Studies.</b>
<p> </p>
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>Through the last decade, the Government of India has given shape to an digital identification infrastructure, developed and operated by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The infrastructure combines the task of assigning unique identification numbers, called Aadhaar numbers, to individuals submitting their biometric and demographic details, and the task of authenticating their identity when provided with an Aadhaar number and associated data (biometric data, One Time Pin sent to the pre-declared mobile number, etc.). The aim of UIDAI is to provide universal authentication-as-a-service for all residents of India who approach any public or private agencies for any kind of service or transaction. Simultaneously, the Aadhaar numbers will function as unique identifiers for joining up databases of different government agencies, and hence allow the Indian government to undertake big data analytics at a governmental scale, and not only at a departmental one.</p>
<p>In this paper, I am primarily motivated by the challenge of finding points and objects to enter into a critical study of such an in-progress data infrastructure. As I proceed with an understanding that data is produced within its specific social and material context, the question then is to read through the data to reflect on its possible social and material context. This is complicated when approaching a big data infrastructure that is meant to produce data for explicitly intra-governmental consumption and circulation. The problem then is not one of reading through available big data, but one of reading through the assemblage and imaginaries of big data to reflect on the kind of data it will give rise to, and thus on the politics of the data assemblage and the database state it enables.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Logic of the Database State</h2>
<p>Application of data to inform governmental acts have taken place at least since government has been understood as responsible for the welfare of the population and the territory. The measurement of the population and the territory – the number of people, their demographic features, amounts and locations of natural resources, and so on – have always been integral to the functioning of the modern nation-state. Database state is used in this paper to identify a particular mode of mobilisation of data within governmental acts, which is fundamentally shaped by the possibilities of big data extraction, appropriation, and analytics pioneered by a range of companies since late 1990s. The reason for not using big data state but database dtate is that big data refers to a body of technologies emerging in response to a set of data management and analysis challenges situated in a certain moment of development of information technologies, whereas database refers to a symbolic form (Manovich 1999): a form in which not only the population is made visible to the government (as a collection of visual, textual, numeric, and other forms of records), but also how the acts of government are made visible to the population (as a collection of performance indicators, budget allocation and utilisation tables, and other data visualised through dashboards, analog and digital).</p>
<p>The data production and management logic of this database state is specifically inspired by the notion of platform introduced by the so-called Web 2.0 companies: providing a common service layer upon which various other applications may also run, but under specific arrangements (including distribution of generated user data) with the original common layer provider. Data assemblages of the database state are expected to enable the government to function as a platform, as an intensely data-driven layer that widely gathers data about population individuals and feeds it back selectively to various providers of public and private services. This transforms the data assemblage from one vertical of governmental activities to a horizontal critical infrastructure for modularisation of governmental activities.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Studying the Emerging Database State in India</h2>
<p>Government of India is presently debating the legal and technical validity of the digital identity infrastructure programme in the Supreme Court, while simultaneously carrying out the enrollment drive for the same, linking up assignment of unique identity numbers with a national drive for population registration, and rolling out citizen-facing services and applications that implement the Aadhaar number as a necessary key to access them. With the enrollment process going on and the integration with various governmental processes (termed seeding by Aadhaar policy literature) just beginning, I enter this study through two key sets of objects reflecting the imaginaries and the technical specifications of the emerging database state in India. The first entry point is through the various official documents of vision, intentions, plans, and reconsiderations, and the second entry point is through the Application Programming Interface (API) documentations published by UIDAI to specify how its identity authentication platform will collaborate with various public and private services.</p>
<p>The first section of the paper provides a brief survey of pre-UIDAI attempts by the Government of India to deploy unique identification numbers and Smart Cards for specific population groups, so as to understand the initial conceptualisation of this data assemblage of a digital identification platform. The second section foregrounds how this platform undertakes a transformation of the components and relations of the pre-existing data assemblage of the Government of India, as articulated in various official documents of promised utility and proposed collaborations. The third section studies the API documentations to track how such imaginaries are materially interpreted and operationalised through the design of protocols of data interactions with various public and private agencies offering services utilising the identity authentication platform.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Notes for Critical Data Studies</h2>
<p>Expanding the early agenda note on Critical Data Studies by Craig Dalton and Jim Thatcher (2014), Rob Kitchin and Tracey P. Lauriault have taken steps towards emphasising the responsibility of this nebulous research strategy to chart and unpack the data assemblages (2014). This is exactly what I propose to do in this paper. While Kitchin and Lauriault provide a detailed list of the components of the apparatus of a data assemblage (2014: 7), I find the concepts of infrastructural components and infrastructural relations very useful in thinking through the emerging infrastructure of authentication. Thus, my approach to these tasks of charting and unpacking is focused on the infrastructural relations that the digital identity infrastructure re-configures, instead of the infrastructural components it mobilises (Bowker et al 2010). This tactical choice of focusing on the infrastructural relations is also necessitated by the practical difficulty in having comprehensive access to the individual components of the data assemblage concerned. Addressing questions of causality and quality becomes difficult when studying the assemblage sans the produced data, and rigorously analysing concerns of security and uncertainty pre-requires an actually existing data assemblage, with a public interface to investigating its leakages, breakages, and internal functioning. In the absence of such points of entry into the data assemblage, which I fear may not be an exceptional case, I attempt an inverted reading. Turning the data infrastructure inside out, in this paper I describe how the digital identity platform is critically reshaping the basis of governmental acts in India, through a specific model of production, extraction and application of big data.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Bibliography</h2>
<p>Bowker, Geoffrey C., Karen Baker, Florence Millerand, & David Ribes. 2010. Toward Information Infrastructure Studies: Ways of Knowing in a Networked Environment. Jeremy Hunsinger, Lisbeth Klastrup, & Matthew Allen (Eds.) International Handbook of Internet Research. Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York. Pp. 97-117.</p>
<p>Dalton, Craig, & Jim Thatcher. 2014. What does a Critical Data Studies Look Like, and Why do We Care? Seven Points for a Critical Approach to ‘Big Data.’ Society and Space. May 19. Accessed on July 08, 2015, from <a href="http://societyandspace.com/material/commentaries/craig-dalton-and-jim-thatcher-what-does-a-critical-data-studies-look-like-and-why-do-we-care-seven-points-for-a-critical-approach-to-big-data/" target="_blank">http://societyandspace.com/material/commentaries/craig-dalton-and-jim-thatcher-what-does-a-critical-data-studies-look-like-and-why-do-we-care-seven-points-for-a-critical-approach-to-big-data/</a>.</p>
<p>Kitchin, Rob, & Tracey P. Lauriault. 2014. Towards Critical Data Studies: Charting and Unpacking Data Assemblages and their Work. The Programmable City Working Paper 2. July 29. National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland. Accessed on July 08, 2015 from <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2474112" target="_blank">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2474112</a>.</p>
<p>Manovich, Lev. 1999. Database as Symbolic Form. Convergence. Volume 5, Number 2. Pp. 80-99.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Note: Call for Papers for the special issue can found here: <a href="http://bigdatasoc.blogspot.in/2015/06/call-for-proposals-special-theme-on.html" target="_blank">http://bigdatasoc.blogspot.in/2015/06/call-for-proposals-special-theme-on.html</a>.</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/studying-the-emerging-database-state-in-india-accepted-abstract'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/studying-the-emerging-database-state-in-india-accepted-abstract</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroBig DataData SystemsResearchFeaturedAadhaarResearchers at WorkE-Governance2015-11-13T05:54:53ZBlog EntryLife of a Tuple: National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Reform of Citizen Identification Infrastructure in Assam
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/life-of-a-tuple-nrc-assam-citizen-identification-infrastructure
<b>We are proud to announce that a research grant from the Azim Premji University has enabled us to initiate a study of the updation process of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, and the resultant reform of citizen identification infrastructure in India. The study is being led by Khetrimayum Monish and Ranjit Singh, along with Sumandro Chattapadhyay. </b>
<p>The research focuses on two specific aspects of the NRC update:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Challenges of legal citizenship: In this context, we will investigate the constitutional acts and provisions for making citizenship claims in India, the historical narratives of identity politics in Assam and its culmination in the exercise of updating the NRC.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Challenges of procedurally implementing the NRC update: Here, we plan to explore the subsequent design process of updating the register.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Starting with the first aspect of legally defining Indian citizenship, the project will document and discuss the various legal processes of defining the bureaucratic process of updating NRC that emerge along two sets of concerns at different levels of Indian government. First, at the state level, we will explore the socio-political tensions around illegal immigration from Bangladesh and the history of identity-based politics in Assam. Second, at the level of the central government, we plan to investigate the constitutional and legal rules and provisions that are used to define citizenship in India.</li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/life-of-a-tuple-nrc-assam-citizen-identification-infrastructure'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/life-of-a-tuple-nrc-assam-citizen-identification-infrastructure</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroPolitical Economy of DataNational Population RegisterCitizenshipNRC in AssamResearchResearchers at WorkE-Governance2023-04-27T16:54:24ZBlog EntryIron out contradictions in the Digital India programme
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/hindustan-times-july-15-2015-sumandro-chattapadhyay-iron-out-contradictions-in-the-digital-india-programme
<b>The Digital India initiative takes an ambitious 'Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani' approach to develop communication infrastructure, government information systems, and general capacity to digitise public life in India. I of course use 'public life' in the sense of the wide sphere of interactions between people and public institutions.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was published in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/iron-out-contradictions-in-the-digital-india-programme/article1-1369276.aspx">Hindustan Times</a> on July 15, 2015.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The 'Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani' approach involves putting together Japanese shoes, British trousers, and a Russian cap to make an entertainer with a pure Indian heart. In this case, the analogy must not be understood as different components of the initiative coming from different countries, but as coming from different efforts to use digital technologies for governance in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It is deploying the Public Information Infrastructure vision, inclusive of the National Optical Fibre Network (now renamed as BharatNet) and the national cloud computing platform titled Meghraj, so passionately conceptualised and pursued by Sam Pitroda. It has chosen the Aadhaar ID and the authentication-as-a-service infrastructure built by Nandan Nilekani, Ram Sewak Sharma, and the team, as the identity platform for all governmental processes across Digital India projects. It has closely embraced the mandate proposed by Jaswant Singh led National Task Force on Information Technology and Software Development for completely electronic interface for paper-free citizen-government interactions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The digital literacy and online education aspects of the initiative build upon the National Mission on Education through ICT driven by Kapil Sibal. Two of the three vision areas of the Digital India initiative, namely 'Digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen' and 'governance and service on demand,' are directly drawn from the two core emphasis clusters of the National e-Governance Plan designed by R. Chandrashekhar and team, namely the creation of the national and state-level network and data infrastructures, and the National Mission Mode projects to enable electronic delivery of services across ministries.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">And this is not a bad thing at all. In fact, the need for this programmatic and strategic convergence has been felt for quite some time now, and it is wonderful to see the Prime Minister directly addressing this need. Although, while drawing benefits from the existing programmes, the DI initiative must also deal with the challenges inherited in the process.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Recently circulated documents describes that the institutional framework for Digital India will be headed by a Monitoring Committee overseeing two main drivers of the initiative: the Digital India Advisory Group led by the minister of communication and information technology, and the Apex Committee chaired by the cabinet secretary. While the former will function primarily through guiding the implementation works by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), the latter will lead the activities of both the DeitY and the various sectoral ministries.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Here lies one possible institutional bottleneck that the Digital India architecture inherits from the National e-Governance Plan. Putting the DeitY in the driving seat of the digital transformation agenda in parallel with all other central government departments indicate an understanding that the transformation is fundamentally a technical issue. However, most often what is needed is administrative reform at a larger scale, and re-engineering of processes at a smaller scale.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Government agencies that have addressed such challenges in the past, such as the department of administrative reforms and public grievances, is not mentioned explicitly within the institutional framework, and instead DeitY has been trusted with a range of tasks that may be beyond its scope and core skills.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The danger of this is that the Digital India initiative will end up initiating more infrastructural and software projects, without transforming the underlying governmental processes. For example, the recently launched eBasta website creates a centralised online shop for publishers of educational materials to make books available for teachers to browse and select for their classes, and for the students to directly download, against payment or otherwise. The website has been developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing and DeitY. At the same time, the ministry of human resource development, which is responsible for matters related to public education, has already collaborated with the Central Institute of Educational Technology and the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education in TIFR to build a comprehensive platform for multi-media resources for education – the National Repository of Open Educational Resources. The initial plans of the DI initiative are yet to explicitly recognise that the key challenge is not in building new applications and websites, but aligning existing efforts.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This mismatch, between what the Digital India initiative proposes to achieve and how it plans to achieve it, is further demonstrated in the 'e-Governance Policy Initiatives under Digital India' document. The compilation lists the key policies to govern designing and implementation of the Digital India programmes, but surprisingly fails to mention any policies, acts, and pending bills approved or initiated by any previous government. This is remarkably counter-productive as the existing policy frameworks, such as the Framework for Mobile Governance, the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy, and the Interoperability Framework for e-Governance, are suitably placed to complement the new policies around use of free of open source softwares for e-governance systems, so as to ensure their transparency, interoperability, and inclusive outreach. Several pending bills like The National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010, The Electronic Delivery of Services Bill, 2011, and The Privacy (Protection) Bill, 2013, are absolutely fundamental for comprehensive and secure implementation of the various programmes under the Digital India initiative.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The next year will complete a decade of development of national e-governance systems in India, since the launch of National e-Governance Plan in 2006. Given this history of information systems sometimes partially implemented and sometimes working in isolation, a 'Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani' approach to digitise India is a very pragmatic one. What we surely do not need is increased contradiction among e-governance systems. Simultaneously, we neither need digital systems that centralise governmental power within one ministry on technical grounds, or expose citizens to abuse of their digital identity and assets due to lack of sufficient legal frameworks.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i><b>(Sumandro Chattapadhyay is research director, The Centre for Internet and Society. The views expressed are personal.)</b></i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/hindustan-times-july-15-2015-sumandro-chattapadhyay-iron-out-contradictions-in-the-digital-india-programme'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/hindustan-times-july-15-2015-sumandro-chattapadhyay-iron-out-contradictions-in-the-digital-india-programme</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroDigital IndiaInternet GovernanceE-GovernanceICT2015-07-28T01:04:28ZBlog EntryIndia’s digital check
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dna-sunil-abraham-july-8-2015-india-digital-check
<b>All nine pillars of Digital India directly correlate with policy research conducted at the Centre for Internet and Society, where I have worked for the last seven years. This allows our research outputs to speak directly to the priorities of the government when it comes to digital transformation. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was originally <a class="external-link" href="http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-india-s-digital-check-2102575">published by DNA</a> on July 8, 2015.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Broadband Highways and Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity: The first two pillars have been combined in this paragraph because they both require spectrum policy and governance fixes. Shyam Ponappa, a distinguished fellow at our Centre calls for the leveraging of shared spectrum and also shared backhaul infrastructure. Plurality in spectrum management, for eg, unlicensed spectrum should be promoted for accelerating backhaul or last mile connectivity, and also for community or local government broadband efforts. Other ideas that have been considered by Ponappa include getting state owned telcos to exit completely from the last mile and only focus on running an open access backhaul through Bharat Broadband Limited. Network neutrality regulations are also required to mitigate free speech, diversity and competition harms as ISPs and TSPs innovate with business models such as zero-rating.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Public Internet Access Programme: Continuing investments into Common Service Centres (CSCs) for almost a decade may be questionable and therefore a citizen’s audit should be undertaken to determine how the programme may be redesigned. The reinventing of post offices is very welcome, however public libraries are also in need urgent reinventing. CSCs, post offices and public libraries should all leverage long range WiFi for Internet and intranet, empowering BYOD [Bring Your Own Device] users. Applications will take time to develop and therefore immediate emphasis should be on locally caching Indic language content. State <a href="http://www.dnaindia.com/topic/public-library-acts">Public Library Acts</a> need to be amended to allow for borrowing of digital content. Flat-fee licensing regimes must be explored to increase access to knowledge and culture. Commons-based peer production efforts like Wikipedia and Wikisource need to be encouraged.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">e-Governance: Reforming Government through Technology: DeitY, under the leadership of free software advocate Secretary RS Sharma, has accelerated adoption and implementation of policies supporting non-proprietary approaches to intellectual property in e-governance. Policies exist and are being implemented for free and open source software, open standards and electronic accessibility for the disabled. The proprietary software lobby headed by Microsoft and industry associations like <a href="http://www.dnaindia.com/topic/nasscom">NASSCOM</a> have tried to undermine these policies but have failed so far.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The government should continue to resist such pressures. Universal adoption of electronic signatures within government so that there is a proper audit trail for all communications and transactions should be made an immediate priority. Adherence to globally accepted data protection principles such as minimisation via “form simplification and field reduction” for Digital India should be applauded. But on the other hand the mandatory requirement of Aadhaar for DigiLocker and eSign amounts to contempt of the Supreme Court order in this regard.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">e-Kranti — Electronic Delivery of Services: The 41 mission mode projects listed are within the top-down planning paradigm with a high risk of failure — the funds reserved for these projects should instead be converted into incentives for those public, private and public private partnerships that accelerate adoption of e-governance. The dependency on the National Informatics Centre (NIC) for implementation of <a href="http://www.dnaindia.com/topic/e-governance">e-governance</a> needs to be reduced, SMEs need to be able to participate in the development of e-governance applications. The funds allocated for this area to DeitY have also produced a draft bill for Electronic Services Delivery. This bill was supposed to give RTI-like teeth to e-governance service by requiring each government department and ministry to publish service level agreements [SLAs] for each of their services and prescribing punitive action for responsible institutions and individuals when there was no compliance with the SLAs.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Information for All: The open data community and the Right to Information movement in India are not happy with the rate of implementation of National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP). Many of the datasets on the Open Data Portal are of low value to citizens and cannot be leveraged commercially by enterprise. Publication of high-value datasets needs to be expedited by amending the proactive disclosure section of the Right to Information Act 2005.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Electronics Manufacturing: Mobile patent wars have begun in India with seven big ticket cases filed at the Delhi High Court. Our Centre has written an open letter to the previous minister for HRD and the current PM requesting them to establish a device level patent pool with a compulsory license of 5%. Thereby replicating India’s success at becoming the pharmacy of the developing world and becoming the lead provider of generic medicines through enabling patent policy established in the 1970s. In a forthcoming paper with Prof Jorge Contreras, my colleague Rohini Lakshané will map around fifty thousand patents associated with mobile technologies. We estimate around a billion USD being collected in royalties for the rights-holders whilst eliminating legal uncertainties for manufacturers of mobile technologies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">IT for Jobs: Centralised, top-down, government run human resource development programmes are not useful. Instead the government needs to focus on curriculum reform and restructuring of the education system. Mandatory introduction of free and open source software will give Indian students the opportunity to learn by reading world-class software. They will then grow up to become computer scientists rather than computer operators. All projects at academic institutions should be contributions to existing free software projects — these projects could be global or national, for eg, a local government’s e-governance application. The budget allocated for this pillar should instead be used to incentivise research by giving micro-grants and prizes to those students who make key software contributions or publish in peer-reviewed academic journals or participate in competitions. This would be a more systemic approach to dealing with the skills and knowledge deficit amongst Indian software professionals.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Early Harvest Programmes: Many of the ideas here are very important. For example, secure email for government officials — if this was developed and deployed in a decentralised manner it would prevent future surveillance of the Indian government by the NSA. But a few of the other low-hanging fruit identified here don’t really contribute to governance. For example, biometric attendance for bureaucrats is just glorified bean-counting — it does not really contribute to more accountability, transparency or better governance.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>The author works for the Centre for Internet and Society which receives funds from Wikimedia Foundation that has zero-rating alliances with telecom operators in many countries across the world</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dna-sunil-abraham-july-8-2015-india-digital-check'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dna-sunil-abraham-july-8-2015-india-digital-check</a>
</p>
No publishersunilDigital IndiaInternet GovernanceE-Governance2015-09-15T14:55:47ZBlog EntryIndia backs open source software for e-governance projects
http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/idg-news-service-march-29-2015-john-riberio-india-backs-open-source-software-for-e-governance-projects
<b>India has said it will use open source software in all e-governance projects, though it did not rule out the use of proprietary software to meet specialized requirements.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The blog post originally published by IDG News Service was mirrored on the website of <a class="external-link" href="http://www.cio.com/article/2903513/india-backs-open-source-software-for-egovernance-projects.html">CIO</a> and <a class="external-link" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2903512/india-backs-open-source-software-for-egovernance-projects.html">PC World</a> on March 29, 2015. Sunil Abraham is quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A policy document released by the federal government over the weekend makes it mandatory for all new e-governance projects and upgrades of existing legacy systems by federal agencies and participating states to first consider free and open source software (OSS) alternatives.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Federal and state agencies must make it mandatory for suppliers to give OSS a preference over proprietary or closed source software while responding to requests for proposals. <a href="http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/policy_on_adoption_of_oss.pdf">”Suppliers shall provide justification for exclusion of OSS in their response,”</a> according to the policy statement posted to the website of the Ministry for Communication & Information Technology.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Indian government has outlined its Digital India program that aims to make government services accessible online to citizens in their localities. The need to expand these services quickly at a low cost has likely prompted the decision in favor of open source in the country.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The government has also cited “strategic control” over its e-governance applications and systems from a long-term perspective as one of the reasons it was backing open source.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“It is a well drafted policy though policy researchers will always have possible improvements,” said Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, a research organization in Bangalore. Instead of coming up with a new definition for free and open source software, the policy should have used the definitions available at the Free Software Foundation and Open Source Initiative websites and adopted licenses approved by these organizations, he added.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The policy should also require that the software be made available on a public code repository except in cases where there are some security concerns, Abraham said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The federal government had previously declined to take a stand in favor of open source, leaving the choice to its agencies, but the National Policy on Information Technology, 2012 had mentioned the promotion of “open source and open technologies” as one of its objectives.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Some states have backed open source software on ideological grounds or to cut costs. Kerala, for example, had <a href="http://www.itworldcanada.com/article/communists-love-open-source-in-india/700">decided to promote free and open-source software in education</a> as way back as 2006.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The government in its new policy has, however, provided for exemptions in certain specialized domains for which OSS may not be available, or if there isn’t expertise in the particular area in open source. The requirement for OSS may also be waived if the deployment is strategic and urgent.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Google, which has shown interest in collaborating with the government in its e-governance projects, said it did not have a comment on the policy. Microsoft, which targets the government market, including with its cloud services, did not immediately comment. In a bid to woo Indian government customers, the company offered in September <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2689572/microsoft-will-offer-locally-hosted-cloud-services-in-india.html">to host cloud services including Azure and Office 365 in the country.</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/idg-news-service-march-29-2015-john-riberio-india-backs-open-source-software-for-e-governance-projects'>http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/idg-news-service-march-29-2015-john-riberio-india-backs-open-source-software-for-e-governance-projects</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaOpennessE-Governance2015-04-04T16:00:49ZNews ItemGlobal Governance Futures 2027 - Session 3, New Delhi
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/global-governance-futures-2027-session-3-new-delhi
<b>The Global Governance Futures program (GGF) initiated by Global Public Policy Institute and supported by Robert Bosch Stiftung brings together young professionals to look ahead ten years and recommend ways to address global challenges. Sumandro Chattapadhyay will join Ankhi Das (Facebook) and Arun Mohan Sukumar (Observer Research Foundation) on Tuesday, January 17, to discuss the "data governance" scenarios developed by the GGF 2027 Fellows.
</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>About the Programme: <a href="http://www.ggfutures.net/about/ggf-program/">External Link</a>.</h4>
<h4>GGF 2027 Fellows: <a href="http://www.ggfutures.net/current-fellows/">External Link</a>.</h4>
<h4>GGF 2027 Session 3, New Delhi - Agenda: <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/files/ggf-2027-session-3-new-delhi-agenda/at_download/file">Download</a> (PDF).</h4>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/global-governance-futures-2027-session-3-new-delhi'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/global-governance-futures-2027-session-3-new-delhi</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroPrivacyInternet GovernanceData GovernanceE-GovernanceDigital Rights2017-01-15T11:46:27ZBlog EntryElectoral Databases – Privacy and Security Concerns
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/electoral-databases-2013-privacy-and-security-concerns
<b>In this blogpost, Snehashish Ghosh analyzes privacy and security concerns which have surfaced with the digitization, centralization and standardization of the electoral database and argues that even though the law provides the scope for protection of electoral databases, the State has not taken any steps to ensure its safety.</b>
<p></p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The recent move by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to tie-up with Google for providing electoral look-up services for citizens and electoral information services has faced heavy criticism on the grounds of data security and privacy.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[i]</span></span></a> After due consideration, the ECI has decided to drop the plan.<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[ii]</span></span></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The plan to partner with Google has led to much apprehension regarding Google gaining access to the database of 790 million voters including, personal information such as age, place of birth and residence. It could have also gained access to cell phone numbers and email addresses had the voter chosen to enroll via the online portal on the ECI website. Although, the plan has been cancelled, it does not necessarily mean that the largest database of citizens of India is safe from any kind of security breach or abuse. In fact, the personal information of each voter in a constituency can be accessed by anyone through the ECI website and the publication of electoral rolls is mandated by the law.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Publication of Electoral Rolls</b><br />The electoral roll essentially contains the name of the voter, name of the relationship (son of/wife of, etc.), age, sex, address and the photo identity card number. The main objective of creation and maintenance of electoral rolls and the issue of Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) was to ensure a free and fair election where the voter would have been able to cast his own vote as per his own choice. In other words, the main purpose of the exercise was to curtail bogus voting. This is achieved by cross referencing the EPIC with the electoral roll.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The process of creation and maintenance of electoral rolls is governed by the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. Rule 22 requires the registration officer to publish the roll with list of amendments at his office for inspection and public information. Furthermore, ECI may direct the registration officer to send two copies of the electoral roll to every political party for which a symbol has exclusively been reserved by the ECI. It can be safely concluded that the electoral roll of a constituency is a public document<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[iii]</span></span></a> given that the roll is published and can be circulated on the direction of the ECI.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">With the computational turn, in 1998 the ECI took the decision to digitize the electoral databases. Furthermore, printed electoral rolls and compact discs containing the rolls are available for sale to general public.<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[iv]</span></span></a> In addition to that, the electoral rolls for the entire country are available on the ECI website.<a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[v]</span></span></a> However, the current database is not uniform and standardized, and entries in some constituencies are available only in the local language. The ECI has taken steps to make the database uniform, standardized and centralized.<a href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[vi]</span></span></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Security Concerns</b><br />The Registration of Electoral Rules, 1960 is an archaic piece of delegated legislation which is still in force and casts a statutory duty on the ECI to publish the electoral rolls. The publication of electoral rolls is not a threat to security when it is distributed in hard copies and the availability of electoral rolls is limited. The security risks emerge only after the digitization of electoral database, which allows for uniformity, standardization and centralization of the database which in turn makes it vulnerable and subject to abuse. The law has failed to evolve with the change in technology.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In a recent article, Bill Davidow analyzes "the dark side of Moore’s Law" and argues that with the growth processing power there has been a growth in surveillance capabilities and on this note the article is titled, “<i>With Great Computing Power Comes Great Surveillance”</i><a href="#_edn7" name="_ednref7"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[vii]</span></span></a> Drawing from Davidow’s argument, with the exponential growth in computing power, search has become convenient, faster and cheap. A uniform, standardized and centralized database bearing the personal information of 790 million voters can be searched and categorized in accordance with the search terms. The personal information of the voters can be used for good, but it can be equally abused if it falls into the wrong hands. Big data analysis or the computing power makes it easier to target voters, as bits and pieces of personal information give a bigger picture of an individual, a community, etc. This can be considered intrusive on individual’s privacy since the personal information of every voter is made available in the public domain</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For example, the availability of a centralized, searchable database of voters along with their age would allow the appropriate authorities to identify wards or constituencies, which has a high population of voters above the age of 65. This would help the authority to set up polling booths at closer location with special amenities. However, the same database can be used to search for density of members of a particular community in a ward or constituency based on the name, age, sex of the voters. This information can be used to disrupt elections, target vulnerable communities during an election and rig elections.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Current IT Laws does not mandate the protection of the electoral database</b><br />A centralized electoral database of the entire country can be considered as a critical information infrastructure (CII) given the impact it may have on the election which is the cornerstone of any democracy. Under Section 70 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) CII means “the computer resource, incapacitation or destruction of which, shall have debilitating impact on national security, economy.”<a href="#_edn8" name="_ednref8"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[viii]</span></span></a> However, the appropriate Government has not notified the electoral database as a protected system<a href="#_edn9" name="_ednref9"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[ix]</span></span></a>. Therefore, information security practices and procedures for a protected system are not applicable to the electoral database.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Information Technology Rules (IT Rules) are also not applicable to electoral databases, <i>per se</i>. Since, ECI is not a body corporate, the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information), Rules, 2011 (<i>hereinafter </i>Reasonable Security Practices Rules) do not apply to electoral databases. Ignoring that Reasonable Security Practices Rules only apply to a body corporate, the electoral database does fall within the ambit of definition of “personal information”<a href="#_edn10" name="_ednref10"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[x]</span></span></a> and should arguably be made subject to the Rules.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The intent of the ECI for hosting the entire country’s electoral database online <i>inter alia</i> is to provide electronic service delivery to the citizens. It seeks to provide “electoral look up services for citizens ... for better electoral information services.”<a href="#_edn11" name="_ednref11"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[xi]</span></span></a> However, the Information Technology (Electronic Service Delivery) Rules, 2011 are not applicable to the electoral database given that it is not notified by the appropriate Government as a service to be delivered electronically. Hence, the encryption and security standards for electronic service delivery are not applicable to electoral rolls.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The IT Act and the IT Rules provide a reasonable scope for the appropriate Government to include electoral databases within the ambit of protected system and electronic service delivery. However, the appropriate government has not taken any steps to notify electoral database as protected system or a mode of electronic service delivery under the existing laws.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Conclusion</b><br />Publication of electoral rolls is a necessary part of an election process. It ensures free and fair election and promotes transparency and accountability. But unfettered access to electronic electoral databases may have an adverse effect and would endanger the very goal it seeks to achieve because the electronic database may pose threat to privacy of the voters and also lead to security breach. It may be argued that the ECI is mandated by the law to publish the electoral database and hence, it is beyond the operation of the IT Act. But Section 81 of the IT Act has an overriding effect on any law inconsistent, therewith. The appropriate Government should take necessary steps under the IT Act and notify electoral databases as a protected system.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It is recommended that the Electors Registration Rules, 1960 should be amended, taking into account the advancement in technology. Therefore, the Rules should aim at restricting the unfettered electronic access to the electoral database and also introduce purposive limitation on the use of the electoral database. It should also be noted that more adequate and robust data protection and privacy laws should be put in place, which would regulate the collection, use, storage and processing of databases which are critical to national security.</p>
<div>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="100%" />
<div id="edn1">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[i]</span></span></a> Pratap Vikram Singh, Post-uproar, EC’s Google tie-up plan may go for a toss, Governance Now, January 7, 2014 available at <a class="external-link" href="http://www.governancenow.com/news/regular-story/post-uproar-ecs-google-tie-plan-may-go-toss">http://www.governancenow.com/news/regular-story/post-uproar-ecs-google-tie-plan-may-go-toss</a></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[ii]</span></span></a> Press Note No.ECI/PN/1/2014, Election Commission of India , January 9, 2014 available at <a class="external-link" href="http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/current/PN09012014.pdf">http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/current/PN09012014.pdf</a></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[iii]</span></span></a> Section 74, Indian Evidence Act, 1872</p>
</div>
<div id="edn4">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[iv]</span></span></a> <a class="external-link" href="http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/the_function.aspx">eci.nic.in/eci_main1/the_function.aspx</a></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[v]</span></span></a> <a class="external-link" href="http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/Linkto_erollpdf.aspx">http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/Linkto_erollpdf.aspx</a></p>
</div>
<div id="edn6">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ednref6" name="_edn6"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[vi]</span></span></a> “At present, in most States and UTs the Electoral Database is kept at the district level. In some cases it is kept even with the vendors. In most States/UTs it is maintained in MS Access, while in some cases it is on a primitive technology like FoxPro and in some other cases on advanced RDBMS like Oracle or Sql Server. The database is not kept in bilingual form in some of the States/UTs, despite instructions of the Commission. In most cases Unicode fonts are not used. The database structure not being uniform in the country, makes it almost impossible for the different databases to talk to each other” – Election Commission of India, Revision of Electoral Rolls with reference to 01-01-2010 as the qualifying date – Integration and Standardization of the database- reg., No. 23/2009-ERS, January 6, 2010 available at e<a class="external-link" href="http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/eroll&epic/ins06012010.pdf">ci.nic.in/eci_main/eroll&epic/ins06012010.pdf</a><span dir="RTL"></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn7">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref7" name="_edn7"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[vii]</span></span></a><a class="external-link" href="http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/current/PN09012014.pdf"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"> </span></span></span>http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/01/with-great-computing-power-comes-great-surveillance/282933/</a></p>
</div>
<div id="edn8">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ednref8" name="_edn8"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[viii]</span></span></a> Section 70, Information Technology Act, 2000</p>
</div>
<div id="edn9">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ednref9" name="_edn9"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[ix]</span></span></a> Computer resource which directly or indirectly affects the facility of Critical Information Infrastructure</p>
</div>
<div id="edn10">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ednref10" name="_edn10"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[x]</span></span></a> Rule 2(1)(i), Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011</p>
</div>
<div id="edn11">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="text-align: justify; "><a href="#_ednref11" name="_edn11"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">[xi]</span></span></a> Press Note No.ECI/PN/1/2014, Election Commission of India , January 9, 2014 available at <a class="external-link" href="http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/current/PN09012014.pdf">http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/current/PN09012014.pdf</a></p>
</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/electoral-databases-2013-privacy-and-security-concerns'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/electoral-databases-2013-privacy-and-security-concerns</a>
</p>
No publishersnehashishDigital GovernancePrivacyCybersecurityData ProtectionInternet GovernanceSafetyInformation TechnologyCyber SecuritySecuritye-GovernanceTransparency, PoliticsE-Governance2014-01-16T11:07:21ZBlog EntryE-governance hopes rise as India crosses 1 billion transactions
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/economic-times-october-29-2013-j-srikant-e-governance-hopes-rise-as-india-crosses-1-billion-transactions
<b>Government agencies and departments, regarded as bywords for inefficiency and red tape, have recorded over a billion e-governance transactions so far this year, watershed for the world's largest democracy that is betting on technology to cure its ills.</b>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by J Srikant was <a class="external-link" href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/e-governance-hopes-rise-as-india-crosses-1-billion-transactions/articleshow/24834881.cms">published in the Economic Times</a> on October 29, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"It is an important milestone for India's e-governance initiative," said J Satyanarayana, secretary in the department of electronics and information technology. "With better accessibility and more projects getting completed, this number should keep rising."<br /><br />Among states, Gujarat topped the list with around 389 million transactions while online payment for utility and government services was the most used government service with about 258 million transactions clocked in the year.<br /><br />India is in the middle of implementing a large-scale e-governance programme which includes a vast information technology network to facilitate speedy delivery of public services. The most important of these are 31 'mission mode' projects being implemented by the central governments and states. Technology researcher Gartner estimates that government will spend Rs 36,800 crore on IT products and services in 2013. The most high-profile e-governance scheme is the unique identity project Aadhaar being implemented by former InfosysBSE -0.04 % CEO Nandan Nilekani. The biometric-linked scheme is targeting to enroll 600 million people by 2014.<br /><br />A year ago, the country successfully commissioned an e-passport project where digitisation of applications and internal files vastly improved the time taken to issue new passports.<br /><br />"Reaching a billion transactions with just about 100 million internet users is a commendable achievement and we should celebrate it," said Sunil Abraham, executive director of Centre for Internet and Society. "E-governance is a tough area to work in, not just in India but across the globe. So this performance should make us positive."<br /><br />With more parts of the country getting connected through the National Optic Fibre Network, industry watchers expect more citizens to be accessing government services over the internet. The project aims to connect 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. The network has been launched in pockets of Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Tripura, with some 80,500 transactions already recorded.<br /><br />"This number (one billion) is a reflection of the increasing access of internet in the country and the acceptance of technology change happening," said Sanjoy Sen, senior director at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India. "E-governance helps in reducing cost and bottlenecks for the user and also brings down the time to get the work done. It is an important factor in today's economy."<br /><br />Experts said that although it is working well for India, there are still certain steps that government needs to take to maintain the pace of expansion.<br /><br />"Government should look at financially incentivising setting up of cyber cafes in rural India as these are an important aspect of improving the accessibility," said Abraham.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/economic-times-october-29-2013-j-srikant-e-governance-hopes-rise-as-india-crosses-1-billion-transactions'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/economic-times-october-29-2013-j-srikant-e-governance-hopes-rise-as-india-crosses-1-billion-transactions</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaE-GovernanceInternet Governance2013-10-29T04:48:58ZNews ItemDr. Prerna Prabhakar - Impact of Digitisation of Land Recods in Rural India (Delhi, July 07, 5 pm)
http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/firstfridayatcis-dr-prerna-prabhakar-impact-of-digitisation-of-land-recods-in-rural-india-july-07
<b>It is our priviledge to annouce that Dr. Prerna Prabhakar will be the speaker for the July #FirstFridayAtCIS event. Dr. Prabhakar is an Associate Fellow with the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). She is involved in a project that looks at the digitisation of land records in India and its impact on land ownership across the country. In the talk, she will evaluate the impact that digitisation of land records has had in parts of rural India. If you are joining us, please RSVP at the soonest as we have only limited space in our office.</b>
<p> </p>
<h3><strong>Dr. Prerna Prabhakar</strong></h3>
<h4>Associate Fellow, <a href="http://www.ncaer.org/" target="_blank">National Council of Applied Economic Research</a> (NCAER)</h4>
<p>Dr. Prabhakar's primary research area is in International Economics. She has done extensive work on trade and primarily the linkages between trade and environment and regional trade integration for developing economies.
She has a MSc in Economics from TERI University and a PhD from the Department of Business, University of Delhi. Her PhD thesis was on international trade, environment and regional integration. She has also worked in a South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE) funded Project titled “Carbon Embodied Trade and Trade Resistances: Evidence from South Asian Countries”. Earlier, she worked as a Research Assistant with Dr. Ram Upendra Das at Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS).</p>
<p>Profile on NCAER Website: <a href="http://www.ncaer.org/expert_details.php?pID=331" target="_blank">External Link</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3><strong>RSVP</strong></h3>
<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScDGA98huSMREYi9Tet4dGftqrlgrOlu9HqDgAM0JcVq3j84A/viewform?embedded=true" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" height="666" width="600">Loading...</iframe>
<p> </p>
<h3><strong>Location</strong></h3>
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d876.157470894426!2d77.20553462919722!3d28.550842498903158!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x0%3A0x834072df81ffcb39!2sCentre+for+Internet+and+Society!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sin!4v1493818109951" frameborder="0" height="450" width="600"></iframe>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/firstfridayatcis-dr-prerna-prabhakar-impact-of-digitisation-of-land-recods-in-rural-india-july-07'>http://editors.cis-india.org/raw/firstfridayatcis-dr-prerna-prabhakar-impact-of-digitisation-of-land-recods-in-rural-india-july-07</a>
</p>
No publishersaikatLand Records#FirstFridayAtCISDigitisationResearchers at WorkEventE-Governance2017-07-06T10:51:19ZEventCIS Comments on the National Strategy on Blockchain
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-comments-on-the-national-strategy-on-blockchain
<b></b>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">This submission is a response by the researchers at CIS to the report “National Strategy on Blockchain” prepared by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) under the Government of India. </p>
<p>We have put forward the following comments based on our analysis of the report.</p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<ol><li style="list-style-type: upper-roman;" dir="ltr">
<h3>General Comments on the National Strategy</h3>
</li></ol>
<ol><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">There are currently a number of reports and policies on blockchain use across departments, ministries and even states. The absence of a harmonised blockchain policy across all departments and institutions of government must be fixed. </p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">There are inherent dangers with viewing blockchain as a silver bullet solution. </p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Informational concerns with blockchain are existent and policies must be designed to reflect these concerns and minimise their occurrences. </p>
</li></ol>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<ol start="2"><li style="list-style-type: upper-roman;" dir="ltr">
<h3>Section Specific Comments </h3>
</li></ol>
<ol><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Section 6.1</strong> - There is a need for greater decentralisation and a shift away from a solely government operated blockchain </p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Section 6.2: </strong></p>
</li></ol>
<ul><li style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">The legality of blockchain also faces the hurdle of smart contracts </p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">The RBI decision to halt the use of cryptocurrencies was struck down by the Supreme Court </p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">The right to be forgotten exists as an extension of the right to privacy as well </p>
</li></ul>
<ol start="3"><li style="list-style-type: decimal;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Section 7</strong> - There is a need for greater detail and granularity in the report’s analysis and in the suggestions and recommendations that it makes. </p>
</li></ol>
<div> </div>
<div>The full submission to MEITY can be found at: <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/national-strategy-on-blockchain">https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/national-strategy-on-blockchain</a></div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-comments-on-the-national-strategy-on-blockchain'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-comments-on-the-national-strategy-on-blockchain</a>
</p>
No publisherVipul Kharbanda & Aman NairBlockchainBitcoinCryptocurrenciesData GovernanceSubmissionsE-Governance2021-03-22T05:34:41ZBlog EntryBig Data in India: Benefits, Harms, and Human Rights - Workshop Report
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/big-data-in-india-benefits-harms-and-human-rights-a-report
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society held a one-day workshop on “Big Data in India: Benefits, Harms and Human Rights” at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on the 1st of October, 2016. This report is a compilation of the the issues discussed, ideas exchanged and challenges recognized during the workshop. The objective of the workshop was to discuss aspects of big data technologies in terms of harms, opportunities and human rights. The discussion was designed around an extensive study of current and potential future uses of big data for governance in India, that CIS has undertaken over the last year with support from the MacArthur Foundation.</b>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Contents</strong></p>
<p><a href="#1"><strong>Big Data: Definitions and Global South Perspectives</strong></a></p>
<p><a href="#2"><strong>Aadhaar as Big Data</strong></a></p>
<p><a href="#3"><strong>Seeding</strong></a></p>
<p><a href="#4"><strong>Aadhaar and Data Security</strong></a></p>
<p><a href="#5"><strong>Aadhaar’s Relational Arrangement with Big Data Scheme</strong></a></p>
<p><a href="#6"><strong>The Myths surrounding Aadhaar</strong></a></p>
<p><a href="#7"><strong>IndiaStack and FinTech Apps</strong></a></p>
<p><a href="#8"><strong>Problems with UID</strong></a></p>
<hr />
<h2 id="1">Big Data: Definitions and Global South Perspectives</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">“Big Data” has been defined by multiple scholars till date. The first consideration at the workshop was to discuss various definitions of big data, and also to understand what could be considered Big Data in terms of governance, especially in the absence of academic consensus. One of the most basic ways to define it, as given by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA, is to take it to be the data that is beyond the computational capacity of current systems. This definition has been accepted by the UIDAI of India. Another participant pointed out that Big Data is not only indicative of size, but rather the nature of data which is unstructured, and continuously flowing. The Gartner definition of Big Data relies on the three Vs i.e. Volume (size), Velocity (infinite number of ways in which data is being continuously collected) and Variety (the number of ways in which data can be collected in rows and columns).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The presentation also looked at ways in which Big Data is different from traditional data. It was pointed out that it can accommodate diverse unstructured datasets, and it is ‘relational’ i.e. it needs the presence of common field(s) across datasets which allows these fields to be conjoined. For e.g., the UID in India is being linked to many different datasets, and they don’t constitute Big Data separately, but do so together. An increasingly popular definition is to define data as “Big Data” based on what can be achieved through it. It has been described by authors as the ability to harness new kinds of insight which can inform decision making. It was pointed out that CIS does not subscribe to any particular definition, and is still in the process of coming up with a comprehensive definition of Big Data.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Further, discussion touched upon the approach to Big Data in the Global South. It was pointed out that most discussions about Big Data in the Global South are about the kind of value that it can have, the ways in which it can change our society. The Global North, on the other hand, has moved on to discussing the ethics and privacy issues associated with Big Data.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">After this, the presentation focussed on case studies surrounding key Central Government initiatives and projects like Aadhaar, Predictive Policing, and Financial Technology (FinTech).</p>
<h2 id="2">Aadhaar as Big Data</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">In presenting CIS’ case study on Aadhaar, it was pointed out that initially, Aadhaar, with its enrollment dataset was by itself being seen as Big Data. However, upon careful consideration in light of definitions discussed above, it can be seen as something that enables Big Data. The different e-governance projects within Digital India, along with Aadhaar, constitute Big Data. The case study discussed the Big Data implications of Aadhaar, and in particular looked at a ‘cradle to grave’ identity mapping through various e-government projects and the datafication of various transaction generated data.</p>
<h2 id="3">Seeding</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Any digital identity like Aadhaar typically has three features: 1. Identification i.e. a number or card used to identify yourself; 2. Authentication, which is based on your number or card and any other digital attributes that you might have; 3. Authorisation: As bearers of the digital identity, we can authorise the service providers to take some steps on our behalf. The case study discussed ‘seeding’ which enables the Big Data aspects of Digital India. In the process of seeding, different government databases can be seeded with the UID number using a platform called Ginger. Due to this, other databases can be connected to UIDAI, and through it, data from other databases can be queried by using your Aadhaar identity itself. This is an example of relationality, where fractured data is being brought together. At the moment, it is not clear whether this access by UIDAI means that an actual physical copy of such data from various sources will be transferred to UIDAI’s servers or if they will just access it through internet, but the data remains on the host government agency’s server. An example of even private parties becoming a part of this infrastructure was raised by a participant when it was pointed out that Reliance Jio is now asking for fingerprints. This can then be connected to the relational infrastructure being created by UIDAI. The discussion then focused on how such a structure will function, where it was mentioned that as of now, it cannot be said with certainty that UIDAI will be the agency managing this relational infrastructure in the long run, even though it is the one building it.</p>
<h2 id="4">Aadhaar and Data Security</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">This case study also dealt with the sheer lack of data protection legislation in India except for S.43A of the IT Act. The section does not provide adequate protection as the constitutionality of the rules and regulations under S.43A is ambivalent. More importantly, it only refers to private bodies. Hence, any seeding which is being done by the government is outside the scope of data protection legislation. Thus, at the moment, no legal framework covers the processes and the structures being used for datasets. Due to the inapplicability of S.43A to public bodies, questions were raised as to the existence of a comprehensive data protection policy for government institutions. Participants answered the question in the negative. They pointed out that if any government department starts collecting data, they develop their own privacy policy. There are no set guidelines for such policies and they do not address concerns related to consent, data minimisation and purpose limitation at all. Questions were also raised about the access and control over Big Data with government institutions. A tentative answer from a participant was that such data will remain under the control of the domain specific government ministry or department, for e.g. MNREGA data with the Ministry of Rural Development, because the focus is not on data centralisation but rather on data linking. As long as such fractured data is linked and there is an agency that is responsible to link them, this data can be brought together. Such data is primarily for government agencies. But the government is opening up certain aspects of the data present with it for public consumption for research and entrepreneurial purposes.The UIDAI provides you access to your own data after paying a minimal fee. The procedure for such access is still developing.</p>
<h2 id="5">Aadhaar’s Relational Arrangement with Big Data Scheme</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The various Digital India schemes brought in by the government were elucidated during the workshop. It was pointed out that these schemes extend to myriad aspects of a citizen’s daily life and cover all the essential public services like health, education etc. This makes Aadhaar imperative even though the Supreme Court has observed that it is not mandatory for every citizen to have a unique identity number. The benefits of such identity mapping and the ecosystem being generated by it was also enumerated during the discourse. But the complete absence of any data ethics or data confidentiality principles make us unaware of the costs at which these benefits are being conferred on us. Apart from surveillance concerns, the knowledge gap being created between the citizens and the government was also flagged. Three main benefits touted to be provided by Aadhaar were then analysed. The first is the efficient delivery of services. This appears to be an overblown claim as the Aadhaar specific digitisation and automation does not affect the way in which employment will be provided to citizens through MNREGA or how wage payment delays will be overcome. These are administrative problems that Aadhaar and associated technologies cannot solve. The second is convenience to the citizens. The fallacies in this assertion were also brought out and identified. Before the Aadhaar scheme was rolled in, ration cards were issued based on certain exclusion and inclusion criteria.. The exclusion and inclusion criteria remain the same while another hurdle in the form of Aadhaar has been created. As India is still lacking in supporting infrastructure such as electricity, server connectivity among other things, Aadhaar is acting as a barrier rather than making it convenient for citizens to enroll in such schemes.The third benefit is fraud management. Here, a participant pointed out that this benefit was due to digitisation in the form of GPS chips in food delivery trucks and electronic payment and not the relational nature of Aadhaar. Aadhaar is only concerned with the linking up or relational part. About deduplication, it was pointed out how various government agencies have tackled it quite successfully by using technology different from biometrics which is unreliable at the best of times.</p>
<h2 id="6">The Myths surrounding Aadhaar</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The discussion also reflected on the fact that Aadhaar is often considered to be a panacea that subsumes all kinds of technologies to tackle leakages. However, this does not take into account the fact that leakages happen in many ways. A system should have been built to tackle those specific kinds of leakages, but the focus is solely on Aadhaar as the cure for all. Notably, participants who have been a part of the government pointed out how this myth is misleading and should instead be seen as the first step towards a more digitally enhanced country which is combining different technologies through one medium.</p>
<h2 id="7">IndiaStack and FinTech Apps</h2>
<h3 id="71">What is India Stack?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The focus then shifted to another extremely important Big Data project, India Stack, being conceptualised and developed by a team of private developers called iStack, for the NPCI. It builds on the UID project, Jan Dhan Yojana and mobile services trinity to propagate and develop a cashless, presence-less, paperless and granular consent layer based on UID infrastructure to digitise India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">A participant pointed out that the idea of India Stack is to use UID as a platform and keep stacking things on it, such that more and more applications are developed. This in turn will help us to move from being a ‘data poor’ country to a ‘data rich’ one. The economic benefits of this data though as evidenced from the TAGUP report - a report about the creation of National Information Utilities to manage the data that is present with the government - is for the corporations and not the common man. The TAGUP report openly talks about privatisation of data.</p>
<h3 id="72">Problems with India Stack</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The granular consent layer of India Stack hasn’t been developed yet but they have proposed to base it on MIT Media Lab’s OpenPDS system. The idea being that, on the basis of the choices made by the concerned person, access to a person’s personal information may be granted to an agency like a bank. What is more revolutionary is that India Stack might even revoke this access if the concerned person expresses a wish to do so or the surrounding circumstances signal to India Stack that it will be prudent to do so. It should be pointed out that the the technology required for OpenPDS is extremely complex and is not available in India. Moreover, it’s not clear how this system would work. Apart from this, even the paperless layer has its faults and has been criticised by many since its inception, because an actual government signed and stamped paper has been the basis of a claim.. In the paperless system, you are provided a Digilocker in which all your papers are stored electronically, on the basis of your UID number. However, it was brought to light that this doesn’t take into account those who either do not want a Digilocker or UID number or cases where they do not have access to their digital records. How in such cases will people make claims?</p>
<h3 id="73">A Digital Post-Dated Cheque: It’s Ramifications</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">A key change that FinTech apps and the surrounding ecosystem want to make is to create a digital post-dated cheque so as to allow individuals to get loans from their mobiles especially in remote areas. This will potentially cut out the need to construct new banks, thus reducing the capital expenditure , while at the same time allowing the credit services to grow. The direct transfer of money between UID numbers without the involvement of banks is a step to further help this ecosystem grow. Once an individual consents to such a system, however, automatic transfer of money from one’s bank accounts will be affected, regardless of the reason for payment. This is different from auto debt deductions done by banks presently, as in the present system banks have other forms of collateral as well. The automatic deduction now is only affected if these other forms are defaulted upon. There is no knowledge as to whether this consent will be reversible or irreversible. As Jan Dhan Yojana accounts are zero balance accounts, the account holder will be bled dry. The implication of schemes such as “Loan in under 8 minutes” were also discussed. The advantage of such schemes is that transaction costs are reduced.The financial institution can thus grant loans for the minimum amount without any additional enquiries. It was pointed out that this new system is based on living on future income much like the US housing bubble crash. Interestingly, in Public Distribution Systems, biometrics are insisted upon even though it disrupts the system. This can be seen as a part of the larger infrastructure to ensure that digital post-dated cheques become a success.</p>
<h3 id="74">The Role of FinTech Apps</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">FinTech ‘apps’ are being presented with the aim of propagating financial inclusion. The Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects report stated that as managing such information sources is a big task, just like electricity utilities, a National Information Utilities (NIU) should be set up for data sources. These NIUs as per the report will follow a fee based model where they will be charging for their services for government schemes. The report identified two key NIUs namely the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN). The key usage that FinTech applications will serve is credit scoring. The traditional credit scoring data sources only comprised a thin file of records for an individual, but the data that FinTech apps collect - a person’s UID number, mobile number. and bank account number all linked up, allow for a far more comprehensive credit rating. Government departments are willing to share this data with FinTech apps as they are getting analysis in return. Thus, by using UID and the varied data sources that have been linked together by UID, a ‘thick file’ is now being created by FinTech apps. Banking apps have not yet gone down the route of FinTech apps to utilise Big Data for credit scoring purposes.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The two main problems with such apps is that there is no uniform way of credit scoring. This distorts the rate at which a person has to pay interest. The consent layer adds another layer of complication as refusal to share mobile data with a FinTech app may lead to the app declaring one to be a risky investment thus, subjecting that individual to a higher rate of interest .</p>
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<h3 id="75">Regulation of FinTech Apps and the UID Infrastructure</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> India Stack and the applications that are being built on it, generate a lot of transaction metadata that is very intimate in nature. The privacy aspects of the UID legislation doesn't cover such data. The granular consent layer which has been touted to cover this still has to come into existence. Also, Big Data is based on sharing and linking of data. Here, privacy concerns and Big Data objectives clash. Big Data by its very nature challenges privacy principles like data minimisation and purpose limitation.The need for regulation to cover the various new apps and infrastructure which are being developed was pointed out.</p>
<h2 id="8">Problems with UID</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">It has been observed that any problem present with Aadhaar is usually labelled as a teething problem, it’s claimed that it will be solved in the next 10 years. But, this begs the question - why is the system online right now?</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Aadhaar is essentially a new data condition and a new exclusion or inclusion criteria. Data exclusion modalities as observed in Rajasthan after the introduction of biometric Point of Service (POS) machines at ration shops was found to be 45% of the population availing PDS services. This number also includes those who were excluded from the database by being included in the wrong dataset. There is no information present to tell us how many actual duplicates and how many genuine ration card holders were weeded out/excluded by POS.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">It was also mentioned that any attempt to question Aadhaar is considered to be an attempt to go back to the manual system and this binary thinking needs to change. Big Data has the potential to benefit people, as has been evidenced by the scholarship and pension portals. However, Big Data’s problems arise in systems like PDS, where there is centralised exclusion at the level of the cloud. Moreover, the quantity problem present in the PDS and MNREGA systems persists. There is still the possibility of getting lesser grains and salary even with analysis of biometrics, hence proving that there are better technologies to tackle these problems. Presently, the accountability mechanisms are being weakened as the poor don’t know where to go to for redressal. Moreover, the mechanisms to check whether the people excluded are duplicates or not is not there. At the time of UID enrollment, out of 90 crores, 9 crore were rejected. There was no feedback or follow-up mechanism to figure out why are people being rejected. It was just assumed that they might have been duplicates.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Another problem is the rolling out of software without checking for inefficiencies or problems at a beta testing phase. The control of developers over this software, is so massive that it can be changed so easily without any accountability.. The decision making components of the software are all proprietary like in the the de-duplication algorithm being used by the UIDAI. Thus, this leads to a loss of accountability because the system itself is in flux, none of it is present in public domain and there are no means to analyse it in a transparent fashion..</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">These schemes are also being pushed through due to database politics. On a field study of NPR of citizens, another Big Data scheme, it was found that you are assumed to be an alien if you did not have the documents to prove that you are a citizen. Hence, unless you fulfill certain conditions of a database, you are excluded and are not eligible for the benefits that being on the database afford you.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Why is the private sector pushing for UIDAI and the surrounding ecosystem?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Financial institutions stand to gain from encouraging the UID as it encourages the credit culture and reduces transaction costs.. Another advantage for the private sector is perhaps the more obvious one, that is allows for efficient marketing of products and services..</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The above mentioned fears and challenges were actually observed on the ground and the same was shown through the medium of a case study in West Bengal on the smart meters being installed there by the state electricity utility. While the data coming in from these smart meters is being used to ensure that a more efficient system is developed,it is also being used as a surrogate for income mapping on the basis of electricity bills being paid. This helps companies profile neighbourhoods. The technical officer who first receives that data has complete control over it and he can easily misuse the data. This case study again shows that instruments like Aadhaar and India Stack are limited in their application and aren’t the panacea that they are portrayed to be.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">A participant pointed out that in the light of the above discussions, the aim appears to be to get all kinds of data, through any source, and once you have gotten the UID, you link all of this data to the UID number, and then use it in all the corporate schemes that are being started. Most of the problems associated with Big Data are being described as teething problems. The India Stack and FinTech scheme is coming in when we already know about the problems being faced by UID. The same problems will be faced by India Stack as well.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Can you opt out of the Aadhaar system and the surrounding ecosystem?</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The discussion then turned towards whether there can be voluntary opting out from Aadhaar. It was pointed out that the government has stated that you cannot opt out of Aadhaar. Further, the privacy principles in the UIDAI bill are ambiguously worded where individuals only have recourse for basic things like correction of your personal information. The enforcement mechanism present in the UIDAI Act is also severely deficient. There is no notification procedure if a data breach occurs. . The appellate body ‘Cyber Appellate Tribunal’ has not been set up in three years.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">CCTNS: Big Data and its Predictive Uses</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">What is Predictive Policing?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The next big Big Data case study was on the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS). Originally it was supposed to be a digitisation and interconnection scheme where police records would be digitised and police stations across the length and breadth of the country would be interconnected. But, in the last few years some police departments of states like Chandigarh, Delhi and Jharkhand have mooted the idea of moving on to predictive policing techniques. It envisages the use of existing statistical and actuarial techniques along with many other tropes of data to do so. It works in four ways: 1. By predicting the place and time where crimes might occur; 2. To predict potential future offenders; 3. To create profiles of past crimes in order to predict future crimes; 4. Predicting groups of individuals who are likely to be victims of future crimes.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">How is Predictive Policing done?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">To achieve this, the following process is followed: 1. Data collection from various sources which includes structured data like FIRs and unstructured data like call detail records, neighbourhood data, crime seasonal patterns etc. 2. Analysis by using theories like the near repeat theory, regression models on the basis of risk factors etc. 3. Intervention</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Flaws in Predictive Policing and questions of bias</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">An obvious weak point in the system is that if the initial data going into the system is wrong or biased, the analysis will also be wrong. Efforts are being made to detect such biases. An important way to do so will be by building data collection practices into the system that protect its accuracy. The historical data being entered into the system is carrying on the prejudices inherited from the British Raj and biases based on religion, caste, socio-economic background etc.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">One participant brought about the issue of data digitization in police stations, and the impact of this haphazard, unreliable data on a Big Data system. This coupled with paucity of data is bound to lead to arbitrary results. An effective example was that of black neighbourhoods in the USA. These are considered problematic and thus they are policed more, leading to a higher crime rate as they are arrested for doing things that white people in an affluent neighbourhood get away with. This in turn further perpetuates the crime rate and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. In India, such a phenomenon might easily develop in the case of migrants, de-notified tribes, Muslims etc. A counter-view on bias and discrimination was offered here. One participant pointed out that problems with haphazard or poor quality of data is not a colossal issue as private companies are willing to fill this void and are actually doing so in exchange for access to this raw data. It was also pointed out how bias by itself is being used as an all encompassing term. There are multiplicities of biases and while analysing the data, care should be taken to keep it in mind that one person’s bias and analysis might and usually does differ from another. Even after a computer has analysed the data, the data still falls into human hands for implementation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The issue of such databases being used to target particular communities on the basis of religion, race, caste, ethnicity among other parameters was raised. Questions about control and analysis of data were also discussed, i.e. whether it will be top-down with data analysis being done in state capitals or will this analysis be done at village and thana levels as well too. It was discussed as topointed out how this could play a major role in the success and possible persecutory treatment of citizens, as the policemen at both these levels will have different perceptions of what the data is saying. . It was further pointed out, that at the moment, there’s no clarity on the mode of implementation of Big Data policing systems. Police in the USA have been seen to rely on Big Data so much that they have been seen to become ‘data myopic’. For those who are on the bad side of Big Data, in the Indian context, laws like preventive detention can be heavily misused.There’s a very high chance that predictive policing due to the inherent biases in the system and the prejudices and inefficiency of the legal system will further suppress the already targeted sections of the society. A counterpoint was raised and it was suggested that contrary to our fears, CCTNS might lead to changes in our understanding and help us to overcome longstanding biases.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Open Knowledge Architecture as a solution to Big Data biases?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The conference then mulled over the use of ‘Open Knowledge’ architecture to see whether it can provide the solution to rid Big Data of its biases and inaccuracies if enough eyes are there. It was pointed out that Open Knowledge itself can’t provide foolproof protection against these biases as the people who make up the eyes themselves are predominantly male belonging to the affluent sections of the society and they themselves suffer from these biases.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Who exactly is Big Data supposed to serve?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The discussion also looked at questions such as who is this data for? Janata Information System (JIS), is a concept developed by MKSS where the data collected and generated by the government is taken to be for the common citizens. For e.g. MNREGA data should be used to serve the purposes of the labourers. The raw data as is available at the moment, usually cannot be used by the common man as it is so vast and full of information that is not useful for them at all. It was pointed out that while using Big Data for policy planning purposes, the actual string of information that turned out to be needed was very little but the task of unravelling this data for civil society purposes is humongous. By presenting the data in the right manner, the individual can be empowered. The importance of data presentation was also flagged. It was agreed upon that the content of the data should be for the labourer and not a MNC, as the MNC has the capability to utilise the raw data on it’s own regardless.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Concerns about Big Data usage</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Participants pointed out that privacy concerns are usually brushed under the table due to a belief that the law is sufficient or that the privacy battle has already been lost. </p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">In the absence of knowledge of domain and context, Big Data analysis is quite limited. Big Data’s accuracy and potential to solve problems needs to be factually backed.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The narrative of Big Data often rests on the assumption that descriptive statistics take over inferential statistics, thus eliminating the need for domain specific knowledge. It is claimed that the data is so big that it will describe everything that we need to know.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Big Data is creating a shift from a deductive model of scientific rigour to an inductive one. In response to this, a participant offered the idea that troves of good data allow us to make informed questions on the basis of which the deductive model will be formed. A hybrid approach combining both deductive and inductive might serve us best.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The need to collect the right data in the correct format, in the right place was also expressed.</p>
</li></ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Potential Research Questions & Participants’ Areas of Research</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Following this discussion, participants brainstormed to come up with potential areas of research and research questions. They have been captured below:</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Big Data, Aadhaar and India Stack:</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Has Aadhaar been able to tackle illegal ways of claiming services or are local negotiations and other methods still prevalent?</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Is the consent layer of India Stack being developed in a way that provides an opportunity to the UID user to give informed consent? The OpenPDS and its counterpart in the EU i.e. the My Data Structure were designed for countries with strong privacy laws. Importantly, they were meant for information shared on social media and not for an individual’s health or credit history. India is using it in a completely different sphere without strong data protection laws. What were the granular consent layer structures present in the West designed for and what were they supposed to protect?</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The question of ownership of data needs to be studied especially in context of a globalised world where MNCs are collecting copious amounts of data of Indian citizens. What is the interaction of private parties in this regard?</p>
</li></ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Big Data and Predictive Policing:</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">How are inequalities being created through the Big Data systems? Lessons should be taken from the Western experience with the advent of predictive policing and other big data techniques - they tend to lead to perpetuation of the current biases which are already ingrained in the system.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">It was also pointed out how while studying these topics and anything related to technology generally, we become aware of a divide that is present between the computational sciences and social sciences. This divide needs to be erased if Big Data or any kind of data is to be used efficiently. There should be a cross-pollination between different groups of academics. An example of this can be seen to be the ‘computational social sciences departments’ that have been coming up in the last 3-4 years.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Why are so many interim promises made by Big Data failing? A study of this phenomenon needs to be done from a social science perspective. This will allow one to look at it from a different angle.</p>
</li></ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Studying Big Data:</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">What is the historical context of the terms of reference being used for Big Data? The current Big Data debate in India is based on parameters set by the West. For better understanding of Big Data, it was suggested that P.C. Mahalanobis’ experience while conducting the Indian census, (which was the Big Data of that time) can be looked at to get a historical perspective on Big Data. This comparison might allow us to discover questions that are important in the Indian context. It was also suggested that rather than using ‘Big Data’ as a catchphrase to describe these new technological innovations, we need to be more discerning.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">What are the ideological aspects that must be considered while studying Big Data? What does the dialectical promise of technology mean? It was contended that every time there is a shift in technology, the zeitgeist of that period is extremely excited and there are claims that it will solve everything. There’s a need to study this dialectical promise and the social promise surrounding it.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Apart from the legitimate fears that Big Data might lead to exclusion, what are the possibilities in which it improve inclusion too?</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The diminishing barrier between the public and private self, which is a tangent to the larger public-private debate was mentioned.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">How does one distinguish between technology failure and process failure while studying Big Data? </p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Big Data: A Friend?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">In the concluding session, the fact that the Big Data moment cannot be wished away was acknowledged. The use of analytics and predictive modelling by the private sector is now commonplace and India has made a move towards a database state through UID and Digital India. The need for a nuanced debate, that does away with the false equivalence of being either a Big Data enthusiast or a luddite is crucial.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">A participant offered two approaches to solving a Big Data problem. The first was the Big Data due process framework which states that if a decision has been taken that impacts the rights of a citizen, it needs to be cross examined. The efficacy and practicality of such an approach is still not clear. The second, slightly paternalistic in nature, was the approach where Big Data problems would be solved at the data science level itself. This is much like the affirmative algorithmic approach which says that if in a particular dataset, the data for the minority community is not available then it should be artificially introduced in the dataset. It was also suggested that carefully calibrated free market competition can be used to regulate Big Data. For e.g. a private personal wallet company that charges higher, but does not share your data at all can be an example of such competition. </p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Another important observation was the need to understand Big Data in a Global South context and account for unique challenges that arise. While the convenience of Big Data is promising, its actual manifestation depends on externalities like connectivity, accurate and adequate data etc that must be studied in the Global South.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">While the promises of Big Data are encouraging, it is also important to examine its impacts and its interaction with people's rights. Regulatory solutions to mitigate the harms of big data while also reaping its benefits need to evolve.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/big-data-in-india-benefits-harms-and-human-rights-a-report'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/big-data-in-india-benefits-harms-and-human-rights-a-report</a>
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No publisherVidushi Marda, Akash Deep Singh and Geethanjali JujjavarapuHuman RightsUIDBig DataPrivacyArtificial IntelligenceInternet GovernanceMachine LearningFeaturedDigital IndiaAadhaarInformation TechnologyE-Governance2016-11-18T12:58:19ZBlog Entry