The Centre for Internet and Society
http://editors.cis-india.org
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Freedom of Expression or Access to Knowledge: Are We Taking the Necessary Steps Towards an Open and Inclusive Internet?
http://editors.cis-india.org/events/freedom-of-expression
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society is co-organising a workshop on Freedom of Expression or Access to Knowledge: Are We Taking the Necessary Steps Towards an Open and Inclusive Internet? at the Internet Governance Forum on </b>
<p>Although cyber-utopian visions have long been discredited, the promise that the Internet contains as a tool to work towards democratisation and greater social justice has not yet lost its attraction. This workshop will consider what kind of Internet architecture is needed, what kind of 'openness' and Internet 'freedom' is required to ensure that such visions can actually translate into reality. While the importance of freedom of expression has been fairly widely acknowledged, a concerted approach to many more Internet governance issue is urgently required if those who are at the forefront of struggles for social justice online are to continue to do their important work. The interplay between access to knowledge (including access to information and access to culture) on the one hand and human rights on the other, too, for example, requires our urgent attention.</p>
<p>The aim of this workshop will be, then, to come to a more in-depth and more rounded understanding of what issues impact the democratising potential of the Internet and how exactly they do so, so that we can also start communicating about these with greater clarity. To reach this aim, the workshop will bring together activists, researchers and other stakeholders with expertise on different regions of the world and, consequently, at times diverging opinions on what the problems and solutions with regard to Internet governance are, and will bring them in debate with each other.</p>
<p>The workshop will be organized in a roundtable format in order to increase the involvement of the participants. Initial remarks of the speakers will be followed by debate, and active moderation will ensure that the discussions are dynamic. The issues raised by the speakers will be grouped under several axes, including: (i) Civic empowerment online: towards a new public sphere?; (ii) governmental and private control over information and personal data; (iii) Cases of tension between copyright protection and access to knowledge online. Cases such as the adoption of laws following the three strikes model and the adoption of open data regulations will be taken into consideration.</p>
<p><strong>Which of the five broad IGF Themes or the Cross-Cutting Priorities does your workshop fall under?<br /></strong>Security, Openness and Privacy</p>
<p><strong>Have you organized an IGF workshop before?</strong> Yes<br /><strong>If so, please provide the link to the report</strong>:<br /><a class="external-link" href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=Workshopsreports2009View&curr=1&wr=94">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/index.php/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=Workshopsreports2009View&curr=1&wr=94</a></p>
<p><strong>Provide the names and affiliations of the panellists you are planning to invite:<br />Civil Society:</strong><br />Robert Guerra – Freedom House, US<br />Anja Kovacs – Centre for Internet and Society, India<br />Kevin Bankston – EFF, US</p>
<p>Academics:<br />Marília Maciel - Center for Technology and Society - Brazil <br />Jeremy Malcolm - Consumers International, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia</p>
<p>Government:<br />Johan Hallenborg – Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Sweden<br />José Murilo Junior – Brazilian Ministry of Culture, Brazil</p>
<p>Business sector:<br />Alan Davidson – Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs for the Americas<br />Cornelia Kutterer, Microsoft, Belgium</p>
<p>Multistakeholder initiative:<br />Susan Morgan, Global Network Initiative</p>
<p>Remote moderator: <br />Carlos Affonso Pereira de Souza - Center for Technology and Society, Getulio Vargas Foundation, Brazil</p>
<p>(A moderator is still to be determined but will be chosen from among the civil society and academic speakers. All speakers have confirmed their participation)</p>
<p><em>Biographies</em>:<br />There are no panelists biographies associated to this workshop at the moment.</p>
<p>Provide the name of the organizer(s) of the workshop and their affiliation to various stakeholder groups:<br />Carlos Affonso Pereira de Souza - Center for Technology and Society, Getulio Vargas Foundation – civil society<br />Johan Hallenborg, Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs - government<br />Anja Kovacs, Centre for Internet and Society - civil society<br />Jeremy Malcolm. Consumers International - civil society<br />Marília Maciel - Center for Technology and Society, Getulio Vargas Foundation – civil society</p>
<p><strong>Organization</strong>:Centre for Internet and Society, India, and Center for Technology and Society of the Getulio Vargas Foundation, Brazil</p>
<p><strong>Contact Persons</strong>: Anja Kovacs and Marília Maciel</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/events/freedom-of-expression'>http://editors.cis-india.org/events/freedom-of-expression</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet Governance2011-04-05T03:59:34ZEventDoes the Government want to enter our homes?
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/government-enter-homes
<b>When rogue politicians and bureaucrats are granted unrestricted access to information then the very future of democracy and free media will be in jeopardy. In an article published in the Pune Mirror on 10 August, 2010, Sunil Abraham examines this in light of the BlackBerry-to-BlackBerry messenger service that the Government of India plans to block if its makers do not allow the monitoring of messages. He says that civil society should rather resist and insist on suitable checks and balances like governmental transparency and a fair judicial oversight instead of allowing the government to intrude into the privacy and civil liberties of its citizens.</b>
<p><strong>What? Me worry about the blackberry imbroglio?</strong><br />If Pierre Trudeau were alive today, he would feel similarly about the Canadian innovation that is making news these days. But, given the Indian media's objective take on the ongoing BlackBerry tussle, one would assume that the media is unaffected.</p>
<p>Many internet observers say that the very future of democracy and free media is at stake. If rogue politicians and bureaucrats are able to eavesdrop on the communications of media houses, wouldn't that sound the death knell for sting operations, anonymous informants and whistle-blowers?</p>
<p>And, consequently, free press and democracy? How can the media keep its calm when one of the last bastions of electronic privacy in India is being stormed?</p>
<p><strong>Isn’t this a lost cause already?</strong><br />Perhaps, our reporters and editors have remained complacent, because they do not want to swim against the tide. After all, governments across the world have used excuses like cyber-terrorism, organised crime, pornography, piracy etc. to justify censorship and surveillance regimes. </p>
<p>The priveleged access that the governments of India, Saudi Arabia and UAE are demanding has already been provided to the governments of USA, Canada and Russia, for example.</p>
<p><strong>We don't know how much they know about us!</strong><br />The average reader might not be aware of the access that the Indian government has to his/her personal information. </p>
<p>To be clear, the Indian government, like most other governments, is able to intercept, decrypt, monitor and record sms and voice call traffic by working in partnership with ISP and Telecom operators.</p>
<p>This is legalised through ISP licence agreements, which requires ISPs to provide monitoring equipment that can be used to by various law enforcement and intelligence agencies. There is no clear policy on data-retention policies.</p>
<p>Industry insiders say that SMS messages, telephone call logs, email headers, and web requests are archived from anywhere between three months and a year.</p>
<p>Do these ISPs and telecom operators then delete, anonymise or obfuscate this data? Or do they they retain it for posterity for market research?</p>
<p>In the absence of a privacy law — the Indian citizen can only make intelligent guesses.</p>
<p><strong>Encryption is our friend</strong><br />As a student, when I passed a love note to my lady-love in class, I would use a symmetric key encryption scheme. </p>
<p>She would use the same key as I did to unencrypt the machine, ie, substituting the alphabet with the next/previous one.</p>
<p>If someone was able to intercept the key, then all communication between us in both directions would be compromised.</p>
<p>Asymmetric key encryption solves this problem by giving both parties two keys — a public key and a private key. I would use my lady-love’s public key to encrypt a message meant for her.</p>
<p>Only she would be able to unencrypt the message by using her private key. The size of the key — 40bit, 128bit, 256bit etc. determines the strength of the encryption.</p>
<p>The more bits you have, the longer it will take for someone to break through using a brute force method. The brute force method or dictionary method is when you try every single combination —just as you would with an old suitcase.</p>
<p>The time taken also depends on computing resources — whether you are a jealous boyfriend, or the FBI, or a corporation like Google. These days, governments depend on corporations for hardware and network muscle.</p>
<p><strong>How does Blackberry encrypt differently?</strong><br />Other smart phone providers like IPhone and Nokia make email and Internet traffic transparent to the ISP and telecom operator, making it easy for governments are able to keep track of Internet users on mobile phones just as they monitor dial-up or broadband users. </p>
<p>Most mobile services come with a basic encryption. Blackberry is different because it introduces an additional level of encryption, and then routes traffic either through corporate servers or through its own servers in Canada and other parts of the world.</p>
<p>The fact that information is routed thus can pose a threat to the Indian government, if officials are using Blackberries to exchange highly classified information.</p>
<p>Then, GoI could be worried if western intelligence agencies are eavesdropping.</p>
<p><strong>How will this end? Will Blackberry leave?</strong><br />Blackberry has never exited a country, because in the end it has prioritised consumer privacy over commercial compulsions. For example Blackberry has now ‘resolved’ security probwith Saudi Arabia. </p>
<p>I don’t think we should worry about deals or compromises. However, this is not to say that Blackberry should not be applauded.</p>
<p>They have taken a public stand against unrestricted governmental access to their clients’ information; one should always applaud corporates who fight hard for privacy and civil liberties.</p>
<p>What the Blackberry dilemma is showing us is the social cost of the electronic Big Brother will be steep, as it should be.</p>
<p>To protect citizens’ rights, civil society must resist and insist on suitable checks and balances like governmental transparency and fair judicial oversight.</p>
<p>Read the article in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.punemirror.in/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=2&contentid=2010081020100810224737834e2c8a329&sectxslt=">Pune Mirror</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/government-enter-homes'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/government-enter-homes</a>
</p>
No publishersunilInternet Governance2012-03-21T10:12:40ZBlog EntryUID Project in India - Some Possible Ramifications
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/uid-in-india
<b>Having a standard for decentralized ID verification rather than a centralized database that would more often than not be misused by various authorities will solve ID problems, writes Liliyan in this blog entry. These blog posts to be published in a series will voice the expert opinions of researchers and critics on the UID project and present its unique shortcomings to the reader.
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<p>Researchers at CIS have been grappling with the UID project from research, advocacy, and legal standpoints though all approach it from their own perspective and opinions are rarely duplicated. In an attempt to make their expert opinions more accessible to readers, a series of blog posts, this being the first, will be put up. These posts will not, and cannot because of its length and format, try to address all the possible issues the UID poses. However, they will present the bare bones of the arguments and research questions that the independent voices at CIS see as crucial. These posts will also ask many more questions than they answer, in an attempt to spur further dialogue about the UID project.</p>
<p>Central to understanding the nature of the UID project and its possible ramifications is the idea that technology is not merely a tool to be used by an unchanging, monolithic state. In fact, its very adoption can create ripple effects throughout the apparatus of the state. When the state adoptsa mainstream and ubiquitous technology, the structure of the government and methods of governance change. These changes are not always so dramatic as to be immediately noticeable without some informed inspection, but if one considers the way the state and the citizen interact the significance of these changes becomes starkly apparent. Can we trust the government to use touch screen voting machines like the ones we see every day at the bank? Do government surveillance cameras make us safer or introduce worrisome intrusion into our privacy, or both? Technology is not as neutral as it appears. That is not to say that it is inherently good or bad, but that it is not inert, it is transformative in nature.</p>
<p>The nation state as we know it is built on the printed word, or at least analogue technology. The ways in which we codify, distribute, and assimilate information have, for centuries, been dominated by the printing press. With the introduction of “database governance” there will inevitably be a shift, and a radical one at that. The Indian government has announced its intention to move towards “SMART” (simple, moral, accountable, responsive and transparent) governance, and this implies both an acceptance of the neo-liberal philosophy of government and techno-governance. To achieve a new level of transparency, accountability, and responsiveness, the move towards e-governance could be a major turning point, but how does this shift complicate and change the citizen-state relationship in India? How does this change shift the relationship of India with the rest of the international community?</p>
<h2>The UID and Shifts in the Citizen-State Relationship <br /></h2>
<p>One way that the citizen-state relationship will change with the shift towards techno-governance, specifically in regard to the UID project, is that the UID posits the state as both the safe-keeper and arbiter of identity. Proponents of the UID project are adamant that it is a voluntary program, but even the UID website states that “in time, certain service providers may require a person to have a UID to deliver services”. As the UID becomes increasingly ubiquitous, could not having a number mean being cut off from some or many of the basic privileges of citizenship if one's identity is becoming more difficult to verify? If having a UID number is the most prominent marker of identity, then it is through state definition, arbitration and upon the state's technical capacity that all will rely.</p>
<p>Moreover, how do we begin to address the privacy issues raised by technological advances in relation to non-changing legal structures? What does it mean to capture all this identity data without introducing a new privacy legislation to protect the citizen? Without new legal accommodation, otherwise benign processes like a statistical census can become a potent tool in a shift towards a police state. As state apparatus's shift, there must be some paradigmatic shift in law to accompany these new technologies and government roles.</p>
<p>If the state transforms through the integration of e-governance forms, then there will inevitably be a recalibration of the relationship between the state, the market, and the citizen. Traditionally the separation of these entities creates arbitration and within a development paradigm there is dynamic, active triangulation. One way we can see this triangulation is through government intervention in markets on behalf of the citizen. There are certain spaces of consumption, for example, such as a cinema where state intervention against discrimination creates a marker for citizenship. That is, because I am able to access a cinema without discrimination, as one of my constitutional rights, this demonstrates my citizenship. However, with the introduction of public- private partnerships, or PPPs, the fact of having multiple stake-holders of political economy allows for the state to disinvest in the production and delivery of certain public services. Satisfying the needs of the citizen for services like sanitation, public education, delivery of power and clean water, maintenance of infrastructure like roads and bridges, can be handed over to corporate entities. The Indian government has enthusiastically embraced PPPs as a way to bring needed capital to the infrastructure demands that accompany their economic growth goals. However, how does this kind of task delegation affect transparency and accountability? If the state decides to stop producing or supplying a good or service, and instead turns this over to a corporation, can the mechanisms for state oversight realistically be trusted to make sure quality and accountability are not adversely affected and rectify the situation if they are? Where does the citizen come into all of this, in terms of what they stand to gain and lose? </p>
<h2>The Definition of Citizenship and the UID <br /></h2>
<p>As the state and the market enters into new relationships the definition of citizenship changes. If the citizen is seen as the intended beneficiary of state programs, this new relationship between state and market begs the question “Who is subject to (or the subject of) the state?” When the corporate sphere creates micro-financing that helps farmers, they may help the people at the bottom of the economic pyramid manage their debt, but does it necessarily address the problems that created the debt in the first place? How does the market mediate the citizen-state dialogue? As the state and the market enter into new relationships there is a recalibration of the citizen-government relationship. Do market demands for an e-literate consumer put pressure on the state to create one where one did not exist before, and if so, can this not have profound implications for the definition of citizenship?</p>
<p>Part of the movement towards e-governance is signalled by the fact that there has been a shift away from state-sponsored literacy campaigns to e-literacy programs. Does this use of information and communications technology for development (or ITC4D) alienate significant portions of the population? Can such programs in fact widen the digital divide? With the introduction of e-governance the state asks the citizen to participate in governance by creating new avenues for civic participation, such as providing databases of information pertaining to the state that is freely accessible for analysis and manipulation by anyone with the skills to do so. But, if this makes it impossible for some portions of the citizenry to communicate effectively with the state, does this run the risk of making certain, traditional forms of citizenship redundant? How are people with low literacy and little or no access to the necessary technologies supposed to communicate with this new high-tech bureaucracy? Will those who cannot navigate the new systems be inadvertently relegated to second-class status?</p>
<p>This is of particular concern when thinking about the UID project. To properly manage and distribute social services, ID management in some form is crucial. However, when trying to make sure services are properly delivered to the uneducated poor the danger for digital-analogue slippage that is not in their favour increases, and accountability is not necessarily adequately addressed. For example, if I am an illiterate farmer entitled to a certain ration and the person conducting the transaction decides to defraud me, they can easily ask me to authenticate my biometrics, make it appear that they have been simply checking my identity when they have actually fooled me into authenticating the “completed” transaction and simply tell me the computer says, I've already received my share, that I'm only entitled to half of the normal amount, or some other such lie. In this scenario, how would I know this person wasn't telling me the truth? If they lie using a simple ledger, I can take the ledger itself or a copy of it to a literate friend and have them help me navigate the situation. I can seek redress and substantiate my claims more easily if I am not alienated by the technologies being used. Technologies can be empowering or dis-empowering depending on their application. How then, do we balance the demands of the market and the duties of the state against the rights of the citizen? Or rather, how do we apply technology in such a way that the demands of the market and the duties of the state mutually balance each other? </p>
<h2>Centralization and Cost-effectiveness of the UID <br /></h2>
<p>While ID management is indisputably important, it does not require a centralized database. In the US there are multiple pieces of information, stored in separate databases that can be used to authenticate a transaction. No one can open a bank account with just a social security insurance number. You also need a separate form of ID, often two, that can be used to verify identity. In this way, the SSI number is a bit like a “username” and the other forms of ID, driver's license or passport, function like a corresponding “password”. With the UID project, however, the “username” (the number itself) and the “password” (the number holder's biometrics) are stored in the same place. Thereby, should the database be in some way compromised, all the information needed to verify and complete transactions would be available. If storing this information in a central database is really a good idea, then one must also accept the premise that merging all existing email servers into one monolithic server is also a good idea. Furthermore, centralization is not only more dangerous, it is totally unnecessary. Trillions of dollars worth of trade take place every year using PIN numbers issued by banks and verified without the verifying data being centralized. Having a standard for decentralized ID verification, rather than a centralized database would solve ID problems without creating a database that would be vulnerable to attack. </p>
<p>There are lots of examples of governments implementing costly safety measures that don't actually make anyone safer. Take for example the cameras put up all over London to monitor the movements of people. Unfortunately, something as low-tech as a hooded sweatshirt can thwart these attempts at surveillance. Moreover, if I am a criminal, I am going to make it a priority to know where the cameras are so that I can strategically avoid them. Another example is the millions of dollar the U.S. government spent on putting an armed Federal Air Marshal on every flight, post 9/11. While traditional intelligence gather has thwarted other attempted attacks since 9/11, Air Marshals have not been responsible for stopping any. Simply because the UID project is more technologically advanced does not make it more effective. It seems to greatly increase the risk of fraud that there can be so many separate biometrics machines scattered in different places to verify so many transactions. Having the machines sequestered in private businesses where they will not be constantly monitored or regulated seems to be both costly and easily subject to tampering. It seems to make more sense to have, say, one central, monitored machine per so many people that could be used to settle identity disputes when they arise rather than making the technology a part of every transaction.</p>
<h2>Infallibility and Circumvention of the UID <br /></h2>
<p>The UID is not infallible and circumvention will certainly be a problem with the project. We find an analogy in the field of digital rights management. If I copy an mp3 without permission or payment, that is illegal. Digital rights management law was introduced to stop this practice, but it was circumvented. This legislation has not stopped the first crime. It has merely created a second, that of circumventing the law. The UID, in so far as it may be used to try to stop the crime of illegally siphoning resources such as, for example, grain intended to go to the poor, cannot stop people from circumventing the system. Circumventing the UID will be a crime. If doing so were truly impossible there would be no need to criminalize it. So, instead of preventing the initial crime of siphoning may not prevent the first crime, while introducing another. </p>
<p>There are basically two possible types of circumvention that are possible, though they might present themselves in various different forms. “Type A” or “the Mission Impossible” kind of fraud might involve fake thumb prints and contact lenses being worn by someone trying to fool the person conducting the biometric authentication. “Type B” occurs when the person operating the biometrics machine is working to defraud the system, most likely with one or many accomplices.</p>
<p>“Type A” involves one dishonest person, who is trying to access someone else's account or a ghost account, and there are various proposed methods to prevent against this type of fraud. To prevent against people using fake thumb prints, the biometrics machines will measure the heat of the thumb as well as the image of the thumb. With the iris scan, there will be a pulse of light to cause contraction in the iris so that a contact lens, which cannot adjust for light, can be detected. All of this will drastically raise the price of the machines in question. It is hard to imagine farmers and labourers defrauding the system with elaborate biometric defrauding devices, so these expensive machines are much more appropriate for monitoring the top of the economic pyramid, who steal in larger sums and have more sophisticated technology at their disposal.</p>
<p>“Type B” involves dishonesty either by the person in control of the biometric authentication, or both that person and others. This seems to be a much more likely and problematic scenario. Right now, bank accounts that are not connected to a name are regularly created so that people can cheat the tax man. Since the bank profits from these accounts, it's in the bank's interest to help people set up such accounts. Ghost ID numbers, and things like bank accounts that are connected to them, can still be produced with biometrics. How is this possible? Well, to make it possible for so many biometric authentications to happen every day, the whole set of ten finger prints won't be sent. That would be way too much data. So, instead of overwhelming the channels, only one thumb print will be sent. Even that many thumb prints would be an information overload, so each thumb print's image will be reduced to a set of 30 data points that will be compared against the original scans. So, where is there a possibility for fraud? When the scan of the finger is taken, and image is rendered. If someone wants to create a ghost ID they only have to manipulate this image, like with a Photoshop filter, and alter the data points. Once I've created a set of biometric markers that doesn't connect to anyone, I can conduct transactions for a ghost. One can easily imagine a market emerging for ghost IDs. People might start trying to pay foreign tourists for their biometric information, which could be sold to a local office. There are certain settings where biometrics works well, for example, at an airport. There, everything is under constant video surveillance. If someone were to tamper with or try to replace the machinery it would be quickly noticed by the cameras. Even if it weren't, different people would routinely be operating the same machine and this would be an added safe guard against fraud. However, at a bank, or any place where the machines used for verification are operated behind closed doors it is quite likely that the technology will be abused. This abuse could easily go unnoticed, because the draft UID bill has proposed strict accountability measures for the Authority, and has conveniently overlooked extending these to collecting and enrolling agencies.</p>
<h2>Digital/Analogue Slippage</h2>
<p>There is always the possibility of digital/analogue slippage or, more simply put, the computer records not reflecting what actually happened even if no fake identity was used. This happens all the time in IT buildings in the form of tailgating. Four people go out to lunch together and as they re-enter the building they're supposed to each swipe their ID card individually. It is easier and faster for one person to swipe for everyone so, despite signs discouraging this behaviour, this is a common occurrence. If you were to try to analyse the data collected after a day of such comings and goings it would be indecipherable. </p>
<p>I can also authenticate my biometrics, in order to authorize a transaction, without the transaction actually being complete. Let's say I'm a poor farmer entitled to a ration of 10 kilos of grain. The person who is supposed to give me the grain is not an honest person and insists that I authenticate the transaction before he or she gives me my ration. I do what I'm told but only receive 5 kilos. The computer record shows that I have gotten my full ration, so I have no grounds to contest. In this scenario, more complex technology does not necessarily mean greater accountability. Furthermore, even if I am illiterate, if there is a simple ledger that has recorded the transaction, I can physically take the ledger or a copy of it and show it to some literate person willing to help me. If the only record of the transaction is in a database that I can't access or can't understand it will be even more difficult for me to seek help. Moreover, if I don't understand the technology and the shop owner decides not to give me the grain at all they can simply say “Oh, I'm sorry, your account has been denied” or “The computer says you've already been given your ration” and I have little chance of successfully negotiating that situation. Built in to this example is the disadvantage that the illiterate and the computer illiterate face when dealing with this technology but, this is not necessarily always present in cases where digital/analogue slippage causes confusion or complication.</p>
<p>Commonly, things are bought by or registered to one person and used by another. For example, in a small office building, all the phone lines and computers may have been bought in the name of one person. Each office worker will not buy their own computer or equipment, but instead the computers will be bought in the name of the person who runs the organization or an administrator with financial authority. If someone in the office uses their computer to make a bomb or store child pornography, who is accountable? This is the problem when there is digital/analogue slippage. There is the digital record of events and then things as they really are, which are not always identical, and there is no accountability or safeguard against mistake. In the context of the UID, the possibility of such slippage is too high, and will work against the goal of delivering benefits to the poor instead of facilitating it.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/uid-in-india'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/uid-in-india</a>
</p>
No publisherLiliyanInternet Governance2012-03-21T10:13:27ZBlog EntryCall, text, email complaint against rogue auto driver
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/complaint-against-rogue-auto-driver
<b>Harassed by an auto driver? Helplines give you no relief? Here's the people's way to help you out. Just report your issue online, call or even SMS sitting in a noisy restaurant, and be heard.
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<p>Right from drivers with no proper identity cards, to those refusing to ply or those who attempt sexual assault enroute, you can report them all to a team of volunteers who manage a complaint book 24x7. There is also a map online, where you can pinpoint the exact place, time and even upload videos or photographs taken on the spot.<br /><br />This complaint management system, recently launched by Kiirti (part of the Centre for Internet and Society) is an attempt to help tackle the cases of auto menace in the city. "It's quite like the Fix My Street initiative of the West. This is for the people and maintained by the people. What makes it different from the existing helpline mechanism in Bangalore is that there is better transparency and more options given to people on how they can file their complaint 24x7,'' explains Sudha Nair, project community manager for Kiirti in India.<br /><br />All the complaints received will be scrutinised and verified by a backend support team of volunteers and then sent across to the department concerned for action. Besides, the complainant will be able to check the status of the complaint.<br /><br />"Recently, in The Times of India, we read about the sad state of the official helplines provided by the transport department. There is no transparency in it nor is it available all the time, so we decided to launch this system. We are only working as a catalyst. The portal can also be effectively used by various RWAs to help check the problem in their area,'' Sudha added. Various NGOs like Janaagraha, Environment Support Group, Public Affairs Centre and Children's Movement for Civic Action have also come forward to support this initiative.</p>
<p>Read the original in the <a class="external-link" href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Call-text-email-complaint-against-rogue-auto-driver/articleshow/6253847.cms">Times of India</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/complaint-against-rogue-auto-driver'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/complaint-against-rogue-auto-driver</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaInternet Governance2011-04-02T10:45:39ZNews ItemDigital Activism and Online Advocacy: Experiences from the Tibetan Freedom Movement – A Talk by Shibayan Raha
http://editors.cis-india.org/events/talk-by-shibayan-raha
<b>A talk on the role of digital activism, online advocacy and use of social media in the Tibetan freedom struggle by Shibayan Raha at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore on 9 August, 2010.</b>
<p><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Shibayan.jpg/image_preview" alt="Shibayan Raha" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Shibayan Raha" /></p>
<p>The Tibetan freedom movement began in the 1950’s when it started its campaign to highlight the sufferings of the Tibetan community under the Chinese regime through conventional means. Today the movement has come a long way in that it engages the Chinese Government on every possible world stage including the online world. Online advocacy and digital activism forms an integral part of this movement as is reflected from the use of advanced e-mailing servers and social media as an activism tool to mobilise people online and press international bodies to extend support for the movement.</p>
<p>Shibayan Raha, a young activist, will talk on the role of digital activism, online advocacy and the use of social media to further the cause of the Tibetan freedom movement.</p>
<h3>About Shibayan Raha</h3>
<p>Shibayan Raha is the grassroots co-coordinator for ‘Students for a Free Tibet, India’. A native of Kolkata, he did various odd jobs in his hometown before devoting himself to social work, particularly the Tibetan freedom struggle, five years ago. As a grassroots co-coordinator, he takes the Tibetan issue to the youngsters and gathers more people to join the movement. He has been imprisoned thrice, twice in Tihar jail and once in the Colaba police station. Further, he has also been involved in other areas like the Bhopal gas leak tragedy, the Burmese issue and AFSPA.</p>
<p>VIDEO</p>
<iframe src="http://blip.tv/play/AYLTqjcA.html" frameborder="0" height="250" width="250"></iframe><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://a.blip.tv/api.swf#AYLTqjcA" style="display:none"></embed>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/events/talk-by-shibayan-raha'>http://editors.cis-india.org/events/talk-by-shibayan-raha</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet Governance2011-09-23T05:46:27ZEventCivil Liberties and the amended Information Technology Act, 2000
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/information-technology-act
<b>This post examines certain limitations of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (as amended in 2008). Malavika Jayaram points out the fact that when most countries of the world are adopting plain English instead of the conventional legal terminology for better understanding, India seems to be stuck in the old-fashioned method thereby, struggling to maintain a balance between clarity and flexibility in drafting its laws. The present Act, she says, is although an improvement over the old Act and seeks to address and improve on certain areas in the right direction but still comes up short in making necessary changes when it comes to fundamental rights and personal liberties. The new Act retains elements from the previous one making it an abnormal document and this could have been averted if there had been some attention to detail. </b>
<p>After close to a decade of dealing with English statutes, European directives and pan-European regulations, I was struck anew by the antique style of Indian draftsmanship on my return. Much of the world is moving away from stiff legal speech and towards plain English. Even England has converted to a simpler, more concise legal rhetoric. India, however, has a peculiar genius for imprecision and euphemism that makes the purpose and implications of the law hard to understand and apply. While it may seem quaint, to pepper a law with terms like ‘inconvenience’, ‘nuisance’ or ‘annoyance’, the language fails to convey the seriousness of the offences being defined. A reading of the Information Technology Act, 2008, in its new incarnation incorporating the latest amendments and rules (ITA), is a case in point.</p>
<p>Legal draftsmen inevitably wrestle with the age-old dilemma of the generic versus the specific, the potential dangers of a broad definition versus the built-in obsolescence of a narrow spotlight. The crafters of the ITA, in their admittedly admirable attempts to redress some of the gaps and ambiguity in the original law, appear to have struggled in their efforts to strike a balance between clarity and flexibility. While the new avatar is certainly an improvement in some areas, one can’t help but regret the missed opportunity to make necessary changes. Most importantly is the negative impact of the occasionally sloppy and sometimes overly wide drafting on deeply cherished fundamental rights and personal liberties.</p>
<p>Among other things, the ITA has sought to address and improve aspects such as technology neutrality, data protection, phishing and spam, child pornography, the liability of intermediaries and cyber terrorism. While many of these amendments are a step in the right direction, the actual drafting that implements the high level objectives suffers in many respects. For example, the previous emphasis on ‘digital signatures’ has shifted to the technologically neutral ‘electronic signatures’ but the changes have not been carried out thoroughly enough to expunge the old concept entirely. The current law is a bit of an abnormal document in that it contains elements of both concepts, which some attention to detail could easily have averted. Another example is that the provisions meant to combat spam and phishing end up using the dreaded ‘annoyance’ and ‘inconvenience’ terminology with the effect of casting the net of criminality over far more than is appropriate. For example, mail sent with the purpose of causing ‘annoyance’ or ‘inconvenience’ (not exactly the worst offence in the offline world) could put someone behind bars.</p>
<p>An important set of well intentioned but woefully inadequate provisions are those relating to the protection of data. The absence of a specific law on data protection had, in itself, garnered much criticism both within the country as well as in the context of international transactions and outsourcing. The old Act offered the feeble protection of a single provision (section 43) that dealt with unauthorised access and damage to data. In an attempt to meet industry demands and international market standards, the ITA introduced two sections that address civil and criminal sanctions. While this exercise understandably falls far short of a comprehensive law relating to data (being squeezed into an omnibus piece of technology related legislation, rather than one geared up only to deal with data), there was considerable anticipation of its role in papering over the existing cracks and provide a workable, if temporary, data protection regime.</p>
<p>However, the attempt is such a limited one, and so replete with shortcomings that the need for a ‘proper’ data protection law still stands. Given the proposed initiation of the UID scheme, in particular, there is a compelling need for a robust and intelligent law in this regard. Most other countries’ regimes clearly do at least the following:</p>
<ul><li>define and classify types of data (for example, in most European countries, ‘personal data’ is any data that identifies an individual, ‘sensitive personal data’ is data that reveals details of ethnicity, religion, health, sexuality, political opinion, etc.),</li><li>fine-tune the nature of protection to the categories of data (i.e., greater standards of care around sensitive personal data), </li><li>apply equally to data stored offline and manually as to data stored on computer systems, </li><li>distinguish between a data controller (i.e., one who takes decisions as to data) and a data processor (i.e., one who processes data on the instructions of the data controller), </li><li>impose clear restrictions on the manner of data collection (for example, must be obtained fairly and lawfully),</li><li>give clear guidelines on the purposes for which that data can be put to and by whom (often involving a consent requirement that gives the individual a great degree of control over their data),</li><li>require certain standards and technical measures around the collection, storage, access to, protection, retention and destruction of data, </li><li>ensure that the use of data is adequate, relevant and not excessive given the purpose for which it was gathered,</li><li>cater for opt-in and opt-out type regimes, again to provide individuals with a measure of control over the use of their data even after the stage of initial collection (which has a huge impact on invasive telemarketing or unsolicited written communication)</li><li>impose a knowledge requirement and procedures for allowing individuals to seek information on what data is held on them, and</li><li>create safeguards and penalties that are well tailored to breaches of any of the above.<br /></li></ul>
<p>Unfortunately, and perhaps understandably, the ITA barely begins to scratch the surface of what a good data protection regime entails. The provisions that it does introduce (sections 43-A and 72-A) have glaring inadequacies. Briefly:</p>
<ul><li>the term ‘sensitive personal data or information’ is used indiscriminately without any definition,</li><li>the provisions only cover electronic data and records, not data stored in non-electronic systems or media,</li><li>they offer no guidance on most of the principles set out above such as in relation to accuracy, adequacy, consent, purpose, etc.,</li><li>in the absence of the controller-processor distinction, liability is imposed on persons, who are not necessarily in a position to control data, even if it is in their possession,</li><li>civil liability for data breaches only arises where ‘negligence’ is involved (i.e., failure to have security procedures or failure to implement them correctly will not automatically result in damages unless negligence is proven),</li><li>similarly, criminal liability only applies to cases of information obtained in the context of a service contract, and requires an element of ‘wilfulness’, or a disclosure without consent or in breach of a lawful contract – this is a very limited remit aimed largely at preventing disgruntled or unscrupulous employees from dealing in company/customer data.</li></ul>
<p>For these broad reasons, we can see that even the amended ITA disappoints those who expected a greatly improved regime in relation to data. It is widely anticipated that the UID scheme, which poses so many potential data protection issues, will serve as a catalyst for a standalone law that is on par with the more sophisticated regimes that function very well in other countries. One great feature common to most of those regimes is that they are consumer/individual focused. The freedom and privacy of the individual is the central concern of protection. Our ITA seems far more concerned with providing corporates with a stick to beat errant employees with, and with catering to the needs of the outsourcing and IT industries. It remains to be seen whether the UID scheme will merely galvanise some targeted legal action covering UIDs rather than generating a broad based piece of legislation. </p>
<p>In addition to the criticisms levelled at the data protection provisions, the other large subset of concerns has been in relation to the civil liberties implications of the ITA. There has been some horror expressed in various forums and media about the ITA contributing to the growth of a police state, to severe curtailment of the freedom of speech and expression, to the invasion of privacy, and to the disproportionate severity of penalisation for offences that are placed on crimes committed in cyberspace compared to crimes committed in the hear and now. Sadly, this is true to a large extent given the clunky treatment of ‘cyber terrorism’, the intolerable pre-censorship that is enabled by the blocking of websites, the broad approach to the monitoring and collection of data, and the demanding obligations of intermediaries to cooperate with interception, monitoring and decryption of data for poorly defined reasons.</p>
<p>While our Constitution’s fundamental rights chapter, which enshrines certain basic, democratic, and profound rights, might not have the same vocabulary of due process as we see in the US, it nevertheless requires restrictions to be reasonable. Precedents and the wider jurisprudence in the field have further developed the concepts of checks and balances, procedural safeguards and legitimacy of restraints that a functioning democracy like India must accord to its people. It can be argued that several provisions of the ITA cause significant tension with the right to freedom of speech and expression, the right against self-incrimination, the right to equality before the law, and the right to practice a trade or profession. To briefly deal with the worst offenders in the IT Act, I have divided them into some broader topics:</p>
<p><strong>Pre-censorship</strong></p>
<p>Some of the most excessive provisions relate to the free hand with which public access to websites can be blocked. Previously, there was some hope that the rules yet to be formulated in connection with section 69-A would offer some procedural safeguards. The recently notified rules do contain details – in the bureaucratese that we have come to expect – of the process to be followed by the designated functionaries. They also permit the concerned person or intermediary to submit a reply and clarifications to the committee before the decision to block access is taken.</p>
<p>These rules are to a large extent undermined by rule 9 (“Blocking of information in cases of emergency”), which provides that, “…<em>in any case of an emergency nature, for which no delay is acceptable</em>…”, the process will turn into an internal escalation within the department of IT and interim directions relating to blocking access may be issued <em>without giving (him) an opportunity of hearing</em>. There are those who think that, given the events of 26/11, this is wholly justified but the prospect of abuse fills others with dread. The rules may offer detailed time-frames within which orders are made and approved, require reasons to be recorded in writing, provide that emergency orders may be revoked and information unblocked, etc. Regardless, the nature of the process (executive rather than judicial), the ease with which it can be abused, and the fact that the review committee will only meet once in two months to check for compliance, set aside incorrect orders and unblock information, does not offer much comfort. If a site is incorrectly blocked, it could take up to two months for this to be rectified, which could cause a great damage to the owner of the site, and indeed to the wider public that has an interest in uncensored, free speech. </p>
<p>Given that any person can submit a request, it is not unreasonable to anticipate a certain level of frivolous and malicious requests for blocking sites, especially given that the grounds for blocking are very wide (the often repeated set that we are familiar with, namely, in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India; relating to defence of India/ security of State/ friendly relations with foreign states/ public order and for preventing incitement to commission of any cognizable offences). Without a review committee constantly monitoring and policing the unbridled use of the provisions, the backlog of blocking decisions that may need to be reversed can become a mountain very quickly. The dangers of pre-censorship and the curtailment of dialogue, debate and free speech are even greater in a country with an increasingly thin-skinned populace. Faced with a volatile backdrop of great diversity of religion, political opinions, views on sexuality, morality, obscenity and other highly subjective values and beliefs, there is immense extra-legal pressure on free speech. Thus, there is now a need for greater vigilance so that the thought police do not wield the stick of harsh penalties under the ITA without reason and due process.</p>
<p><strong>Privacy and surveillance</strong></p>
<p>This topic pulls together concerns around the blanket monitoring and collecting of traffic data or information, the interception and decryption (under duress) by intermediaries (now a large superset of ISPs, search engines, cyber cafes, online auction sites, online market places, etc.) and the wide definition of ‘cyber terrorism’ (which ludicrously even casts defamation as a terrorist activity).</p>
<p>Some of the broad concerns in relation to interception, monitoring and decryption in (section 69) are that:</p>
<ul><li>there is no provision for a clear nexus between an intermediary and the information or resource sought to be monitored or intercepted,</li><li>the usual internationally recognised exception to liability where an intermediary operates purely as a conduit and has no control over data flowing through its network is not clearly spelt out,</li><li>the penalties for non-cooperation are extremely harsh, especially given the absence of a) and b) above,</li><li>these onerous penalties can be said to be in violation of Article 14 as they seem entirely disproportionate. Similar offences and remedies in the Code of Criminal Procedure or the Indian Penal Code prescribe less severe penalties, by an order of magnitude in fact. When the only difference between the offences is the medium in which information is contained, it seems arbitrary to impose a much harsher punishment on an online intermediary than on a member of the public who, for example, furnishes false information to the police in connection with a trial or enquiry.</li><li>the rules made in relation to monitoring, interception and decryption, offer some procedural safeguards, in that they impose a time limit on how long a directive for interception or monitoring can remain in force, a ceiling on how long data can be kept before it is required to be destroyed, etc. However, the effect of these is greatly diluted by exceptions “for functional requirements”, etc. The astonishing irony is that rule 20 requires the intermediary to maintain “…<em>extreme secrecy</em>…” and “…<em>utmost care and precaution</em>…” in the matter of interception, monitoring or decryption of information “…<em>as it affects the privacy of citizens</em>…”!!!!</li></ul>
<p>In a similar vein, there are concerns around the monitoring and collection of traffic data (section 69B) as the section contains an unreasonably long list of grounds for monitoring. These include such extreme excesses as “forecasting of imminent cyber incidents”, “monitoring network application with traffic data or information on computer resource”, “identification and determination of viruses/computer contaminant”, and the catch-all “any other matter relating to cyber security”.</p>
<p>Finally, the main criticism of the ITA approach to ‘cyber terrorism’ is the very wide net that it seeks to cast, looking for a game that has little or nothing to do with the named offence. Amongst the cast of creatures unwittingly caught during this fishing expedition, we find some unlikely victims. In addition to the usual grounds of offence against sovereignty, national security, defence of India, etc., which we have seen in relation to other sections, the ITA considers the following as acts of cyber terrorism – broadly speaking, unauthorised access to information that is likely to cause:</p>
<ul><li>injury to decency,</li><li>injury to morality,</li><li>injury in relation to contempt of court, and</li><li>injury in relation to defamation.<br /></li></ul>
<p>This would almost be laughable if these grounds were not enacted unto law, posing a threat to civil liberties by their very existence. Other countries have some notion of political ideology, religious case, etc. in their view of terrorism. That (a) to (d) above have been shoehorned into a clause that imposes the stiffest penalty within the entire ITA (life imprisonment) gives even more cause for concern.</p>
<p>In closing, I should reiterate that the ITA includes other deficiencies and worthwhile improvements alike, but an article focusing largely on the data protection and civil liberties aspects cannot reference them all.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/information-technology-act'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/information-technology-act</a>
</p>
No publisherMalavika JayaramIT ActInternet Governance2012-03-21T10:13:53ZBlog EntryFeedback to the NIA Bill
http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-feedback-to-nia-bill
<b>Malavika Jayaram and Elonnai Hickok introduce the formal submission of CIS to the proposed National Identification Authority of India (NIA) Bill, 2010, which would give every resident a unique identity. The submissions contain the detailed comments on the draft bill and the high level summary of concerns with the NIA Bill submitted to the UIDAI on 13 July, 2010.</b>
<p>The UID draft bill is a proposed legislation that authorizes the creation of a centralized database of unique identification numbers that will be issued to every resident of India. The purpose of such a database is characterized as ensuring that every resident is provided services and benefits. The UID project was first set up and introduced to the public in February 2009 by the planning committee. In June 2010, a draft bill was proposed which attracted public debates and opinions for over two weeks. Currently the bill is being considered by Parliament in the winter session (July-August 2010). If the Parliament of India approves the bill, it may be enacted during Winter 2010.</p>
<p>CIS has closely followed the UID project and reviewed the bill right from the time when it was first issued. and has worked to initiate and contribute to a public debate including attending of workshops in Delhi on 6 May, 2010 and in Bangalore on 16 May, 2010.</p>
<p>We respect the fact that civil society has many voices. That said, in our criticisms, suggestions, and analysis of the UID draft bill, we are asking for a simple, well-defined document, the language and structure of which expressly precludes abuse of a centralized identification database. The document should provide solely for its stated purpose of enabling the provision of benefits to the poor. Along with this mandate we believe the document should give clear rights of choice, control, and privacy to the <em>Aadhaar</em> number holder. Below is a summary of our general comments with citations to specific sections of the draft bill. A <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/letter-to-uid-authority" class="internal-link" title="Feedback on the NIA Bill 2010">detailed</a> section by section critique is attached along with our <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/high-level-summary" class="internal-link" title="High Level Summary">high level summary</a> of concerns. The compilation and synthesis of detailed critiques was done by Malavika Jayaram.</p>
<h2>Summary of High Concerns </h2>
<h3>Clarity of Definition and Purpose</h3>
<p>Most importantly we find that in order to adhere to the stated purpose of the bill there is a need to limit and better define language in the relevant sections of the bill. This includes the powers and purpose of the Authority and the overarching scheme of the bill. We are concerned that the over-breadth and generality of the language will open up the opportunity for more information to be collected than originally stated. Further, definition will act to prevent uncontrolled or unwanted change in the project’s scope, and will clearly limit the usage of the <em>Aadhaar</em> numbers to the facilitation of the delivery of social welfare programs.<br /><br />For the bill to be in line with its original purpose of reaching out to the poor, we also believe the issue of fees must be addressed. We find that there is an inadequate definition in the bill of what fees shall be applied for authentication of <em>Aadhaar</em> numbers. Also we find that it is incompatible with the bill’s stated purpose to require an individual to pay to be authenticated. The bill should provide that no charges will be levied for authentication by registrars and other service providers for certain categories of <em>Aadhaar</em> number holders (BPL, disabled, etc.), and that charges will be limited/capped in other cases. This will bring the bill in line with the statement in Chapter II 3 (1) “Every resident shall be entitled to obtain an <em>Aadhaar</em> number on providing his demographic information and biometric information to the Authority in such a manner as may be specified by regulations” and Chapter 3 (10 ) “The Authority shall take special measures to issue <em>Aadhaar</em> numbers to women, children, senior citizens, persons with disability, migrant unskilled and unorganized workers, nomadic tribes or such other persons who do not have any permanent dwelling house and such other categories of individuals as may be specified by regulations. If a fee must be permitted, a cap/safeguard should be put in place to ensure that the fee does not become a mechanism of abuse.</p>
<h3>Protection of the Citizen</h3>
<p>The bill should ensure the protection of citizens’ rights to privacy and freedom of choice. To do this it is important that the bill is voluntary, allows for the protection of anonymity, and is clear on how data will be collected, stored and deleted. Measures should be taken towards ensuring that the <em>Aadhaar</em> number is truly voluntary. Accordingly, a prohibition against the denial of goods, services, entitlements and benefits (private or public) for lack of a UID number – provided that an individual furnishes equivalent ID is necessary. The bill should also spell out the situations in which anonymity will be preserved and/or an <em>Aadhaar</em> number should not be requested such as a person’s sexuality/sexual orientation and marital status/history. Furthermore, the bill should require the Authority, registrars, enrolling agencies and service providers to delete/anonymize/obfuscate transaction data according to defined principles after appropriate periods of time in order to protect the privacy of citizens.</p>
<h3>Motivations of the UID Bill</h3>
<p>Since the submission of the high level summary, we note that a list of 221 agencies empanelled by the UIDAI has been uploaded onto the website (by a memo dated 15 July, 2010). A swift reading reveals that most of the agencies who are going to help enroll people into the UIDAI system are not NGOs, CSOs or other welfare oriented not-for-profit entities; rather, they are largely IT companies and commercial enterprises. This begs the question as to whether the UID scheme/<em>Aadhaar</em> is truly geared towards delivery of benefits and inclusivity of the poor and marginalized. Already concerns have been voiced that the “ecosystem” of registrars and enrolling agencies contemplated by the scheme, to the extent that it envisages a public-private partnership, could firstly, be “hijacked” or “captured” by commercial motives and result in sharing of data, security breaches, compromised identities, loss of privacy, data mining and customer profiling, and secondly, end up neglecting the very sections of society that the scheme allegedly most wants to help. The list of empanelled companies makes this even more likely and imminent a concern. Without casting aspersions on any of those entities, we would like to highlight that this sort of delegated structure raises several concerns.</p>
<p>Additionally, we find the speed and efficiency with which the UIDAI juggernaut is signing MoUs with states, banks and government agencies on the one hand, and issuing tenders, RFPs, RFQs and otherwise seeking proposals and awarding contracts to private entities – in the absence of any Parliament-sanctioned law (the bill is still a draft, and yet to even be placed before the Parliament) to be alarming. Along with news of the increasing costs of the project and doubts about how foolproof the technology will be, it is staggering to imagine that something that raises so many concerns is being pushed through without a more serious debate. The lack of formal procedures and open debates makes one wonder how democratic the actual process is.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>To conclude, CIS believes that the UID bill threatens the rights of citizens in India, and appeals to the citizen to think critically of its implications and consequences.</p>
<p>1. <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/letter-to-uid-authority" class="internal-link" title="Feedback on the NIA Bill 2010">Detailed Summary pdf (159kb)</a></p>
<p><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/high-level-summary" class="internal-link" title="High Level Summary">2. High Level Summary (77kb)<br /></a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-feedback-to-nia-bill'>http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-feedback-to-nia-bill</a>
</p>
No publisherelonnaiSubmissionsInternet Governance2012-03-21T10:14:27ZBlog EntryMore Debate on UID Project Needed
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/debate-on-uid
<b>A press conference on UID was held at the Press Club in Bangalore on 26 July, 2010. It was co-organised by Citizen's Action Forum, Alternate Law Forum and the Centre for Internet and Society. Mathew Thomas and Vinay Baindur spoke about the UID. Proceedings from the conference was covered in the Hindu on 27 July, 2010.</b>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/publications/uid-coverage-hindu" class="internal-link" title="More Debate on UID">More Debate on UID</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/debate-on-uid'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/debate-on-uid</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet Governance2011-04-02T11:13:43ZNews ItemUID coverage in Udayavani
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/uid-udayavani-news
<b>A press conference was held at the Press Club in Bangalore on 26 July, 2010. It was co-organised by Citizen's Action Forum, Alternate Law Forum and the Centre for Internet and Society. Mathew Thomas and Vinay Baindur were the speakers. Leading Kannada newspaper Udayavani covered this event.</b>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/publications/cis/uid-udayavani" class="internal-link" title="UID coverage in Udayavani">UID coverage in Udayavani</a></p>
<p>For reading the original <a class="external-link" href="http://207.218.202.244/epaper/PDFList.aspx?Pg=H&Edn=BN&DispDate=7/27/2010">click here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/uid-udayavani-news'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/uid-udayavani-news</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet Governance2011-04-02T11:13:24ZNews ItemJune 2010 Bulletin
http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/june-2010-bulletin
<b>Greetings from the Centre for Internet & Society. We bring you updates of our research, news and media coverage, information on events for the month of June 2010.</b>
<h3><b>News Updates </b></h3>
<p><b>Dont hang up on this one</b><span><br /> </span>Is 3G the next twist in the mobile phone growth story?<br /> <a href="http://bit.ly/9NkaVP" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/9NkaVP</a></p>
<p><b>Peeping Toms In Your Inbox </b><span><br /> </span>Nothing’s safe any more—not your mobile number, nor your e-mail—as they’re put on offer for the benefit of telemarketers, writes Namrata Joshi and Neha Bhatt in an article published in the Outlook.<br /> <a href="http://bit.ly/ckmRRH" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/ckmRRH</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>I don't want my fingerprints taken</b><br /> Through this article published in Down to Earth, Nishant Shah looks at the role of the state as arbiter of our privacy.<span><br /> </span><a href="http://bit.ly/aYdMia" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/aYdMia</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>An artist's hunt for lost stepwells</b><span><br /> </span>As part of the Maps for Making Change project, Kakoli Sen has brought to light some facts which she stumbled upon while mapping the stepwells in Vadodara. She mapped these and also discovered 14 such architectural heritage structures. The news was covered in the Times of India.<br /> <a href="http://bit.ly/dxtwJU" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/dxtwJU</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Facebook, privacy and India </b><span><br /> </span>Does Facebook's decision to open out user information and data to third party websites amount to an invasion of privacy and should users' seriously consider getting out of the site? Sunil Abraham doesn't think so.<br /> <a href="http://bit.ly/a2HzhT" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/a2HzhT</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>APC starts research into spectrum regulation in Brazil, India, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa</b><span><br /> </span>Communication infrastructure is the foundation of the knowledge-based economy and while there has been a boom in the construction of undersea cables bringing potentially terabits of capacity to the African continent, the ability to deliver broadband to consumers is hampered by inefficient telecommunications markets and policies. Wireless connectivity offers tremendous potential to deliver affordable broadband to developing countries but inefficient spectrum policy and regulation means the opportunity to seize the advantages brought about by improvements in wireless broadband technologies are extremely limited.<br /> <a href="http://bit.ly/a67ut8" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/a67ut8</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>WIPO Proposals Would Open Cross-Border Access To Materials For Print Disabled</b><span><br /> </span>The print disabled feel that the possible UN recommendations being negotiated upon may come up short, reports Kaitlin Mara in this article.<br /> <a href="http://bit.ly/99kbS0" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/99kbS0</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>The Potential of Open Development for Canada and Abroad </b><span><br /> </span>IDRC held a panel discussion on 'The Potential of Open Development for Canada and Abroad' on May 5, 2010 in Ottawa.<br /> <a href="http://bit.ly/aSp8J3" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/aSp8J3</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>A letter to CGIAR in support of Open Access </b><span><br /> </span>Professor Subbiah Arunachalam wrote a letter to CGIAR apprising them of the need for, and advantages of making their research output Open Access. <br /> <a href="http://bit.ly/doJmAe" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/doJmAe</a></p>
<hr />
<h3><b>Upcoming Event</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>The Internet, Culture, and Society - Looking at Past, Present, and Future Worldwide</b><br /> It is now well known that with 4.5 billion mobile phone owners in the world and increased Internet penetration, global cultures and communities have experienced shifts in their economic, political, and social well-being due to the digital revolution. As a scholar and consultant who works worldwide, Prof Ramesh Srinivasan will illustrate how new media technologies have been used creatively to enable political movements in Kyrgyzstan, literacy and educational reform in India, and economic development across the developing world. In addition to this, he will discuss some of digital culture's biggest challenges, including considering how the Web can start to empower different types of cultural perspectives and knowledges.<br /> <a href="http://bit.ly/c9cIvc" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/c9cIvc</a></p>
<hr />
<h3><b>Research</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Survey: Digital Natives with a cause?</b><span><br /> </span>This survey seeks to consolidate information about how young people who have grown up with networked technologies use and experience online platforms and tools. It is also one of the first steps we have taken to interact with Digital Natives from around the world — especially in emerging information societies — to learn, understand and explore the possibilities of change via technology that lie before the Digital Natives. The findings from the survey will be presented at a multi-stakeholder conference later this year in The Netherlands.<br /> <a href="http://bit.ly/cUtKhV" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/cUtKhV</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Queer Histories of the Internet: An Introduction</b><span><br /> </span>Nitya Vasudevan and Nithin Manayath introduce the Queer Histories of the Internet through this blog post discussing broadly the relationship between queer identity and technology.<br /> <a href="http://bit.ly/9xdYRv" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/9xdYRv</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Separating the 'Symbiotic Twins'</b><span><br /> </span>This post tries to undo the comfortable linking that has come to exist in the ‘radical’ figure of the cyber-queer. And this is so not because of a nostalgic sense of the older ways of performing queerness, or the world of the Internet is fake or unreal in comparison to bodily experience, and ‘real’ politics lies elsewhere. This is so as it is a necessary step towards studying the relationship between technology and sexuality.<br /> <a href="http://bit.ly/9PV9YW" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/9PV9YW</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>The power of the next click...</b><span><br /> </span>P2P cameras and microphones hooked up to form a network of people who don't know each other, and probably don't care; a series of people in different states of undress, peering at the each other, hands poised on the 'Next' button to search for something more. Chatroulette, the next big fad on the Internet, is here in a grand way, making vouyers out of us all. This post examines the aesthetics, politics and potentials of this wonderful platform beyond the surface hype of penises and pornography that surrounds this platform.<br /> <a href="http://bit.ly/95twmz" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/95twmz</a></p>
<hr />
<h3><b>Telecom</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>India's sorry spectrum story </b><span><br /> </span>In this article published in the Business Standard on June 3, 2010, Shyam Ponappa analyses the spectrum story in India. He says that the approach to spectrum management is an object lesson in how not to use information and communications technology for development. <br /> <a href="http://bit.ly/cojFFT" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/cojFFT</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/june-2010-bulletin'>http://editors.cis-india.org/about/newsletters/june-2010-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceCISRAWOpenness2012-08-10T09:38:46ZPageNetworking? Not working
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/networking-not-working
<b>Concerns about privacy, wastage of time and trivialized communication are some reasons ‘refuseniks’ are going off sites such as Facebook and MySpace, writes Shreya Ray in Livemint.</b>
<p>Pune-based law student Arjun Khera, 24, broke many a Facebook stalker’s heart in April when he announced his decision to quit the network one fine afternoon on his status message. “Guys, I’m deleting my Facebook account. Please send me all your email and phone details,” he said. Almost immediately, there was an explosion of concern in his notification window. Why was the effervescent and popular part-time actor and full-time Facebook enthusiast committing Facebook suicide? “What happenedddddd?” (sic) <br />“Everything ok, dude?” </p>
<p>“It was eating into my life,” Khera says. “I was always logged on, always leaving or commenting on status messages, waiting a few minutes to see if there had been any responses to my comments, and comment some more. I didn’t go out for a walk any more, didn’t get photographs developed because I was only too busy seeing them on Facebook.” Khera signed up for his account in July 2007.</p>
<p>Then, it was the one platform through which he could locate and reconnect with all his long-lost friends. He loved the fact that he could have a pictorial chronicle of his life; that he could “compare friends”, find out if indeed he was a glass of wine (and not a pint of beer) and fit a Shakespearean insult to his current mood. “With time, I got tired of those lame quizzes. I got sick of what it was doing to my time. I hated how it trivialized communication,” he says.</p>
<p>Khera is part of a growing cult of social networking “refuseniks”. Although figures for sites such as MySpace, Orkut, Facebook and Twitter show an overall increase, some recent statistics suggest that not everyone wants to socialize this way. According to a study by TechCrunch Europe, the number of visitors to MySpace, UK, halved in just six months, from “just under 10 million at the start of the year to around 5 million as of the end of June 2010”, leading to a round of layoffs at its London office. “It would appear to show a pretty staggering decline,” says the report, released on 6 July.</p>
<h3>The privacy factor</h3>
<p>Environmental researcher Maddipatla Rajshekhar, 33, alumnus of the University of Sussex, UK, used Facebook to keep in touch with former classmates. On 31 May, however, along with the 30,000-odd people who had had enough of Facebook changing its privacy policies, he quit. “It was getting increasingly intrusive. Its latest feature let me see what some of my friends said on the walls of their friends—(who were) complete strangers to me,” he said. </p>
<p>Although the Quit Facebook group wasn’t a success in numerical terms (30,000 isn’t even close to a drop in the 450-million ocean), it successfully sent a message to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who held a press conference in the last week of May on new privacy policies and changes.</p>
<p>A May report brought out by the Pew Centre for Internet and American Life Project (of the Pew Research Centre, Washington, DC) finds that social media plays a “central role” in building one’s online identity. Quite naturally, privacy becomes a big issue. “Many users are learning and refining their approach as they go—changing privacy settings on profiles, customizing who can see certain updates and deleting unwanted information about them that appears online,” says the report. Interestingly, it also finds that young adults are more likely than older users to restrict what information is available and to whom, contrary to popular perception.</p>
<h3>The next level</h3>
<p>Privacy is not the refuseniks’ only issue, however. What social networking does to actual relationships is another, as Khera notes. Mumbai-based social worker Maya Ganesh, 35, too got tired of the constant blurring between friends and acquaintances, and having to constantly update her “limited” lists. “I regularly ignored friend requests but there were some requests not easy to ignore, especially some work connections. I also wanted a break from all the hectic ‘social activity’ that Facebook is about,” she says of her three-year-old account, which she abandoned in May.</p>
<p>Ganesh had reached what Sunil Abraham, executive director, Center for Internet and Society, Bangalore, refers to as the end of the “hype cycle”. All technology goes through a standard process, says Abraham: People get hooked to it, then get tired of it, and it disappears. “Some tend to be sticky and last longer; the particular advantage of social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut and MySpace is that they bring a critical mass of community to individual users. It’s now difficult for people to get off a network simply because all their friends are on it,” he says.</p>
<p>Conversely, though, he cites Harvard-based social networking researcher Danah Boyd, who says the reducing exclusivity quotient has also put many people off. “Parents getting online also... acts as a self-censorship mechanism,” Abraham adds.</p>
<p>Most of the people who have deleted their accounts are happy with the way their non-virtual life now takes centre stage. Khera enjoys sitting at home and doing nothing; Ganesh says she doesn’t miss being out of the loop. It may take a bit more effort to share holiday photographs or write an email every time you feel the need to connect; but as Rajshekhar says, “Anything for not losing touch, anything for richer conversations.”</p>
<p>Varuni Khosla contributed to this story.</p>
<p>See the original article in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.livemint.com/2010/07/13204938/Networking-Not-working.html?h=B">livemint</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/networking-not-working'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/networking-not-working</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet Governance2011-04-02T11:12:33ZNews ItemDigital humanities: How social sciences may benefit from the digital revolution?
http://editors.cis-india.org/events/digital-humanities
<b>Centre for Contemporary Studies in collaboration with the Centre for Internet and Society presents a talk on Digital Humanities by Dominique Boullier, Professor at Sciences Po Paris on 9 July, 2010 at the Centre for Contemporary Studies.</b>
<p>This talk is in the context of the shift from traditional uses of digital power: databases, online questionnaires, and statistic analyses, to new uses of digital techniques for exploring digital data: producing datascapes from the huge amount of unstructured expressions on the Web and from the traces left by various kinds of behaviour. Starting with an example from the sociology of controversies redesigned by web crawling and visualization techniques, the speaker raises the following questions: How can we fill the gap between qualitative and quantitative analysis by using digital networks resources? How can we fill the gap between individual and structure when analyzing a phenomenon through digital lenses? In assessing the opportunities in the studies of social phenomena offered by using digital tools and web sources of data, the speaker seeks to demonstrate that it gives room for new social theory that can get rid of the concepts of “institutions”, “market” and “emergence” as unquestioned a <em>priori</em>. </p>
<p><strong>All are cordially invited</strong><br />Tea / Coffee will be served at 3.30 p.m.<br />Venue: Seminar Hall, Centre for Contemporary Studies (Formerly TIFR Mathematics Building), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/events/digital-humanities'>http://editors.cis-india.org/events/digital-humanities</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet Governance2011-04-05T04:06:22ZEventUID Act may be released for debate, may be introduced in monsoon session
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/UID-in-monsoon-session
<b>An article by Karen Leigh & Surabhi Agarwal in livemint on June 30, 2010.</b>
<p>The government has moved to create a legal basis for its ambitious project to provide all residents with numeric identity cards and guarantee the safety of demographic and biometric data being collected for it.</p>
<p>The draft National Identification Authority of India Act, 2010, was put up for public debate on Tuesday, and is likely to be introduced when Parliament convenes for its monsoon session.</p>
<p>The Act provides for the creation of the National Identity Authority of India to oversee the implementation of the Aadhaar project, but its jurisdiction will not extend to Jammu and Kashmir.</p>
<p>“This Bill will give the authority a legislative framework to function,” said R.S. Sharma, director general of the Unique Identification Authority ofIndia (UIDAI), the nodal agency currently overseeing Aadhaar.</p>
<p>Sharma said the Bill contains provisions that will make sure that sensitive data is protected and there are no hacking attempts. It lays down that “the authority shall ensure the security and confidentiality of identity information of individuals”.</p>
<p>UIDAI is collecting fingerprints and eye scans of all residents, along with other information, for Aadhaar.</p>
<p>The Bill “will also make sure that data related to a citizen’s caste or religion is not collected or chronicled”, Sharma added.</p>
<p>The Bill lays down that impersonation using Aadhaar data can lead to a three-year jail term and a fine of Rs10,000. Unauthorized collection or dissemination of identity information will also invite a three-year jail term, or a Rs1 lakh fine, or both.</p>
<p>The heftiest penalty of Rs1 crore along with three years’ imprisonment has been specified for unauthorized access to the central database, which will contain all individual details collected for Aadhaar.</p>
<p>Although the Bill lays down that no information stored in the database shall be revealed by UIDAI officials, it allows disclosure of personal information in a case of national security. Information can be disclosed on the direction of an officer of joint secretary level or above in the Union government, with the approval of the minister in charge.</p>
<p>But civil rights activists say the safety measures in the Bill are not enough.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It doesn’t have any of the safeguards and provisions necessary to protect the rights of citizens. It’s only protecting the interests of the UIDAI,” said Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society and a critic of the Aadhaar project.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>“They have criminalized an imaginary crime—if the technology were infallible, which is what they claim biometrics is, then you can’t create ghost identities. They’re saying that ghost identities will still be there; that the technology is, in fact, not foolproof.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rahul Matthan, founding partner of law firm Trilegal, said the Bill will give a legal basis to UIDAI for collecting data and allotting identities.</p>
<p>“Provisions in the Act on data protection are limited as it can’t be a substitute for an over-arching data protection legislation in the country, which will deal with all kinds of citizen data,” he said.</p>
<p>The Union government is mulling over a separate privacy Bill to safeguard individual data privacy, as reported by Mint on 21 June. The move is aimed at deflecting worries over the safety of the immense amount of data it proposes to collect about its citizens for various programmes, including Aadhaar.</p>
<p>Read the original article in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.livemint.com/2010/06/29214343/UID-Act-released-for-debate-m.html?atype=tp">livemint</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/UID-in-monsoon-session'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/UID-in-monsoon-session</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet Governance2011-04-02T11:27:53ZNews ItemActivists welcome privacy Bill, but point out concerns
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/privacy-bill
<b>Experts have welcomed the government's move to bring in a law for protecting individual privacy, amid concerns about the potential misuse of personal data it is collecting to execute social welfare and security schemes.</b>
<p>But they warn that overlaps with existing laws, a limited consultation process and failure to keep up with technological advances could undercut the utility of the planned legislation.</p>
<p>The Union government has set up a panel of secretary-level officials to prepare a blueprint for a law to protect individual privacy and personal data from misuse, even by the government, Mint reported on Monday.</p>
<p>The government is collecting personal data to operate schemes such as Aadhaar--a project to provide numeric identity cards to all residents, and the National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid), which will track information obtained by 11 law enforcement and intelligence agencies.</p>
<p>These agencies can access details of phone calls, credit card transactions, visa, immigration and property records, and driving licences of all citizens, as well as their iris and thumb-prints.</p>
<p>Lawrence Liang, a lawyer who works with Bangalore-based Alternative Law Forum, said the planned law will check the manner in which private companies use the personal data of citizens.</p>
<p>"Currently, there are only private contracts between individuals and companies on how personal data is used. With this legislation, the individual is more empowered. The state can back him better in case of a dispute," he said.</p>
<p>Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society, which has protested Aadhaar's project structure, also welcomed the move.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"The privacy Bill guidelines are fairly broad. It is early days yet.
Their will be a large overlap between the privacy and Aadhaar Bills," he
said.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>Faking biometric data, for instance, isn't a violation of privacy in the proposed law but could be criminally cognizable under the Aadhaar Bill, Abraham said. "It will be interesting to see how these issues are tackled as there are several nuances and grey areas."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A scientist at the Institute for Genomics and Integrative Biology in New Delhi said new kinds of privacy issues will emerge because of the imminent rise of bioinformatics applications.</p>
<p>There are no products or applications today that rely solely on biometric information to breach individual privacy, he said, requesting anonymity.</p>
<p>"But within five years, it will be easier to collect biometric information and link it to other details such as credit card information and driving licence numbers on a large scale. There could then be issues of privacy that will emerge," he added.</p>
<p>Leo Saldanah, coordinator at the Bangalore-based Environment Support Group and another critic of Aadhaar, said the planned privacy Bill is a sham.</p>
<p>"Privacy is anyway enumerated in our constitutional rights under Article 21. But governments have anyway accessed information via phone taps unencumbered," he said. "I don't think the existence of legislation per se will change matters on the ground."</p>
<p>Link to the article on <a class="external-link" href="http://dailyme.com/story/2010062300000561/activists-privacy-bill-point-concerns.html">DailyMe</a></p>
<p>For the article in <a class="external-link" href="http://epaper.livemint.com/Default.aspx?Id=38552F6A3347414A695675474755514C62327137543967684A734776784A4349514145755869394D7665673D">Livemint</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/privacy-bill'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/privacy-bill</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaInternet Governance2011-04-02T11:42:47ZNews ItemPeeping Toms In Your Inbox
http://editors.cis-india.org/news/peeping-toms-in-inbox
<b>Nothing’s safe any more—not your mobile number, nor your e-mail—as they’re put on offer for the benefit of telemarketers, writes Namrata Joshi and Neha Bhatt in an article published in the Outlook.</b>
<p>It was Saturday morning and Sneha Gupta wanted to book a table for dinner at a Delhi restaurant called Rodeo. So she called up a telephone directory service and procured the restaurant’s phone number, firmly nixing the operator’s seemingly casual offer to also provide numbers of similar restaurants. But that wasn’t the end of the story. The next day, Sunday brunch with her extended family was interrupted by calls from sundry restaurants enquiring if she’d be interested in hosting parties and events—at a discount.</p>
<p>“Instead of enjoying the food, the company and the conversation, I was busy ticking off these guys. Why were they assuming I wanted to organise a party? How did they get my mobile number to blatantly infringe on my private family time?” asks Sneha. She got no answers from them, but the sequence of events is clear: the telephone directory service sold Sneha’s contact details to marketers who broadly assumed, from her Rodeo outing, that she was a party animal, and decided to bombard her with similar offers.</p>
<p>Something similar happened to media professional Raghav Agarwal. He paid off his bank loan for a car in two-and-a-half years instead of the stipulated five, happy to stop living off credit. But from the next day, he was inundated with calls offering him bigger and better credit for everything—from house to car to education. “It was awfully distracting to deal with this while trying to meet deadlines,” he recounts. The fact that he had paid back the loan ahead of time had, by hook or by crook, reached financial outfits who used the information to serenade what they saw as an attractive catch.</p>
<p>For Kuhu Tanvir, these attentions come laced with a hint of menace. The film student was startled to find herself receiving unsolicited calls from unknown vendors offering to maintain the water purifier installed in the recesses of her kitchen. “It’s scary to think,” she says, “that there are people out there who even know which products you’ve bought for your house.” It was equally unnerving for film producer Gaurang Jalan to have his personal details passed on to data-miners by none other than a prominent Calcutta club (“strangers now call you on your birthday, offering schemes”). All those out there accosted by calls offering car insurance just at the time their policy is up for renewal will know exactly how they felt....</p>
<h3>8 Ways In Which You’re Being Intruded Upon</h3>
<ol><li>Privacy is being redefined in India, with the lines between the public and the private blurring not just for celebrities but also for ordinary citizens...</li><li>Personal details like your phone number, date of birth, credit history, bank loans, insurance policies, white goods purchases, favourite restaurants and nightclubs are bought and sold among cellphone operators, banks, shops, telephone directory services, credit card companies, hospitals, hotels, elite clubs and even your locality’s residents’ welfare association.</li><li>Unsolicited telemarketing calls, spam SMSes and e-mails intrude incessantly on your private space, time</li><li>Your online purchases and searches, archived e-mails and documents are being tracked for marketing purposes. Social networking groups and search engines stand accused of sharing user information and contact details.</li><li>Personal pictures, information about relationships on social networking sites are being misused by online predators and molesters.</li><li>Identity theft is fast emerging as a threat.</li><li>Surveillance cameras and intrusive frisking have become a way of life, at airports, cinema halls, malls, hospitals, hotels, etc.</li><li>TV cameras and sting operations blur the line between individual privacy and public interest.</li><li>People encouraged and offered inducements to bare all about their lives on TV. Shows like Emotional Atyachar, Splitsvilla, Truth Love Cash play out individual dating rituals and infidelity games for the masses.</li></ol>
<h3>7 Steps You Can Take To Protect Yourself</h3>
<ol><li>Give out your mobile number cautiously, if at all; don’t print it on the visiting cards you hand out generously. Give only your landline number if you have to, to avoid being constantly disturbed.</li><li>Be wary of filling in random forms at retail stores and restaurants, or the gift voucher you’re offered in return for your friends’ names and phone numbers.</li><li>Be alert while shopping with your debit or credit card. The retailer may be also swiping the card on his computer to feed your contact information into it.</li><li>Even though the Do Not Call facility has not worked for a majority of users, you lose nothing by registering for it on www.donotcall.gov. You can’t complain about unsolicited calls unless you register.</li><li>Online, be cautious of the personal information you reveal, such as your date of birth and photographs, which make you especially vulnerable to identity theft. Use Google dashboard and the new Facebook privacy settings to protect yourself.</li><li>Get the latest browser that allows you to delete cookies-as-you-go, delete your browsing history regularly, learn to encrypt your e-mail.</li><li>Always read privacy clauses in bank and other forms, and on websites carefully, and remember to tick opt-out boxes if you don’t want to be besieged with new product information.</li></ol>
<p>For celebrities, the lines between the private and the public have always been blurred. But in a transforming India, ordinary people like Sneha, Raghav, Kuhu and Gaurang are finding themselves intruded upon in newer ways—from the trivial to the serious—and across varied platforms, from the mobile phone to the internet, TV to the surveillance camera. And, with citizens like them mostly dimly aware of how to safeguard, renegotiate or fight for their right to privacy—enshrined in the Constitution, but vaguely defined—in a changing world, and no effective laws to rein in those who violate it, the infringements and threats are set to increase.</p>
<p>Take telemarketing, perhaps the most insistent manifestation today of this marauding culture. It started out as an irritant, became a nuisance and is now a virtually unchecked invasion. “In the West, telemarketing is an unobtrusive experience thanks to opt-in services by which users get calls only if they ask for them. Moreover, governments discourage telemarketers through strict regulations. In India, it’s a menace,” says Supreme Court advocate Harsh Pathak, who has litigated against telemarketing calls and the sale of personal data to companies.</p>
<p>Indeed, you can chart an entire day in your life with these intrusions as markers. You get woken up with the SMS: “Hare Krishna. Today is Ekadashi. Fasting from grains and beens (sic). Chant Hare Krishna mahamantra 25 rounds (sic) and be happy. Hari bol.” Through the day, they keep coming, both SMSes and human voices, trying to sell you everything from houses and farmland to hotel deals, sauna belts, equity tips and public speaking skills. And, if you happen to be even an occasional club-hopper, your phone could carry on beeping till two or three am, with SMSes announcing the next gig in town.</p>
<p>It’s clear from this virtually round-the-clock barrage that our personal lives are up for sale in an aggressive marketing-driven environment. Be it telecom companies, banks, shops, credit card firms, DVD rental libraries, insurance, auto dealers, clubs or hotels, they all profit from sharing personal information—phone numbers, credit history, spending patterns, shopping preferences and much else—about their customers. “The irony is that the corporate world has no accountability or transparency in India but the public has turned transparent for them,” says media analyst and columnist Sudheesh Pachauri.</p>
<p>Those often identified as the prime offenders in this game are quick to shrug off blame, or not respond, as Outlook found. ICICI Bank could not “participate in this story”, Airtel declined comment while Vodafone did not respond at all. Rajat Mukarji, chief corporate officer, Idea Cellular, who did respond, said phone companies were unfairly blamed for unsolicited calls. “Such data is available everywhere now, you can buy it off the Net for Rs 150,” he argued. HDFC Bank’s chief information security officer Vishal Salvi also stoutly denies that databases are sold, and when asked why existing customers are deluged with new product and service offers, says: “It only happens on a need-to-know, need-to-do-basis.” That’s the theory, but in practice, many customers find that the “need” seems to be defined by the banks, not their clients.</p>
<p>So where does that leave the consumer? Well, says Bangalore-based freelance writer and photographer Darshan Manakkal, “On a good day, I plead with the telemarketer to never call me again. With the more persistent ones, I try a different approach, like putting them on hold while I go for a bath. On really bad days, I just abuse them.” Others, like Chennai professional P.K. Pradeep, who shared with us pages upon pages of (extremely polite) e-mails to Airtel and Vodafone requesting them to halt unsolicited calls and SMSes, have been more persistent, but have achieved little beyond the robotic response, “We’re looking into it.”</p>
<p>Signing up, along with some 66 million souls, at the National Do Not Call (NDNC) Registry set up in October 2007, provided no protection to Pradeep, nor did changing phone numbers. “I got a new number from Vodafone recently, and would you believe it, the very next day I was bombarded with promotional messages. They had clearly passed on my number,” he says. The NDNC of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is now widely acknowledged as a failure. There was a brief dip in calls, but they resumed with renewed gusto. You could get lost in the maze of explanations for why NDNC doesn’t work; what’s clear, though, is that it has no capacity to deal with telemarketers who fail to register with it—like all those unknown real estate companies who bombard you with SMSes—and little teeth to deal with those who do. Fines are laughably minuscule—ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000—and the threat of disconnecting a telemarketer’s line is an empty one when it can quickly sign up and assault consumers from another connection. In view of its failure, a Do Call registry has been mooted, on the more consumer-friendly principle that those who want to be called should opt in rather than opt out. Consultations are on but its future shape is still unclear, with telecom companies (no surprise there) opposed to it. “We have gone far with dnc. To now backtrack and try something new doesn’t seem feasible,” says Mukarji.</p>
<p>“The whole problem of unregistered telemarketers will continue and telecom companies will go on blaming them,” S. Saroja, legal coordinator for the Chennai-based Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group, predicts pessimistically. The group has tried, to no avail, to get phone companies to trace bulk SMSes, which she maintains are easily traceable. “Telemarketing is a Rs 50,000-crore industry and growing at 20 per cent every year. Nobody wants to upset it as everybody is making money out of it, including the government,” says Supreme Court advocate Nivedita Sharma, who has fought her own battles against the sale of privacy.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, an expanding online world is throwing up its own challenges. By 2013, according to some estimates, India will have the third-largest internet user base in the world. Already, with 50 million-plus users and growing, it is a magnet for marketers, who as we know—without perhaps fully internalising the fact—avidly follow the telltale digital pugmarks and trails we leave on the Net as we e-mail, search, shop and obsessively communicate with each other on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.</p>
<p>These spaces on the Net, and their counterparts on other media, seem to be drawing us into an open, sharing, even confessional, culture, without our being fully aware of our vulnerability. We occasionally get intimations of it—like when our e-mail account is hacked into and bizarre mail sent out on our behalf; our Facebook pictures downloaded and their obscene versions floated on Orkut, as happened to two Delhi airhostesses recently; or vicious, revealing comments on our personal lives posted amid the banter on our favourite chat sites.</p>
<p>However, as media analysts point out, there is little push in the Indian environment to do what Western users of Facebook did recently: forcing it to change privacy policies and settings by protesting against its inadequate privacy controls. Here too, as with telemarketing, the regulatory environment is missing.</p>
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<p>“In India, there are no regulatory bodies related to online privacy concerns like in the US and Canada where there are privacy commissions which force corporations to make changes in their privacy policy in the interest of citizens,” says Sunil Abraham, executive director, the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore.</p>
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<p> But individuals are to blame too. Saad Akhtar of naukri.com points out: “We don’t even read the fine print on privacy policies on websites, not realising that a lot of the data we upload even on Indian social networking websites becomes their property, which they can share with advertisers.”</p>
<p>Indeed, Akhila Sivadas of the Centre for Advocacy and Research, says that privacy issues are creating a cultural crisis of sorts, with no understanding of them, leave alone resolution. “Privacy is something that has been negotiated in a personal, intimate, micro universe. We have drawn our individual lakshman rekhas. But we have not debated on privacy norms as a society in a public space, which is very significant in the wake of how the mass media and social networking media is exploding in our country,” she says. It’s leading to an uneasy blend of the very closed and guarded, and the extremely open and no-holds-barred in our society. “There is no robust normative system in place, and corporate entities are exploiting that void,” she says. “The market is primed to take advantage and exploit existing conditions for profit. We are allowing the market to overreach itself,” agrees adman and social commentator Santosh Desai.</p>
<p>So what should be done? Obviously, the R-word—regulation—is critical, and hopefully, the cry for it from the ground will become stronger, as intrusions gather apace. But it would help for consumers to get smarter. Some of the questions to ask ourselves are: should I really be patronising a phone directory service, as Sneha did, that states that it shares information with third-party members and is not responsible for that information being misused by third parties? Should I hand out my visiting card, with my mobile number on it, to all and sundry? Should I reflexively press the “I agree to the terms & conditions” button while signing up for net services without reading the fine print? As Desai puts it, we need to be “mindful, suspicious and careful”. Without, of course, descending into paranoia. The irony, getting sharper and sharper in our lives, is that the very platforms that are used to invade our privacy also enrich our lives in manifold ways.</p>
<p>Read the original article in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?265792">Outlook</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/news/peeping-toms-in-inbox'>http://editors.cis-india.org/news/peeping-toms-in-inbox</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaInternet Governance2011-04-02T11:42:11ZNews Item