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- Hazare 'clicks' with city techies — by Prasad Krishna — last modified Aug 19, 2011 06:48 AM
- These days revolutionaries, crusaders and even rioters use social networking to further their cause. After the Arab Spring and the London riots, social networking is now playing a key role in Anna Hazare's ongoing anti-corruption campaign. Bangalore techies are in demand to run the show.
- CCTV in Universities — by Merlin Oommen — last modified Sep 01, 2011 09:50 AM
- Basic Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Infrastructure is used to observe movements from a central room, and consists of one or more video cameras that transmit video and audio images to a set of monitors or video recorders.
- Govt wants to monitor Facebook, Twitter — by Prasad Krishna — last modified Aug 09, 2011 09:21 AM
- The Union home ministry has written to the department of telecom asking it to "ensure effective monitoring of Twitter and Facebook".
- Nothing unique about this identity — by Prasad Krishna — last modified Aug 09, 2011 09:12 AM
- Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking peeping tom to install your window blinds, opined, not long ago, the American poet and novelist John Perry Barlow once. The statement attains significance in the context of Unique Identification (UID) project which is being touted as a milepost in inclusive politics. Liberalisation evangelists see UID project as the most virtuous thing that can ever happen to the Indian people who find themselves excluded from the system.
- Tired of tele-marketing calls? Act on privacy right: Experts — by Prasad Krishna — last modified Aug 09, 2011 09:00 AM
- Annoyed with unsolicited calls from insurance and banking companies? Under the proposed Right to Privacy Act, such calls would be considered a violation and the company responsible penalised up to Rs 5 lakh. The draft Right to Privacy Bill says that no person with a business in the country can collect or disclose any data relating to any individual without his/her consent.
- When Knowledge Isn’t Written, Does It Still Count? — by Prasad Krishna — last modified Aug 09, 2011 08:53 AM
- “MAKING fun of Wikipedia is so 2007,” a French journalist said recently to Sue Gardner, the executive director of the foundation that runs the Wikipedia project.
- Indian super-cops now patrol the www highway — by Prasad Krishna — last modified Aug 19, 2011 06:48 AM
- There's discontent brewing in the Indian cyberspace. And it has to do with the government blocking content that it deems "objectionable". What has raised hackles of Internet freedom activists is a new set of rules that allow Internet service providers (ISPs) and blogging sites to remove "objectionable" content from the Web.
- Re-thinking Key Escrow — by Natasha Vaz — last modified Aug 22, 2011 11:44 AM
- Would you make duplicates of your house keys and hand them over to the local police authority? And if so, would you feel safe? Naturally, one would protest this invasion of privacy. Similarly, would it be justified for the government to have a copy of the private key to intercept and decrypt communications? This is the idea behind key escrow; it enables government ‘wiretapping’.
- Better Understanding of the Idea of Privacy Sought — by Prasad Krishna — last modified Aug 08, 2011 07:40 AM
- Understanding the ways in which an individual's privacy is violated will help provide a better definition of privacy in India. At a public conference called ‘Privacy Matters' held at the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) here on Saturday, speakers underscored the need for discussions surrounding the privacy bill.
- Converting Indian Slacktivists Takes (Offline) Time — by Prasad Krishna — last modified Aug 04, 2011 09:07 AM
- No matter how much attention an online protest campaign might appear to be getting in terms of likes, fans or retweets, it’s rarely likely to be able to draw even a fraction of its Internet supporters to a street protest. That’s as true in India as anywhere else in the world, it appears.
- We, the Cyborgs: Challenges for the Future of being Human — by kaeru — last modified Apr 06, 2015 03:48 PM
- The Cyborg - a cybernetique organism which is a combination of the biological and the technological – has been at the centre of discourse around digital technologies. Especially with wearable computing and ubiquitous access to the digital world, there has been an increased concern that very ways in which we understand questions of life, human body and the presence and role of technologies in our worlds, are changing. In just the last few years, we have seen extraordinary measures – the successful production of synthetic bacteria, artificial intelligence that can be programmed to simulate human conditions like empathy and temperament, and massive mobilisation of people around the world, to fight against the injustices and inequities of their immediate environments.
- Internet, Politics and Transparency — by Zainab Bawa — last modified Dec 02, 2011 09:33 AM
- On 15th April 2009, the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) hosted a talk by Barun Mitra on “Internet, Transparency and Politics”. Barun Mitra is the Chairperson of Liberty Institute, a think tank based in Delhi. Liberty Institute conducts research and advocacy on policy issues ranging from health, environment and trade to democracy and governance.
- Open Access to Scholarly Literature in India: A Status Report: Call for Comments — by Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam and Madhan Muthu — last modified Dec 14, 2012 10:26 AM
- The Centre for Internet and Society welcomes comments on the first draft of "Open Access to Scholarly Literature in India: A Status Report". This report, on open access to scholarly literature, with a special focus on scientific literature, has been written by Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam and Madhan Muthu. The report surveys the field of scholarly and scientific publication in India and provides a detailed history of the open access movement in India.
- Portal augurs well for transparency — by Prasad Krishna — last modified Jul 26, 2011 03:16 PM
- Data.gov.in will have meta-data, which will facilitate discovery of data and access from portals of ministries, says T Ramachandra. The article was published in the Hindu on 25 July 2011.
- UID: Nothing to Hide, Nothing to Fear? — by Shilpa Narani — last modified Sep 28, 2011 11:44 AM
- Isn’t it interesting that authorities ask you about your identity and you end up showing your proof of existence! Isn’t this breaching into one’s personal life? Why so much transparency only from the public side? Why can’t the government be equally transparent to the public?, asks Shilpa Narani.
- The Challenges of Direct Democracy — by Shyam Ponappa — last modified Jan 30, 2012 12:51 PM
- India must weigh the pros and cons of various approaches to direct democracy and develop one of its own.
- An Overview of DNA Labs in India — by Shilpa Narani — last modified Feb 02, 2016 01:11 PM
- DNA fingerprinting has become the most precise and technologically advanced method for identifying crimes such as murder, kidnapping, robbery and rape. Police and judicial authorities and in some cases even private parties retain this in their records, writes Shilpa in this blog post.
- Facebook, my boyfriend is lousy — by Prasad Krishna — last modified Jul 25, 2011 10:07 AM
- While a sizeable chunk of users do not mind living their life in public, oversharing can have nasty repercussions in real life. This article by Sahana Saran was published in the Bangalore Mirror on 24 July 2011.
- Consumer Privacy in e-Commerce — by Sahana Sarkar — last modified Mar 28, 2012 04:53 AM
- Looking at the larger picture of national security versus consumer privacy, Sahana Sarkar says that though consumer privacy is important in the world of digital technology, individuals must put aside some of their civil liberties when it comes to the question of national security, as it is necessary to prevent societal damage.
- Video Surveillance and Its Impact on the Right to Privacy — by Vaishnavi Chillakuru — last modified Sep 29, 2011 05:35 AM
- The need for video surveillance has grown in this technologically driven era as a mode of law enforcement. Video Surveillance is very useful to governments and law enforcement to maintain social control, recognize and monitor threats, and prevent/investigate criminal activity. In this regard it is pertinent to highlight that not only are governments using this system, but residential communities in certain areas are also using this system to create a safer environment.
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