Centre for Internet and Society

The flaw in cyber law

praskrishna — 2012-11-30T09:06:25Z

Legal experts and netizens want the controversial clause in the IT Act to be scrapped after two Mumbai girls were arrested for a post on Facebook.

This article by S Ronendra Singh was published in the Hindu BusinessLine on November 29, 2012. Sunil Abraham and Snehashish Ghosh are quoted.

Shaheen Dhada, 21, and her friend Rini Srinivas would never have imagined that they could land in jail because of a Facebook post. The two girls were arrested in Palghar following a complaint from local Shiv Sena workers against Shaheen's post on Facebook, where she questioned the need for a 'bandh' being observed in Mumbai on the death of the Sena supremo Bal Thackery.

While the two girls’ experience was traumatic, the action by the police has given fodder to activists and cyber experts to raise the clamour for scrapping section 66A of the IT Act, which they term as being draconian.

The Palghar incident is not an isolated event. Recently, Ravi Srinivasan, a 45-year-old supplier of plastic parts to telecom companies and a volunteer with India Against Corruption got into trouble with police after he tweeted about alleged corruption charges against Karti Chidambram, son of Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

There was a common factor in all these cases - arbitrary use of the Section 66 (A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The only mistake that most of these so-called offenders had committed was publishing their views online.

So, should we consider the law draconian now?

Assess Ambiguity

According to Snehashish Ghosh, Policy Associate at Centre for Internet and Society (Bangalore-based organisation looking at multidisciplinary research and advocacy in the field of Internet and society), the main reason for such inconsistent application of the law can be found in the history of the provision.

He said the language used in Section 66A of the IT Act, 2000 has been borrowed from Section 127 of the UK Communication Act, 2003 and the Malicious Communications Act, 1988.

“These two particular provisions are applicable in cases where the communication is directed to a particular person. Section 1 of the Malicious Prosecution Act begins with the, “any person who sends to another person” and hence it is clear that the provision does not include any post or electronic communication which is broadcasted to the world and deals with only one-to-one communication,” said Ghosh.

Section 127 only deals with “improper use of public electronic communications network”. It was meant to prevent misuse of public communication services. Therefore, social media Web sites do not fall under its ambit. However, the Section 66(A) in its current form fails to define any specific category, which has led to inconsistent and arbitrary use of the provision, said Ghosh.

One of the principles of interpretation of statute is that of absurdity. It states that when there are two interpretation of the law - where one renders it absurd and arbitrary, while the other puts it within the constitutional limits - then the latter interpretation is adopted.

“In the case of 66(A), interpreting it to include any form of communication transmitted using computer resource or communication device renders it to be absurd and arbitrary. Therefore, it should be interpreted and made applicable only to communication between two parties,” he opined.

According to Pavan Duggal, cyber law expert and advocate at Supreme Court of India, primarily section 66(A) is for protecting reputation and preventing misuse of its own.

“It is so vast – what is annoyance and inconvenience – gives a tremendous handle in the hands of the complainant and the police to target anyone. Further, if you send any information through email or SMS, which aims to mislead the addressee about such mail or message is a crime. All this suddenly opens a Pandora box of offences,” he said.

“So, when you look at case of Mamta Banerjee or latest case of those two girls getting arrested in Mumbai, it shows that Section 66(A) becomes an effective tool in the hands of ingenious complainants to gag free speech. And, that is why there is so much noise,” Duggal said.

To Use, Not Abuse

Sighting the recent case of the two girls from Mumbai, he said the law was abused and all they need to do is just exploit – whether clicking a ‘Like’ button on Facebook could involve Section 66(A) – and this case is setting a precedence that ‘liking’ a comment can be an offensive of Section 66(A).

“When you click a ‘Like’ button, you do not send any information that is defined under Section 66(A). You only send information of ‘liking’ that information or message,” he said.

However, it has become a code of misuse in its own sense. Parameters given there in the Act are extremely wide and can be interpreted.

“It has only one good thing – it makes the offence bailable, which means bail as a matter of right. But, once you get stuck under Section 66(A), along with that invites a long period of mental agony and trauma because the trial will take five-six years and you will have to undergo the trial,” he added.

So does it mean the Government should scrap or completely abolish this Section from the IT Act, 2000 or should the people of India file a petition against this Section?

Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, Centre for Internet and Society says there are laws specifically dealing with cyber stalking and communications and therefore, there we do not need an additional law.

“Either scrap or retain narrow parameters, which could be made defamatory. Otherwise, more such cases would be seen in future under this section. It has not done anything significant and has an impact on basic free online speech to public,” says Duggal.

A better approach would be to strike down the provision and include separate well defined anti-stalking and anti-spamming provision, said Ghosh of Centre for Internet and Society.

However, Mahesh Uppal, Director, ComFirst India (consultancy firm on regulatory issues) said it would be premature, in these circumstances, for any litigation against this Section.

“The issue is serious. However, this is as much to do with policing in general as it is to do with Section 66(A) which needs an amendment and clarification to remove any scope for abuse,” he said.

But, is the Government ready for any change?

Minister of Communications and IT, Kapil Sibal recently said, “Just because some people do not follow it properly, we cannot entirely scrap the law. Can we do away with penal code? We cannot.”

So, does that mean we, as citizens, have to consult legal notes before posting a message online or sending an SMS? And, even if we do, are all laws, sections and under-sections comprehendible by the common man? If not, how big a risk are we, and the person who ‘Likes’ what we say is taking?

The answers to these questions determine the future of freedom of speech.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-businessline-november-29-2012-the-flaw-in-cyber-law

The First IJLT-CIS Lecture Series on Jurisdictional Issues in Cyberspace

praskrishna — 2011-04-05T04:12:05Z

The IJLT-CIS Lecture Series will be held at the National Law School of India University in Bangalore on 3 April, 2010.

The Indian Journal of Law and Technology (IJLT) is the law and technology journal of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a leading research organisation devoted to the study of the Internet and its interface with the society. The IJLT-CIS Annual Law Lecture Series is an effort to promote a better understanding about crucial legal issues pertaining to the Internet and other emerging technologies.

The core theme of the lecture is Jurisdictional Issues in Cyberspace. Hon'ble Dr. Justice S. Muralidhar (Judge, Delhi High Court) shall be the Chief Guest and the first speaker. The other speakers are Amit Sachdeva (Advocate, Delhi High Court), Aditya Sondhi (Advocate, Karnataka High Court) and Dr. Lorna E. Gillies (Lecturer in Law, University of Leicester).

The Lecture Series is open to all law students and the general public. There are no charges or fees applicable to participants. However, all participants are requested to register through an e-mail to “editorialboard@ijlt.in”. All student participants shall be provided certificates of participation.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/events/ijlt-cis-lecture

The Fintech Disruption - Innovation, Regulation, and Transformation

praskrishna — 2017-03-29T02:10:49Z

Sumandro Chattapadhyay attended an event organized by Carnegie India on March 28, 2017. The aim of the initiative was that inclusive and sustainable regulations require constant interaction between policy makers and industry.

Select senior level policymakers, leaders from the banking industry and dynamic start-up founders and innovators gathered for the meet-up. The intention is to follow up on the discussions and debates from the round-table and come out with a detailed report on Fintech Regulations based on the research and conversations with start-ups and other valuable stakeholders.

See the conference agenda

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-fintech-disruption-innovation-regulation-and-transformation

The Fifth Elephant in Bangalore

praskrishna — 2014-07-16T11:02:15Z

HasGeek is organizing the Fifth Elephant in Bangalore at NIMHANS Convention Centre on July 25 and 26, 2014. The Centre for Internet and Society is a community outreach partner with HasGeek.

Facebook has 100 million users in India. You know who has a billion?

The Indian Census.

Varsha Joshi, Director of the National Population Register, was present at The Fifth Elephant 2013 to explain on how the census team collects and processes such a vast amount of data.

Each year, The Fifth Elephant conference brings consumers and producers of technology to understand how data is processed (via available technologies), insights mined from datasets in different domains, and opportunities that data presents for economy and society. The key differentiator of The Fifth Elephant conference is that the content is crowdsourced and carefully curated by a panel of experts.

HasGeek, organizer of The Fifth Elephant, also shares a strong commitment to open access, open knowledge and open data. We ensure that every edition of The Fifth Elephant has representatives from the government –– either officials themselves or technology teams working on important data projects –– addressing citizens’ concerns around privacy and protection of data.

In 2012, we had Pramod Varma and Regunath B. speaking about the Aadhar project alongside Lucy Chambers’ presentation on the OKF’s work with data journalism, Nikhil Pahwa’s on RTI and Sumandro’s on NSSO data.

In 2013, Varsha Joshi talked to participants about the challenges that the census faces in collating data.
This year, we have invited Mr. Ram Sewak Sharma, secretary of Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY), to talk about the state of government data and how citizens can participate in strengthening government’s efforts.

Why should you attend The Fifth Elephant?
The Fifth Elephant is a relevant event for data geeks and enthusiasts, NGOs, journalists and members of advocacy groups not just from the immediate standpoint of open data. This year’s edition also brings talks from finance and healthcare where speakers will talk about the challenges of working with complex financial datasets, data security and privacy concerns in the field of genomics, and related concerns. S. Anand will speak about what it took – in terms of technology infrastructure and data visualization – to do real-time visualizations for the recently concluded Indian elections. Participants will also get a flavour of frameworks – Lambda, Julia,OSM – and how these are used for building tools and platforms for mining data.

We welcome you to participate in the discussions and enrich interactions at the conference.

Schedule: https://fifthelephant.in/2014/conference
Registrations: http://fifthelephant.doattend.com
For more information, write to support@hasgeek.com

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-fifth-elephant

The Fifth Elephant 2013

praskrishna — 2013-04-08T04:11:25Z

HasGeek is organizing the Fifth Elephant from July 11 to 13, 2013 at the NIMHANS Convention Centre, Bangalore. Workshops on open source technologies and enterprise solutions will be held on July 11, 2013. You can participate in workshops only, conference only or both.

Data is most sought after. Yet, much remains unknown, especially about how to extract intelligence from data, how to build products from data, and which are the latest fast, secure, efficient and inexpensive technologies available for storing data.

If these questions interest you, come to the The Fifth Elephant – an annual big data, cloud computing and analytics conference. The Fifth Elephant 2013 will feature engineering and business talks on storage, databases, processing, metrics, statistical modelling, mathematical analysis, visualization and cloud computing. We will host panel discussions and open houses to understand how to use and apply data in different domains – e-commerce, journalism and business processes.

For more details, visit fifthelephant.in/2013, funnel.hasgeek.com/fifthel2013, and hasgeek.tv/fifthelephant, or contact info@hasgeek.com, 080-67684422

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/fifth-elephant-2013

The Evolving Cyber Threat and How to Address It

praskrishna — 2013-11-18T10:49:15Z

Larry Clinton, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Security Alliance will give a talk on cyber threat and how to address the same. The talk will be held at the office of the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore on November 22, 2.30 p.m. to 3.30 p.m.

The talk will broadly cover the following:

Using Public-Private Partnerships to Enhance Cyber Security
Ongoing Threat of Cyber-attacks Must be Fought on Both a Technical and Economic Basis
Targeted Education's Critical Role in Cyber security
Combating the Persistent Cyber Security Threat in the Manufacturing Industry / Cyber Security Threats to the Supply Chain
Economics of Cyber Security

Larry Clinton

Larry Clinton is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Security Alliance (ISA). ISA is a multi-sector trade association with membership from virtually every one of the designated critical industry sectors. The mission of the ISA is to combine advanced technology with economics and public policy to create a sustainable system of cyber security.

Mr. Clinton is regularly called upon to testify before both the U.S. House and Senate. In 2008, ISA published its Cyber Security “Social Contract,” which is both the first and last source cited in the Executive Summary of President Obama’s “Cyberspace Policy Review” (click here for report). This report also cited more than a dozen of ISA’s white papers – far more than any other source. Recently, these ISA documents were also the inspiration for many of the recommendations in the House Republican Cyber Security Task Force Report (click here for report).

Mr. Clinton is known for his ability to take the complicated issues in this space and explain them clearly to a wide range of audiences: professional, policy makers and the general public. He has been featured in mass media such as USA Today, the PBS News Hour, the Morning Show on CBS, Fox News, CNN’s Situation Room, C-SPAN, and CNBC. He has also authored numerous professional journal articles on cyber security. This year he has published articles in the Cutter IT Journal, the Journal of Strategic Security and the Journal of Software Technology (click here for a full list of articles and other ISA news appearances).

The ISA’s pro-market, incentives-based approach to cyber security, rather than regulation, is outlined in its numerous publications, including the ISA Cyber Security Social Contract and Financial Management of Cyber Security series, which were written by the ISA Board of Directors and edited by Mr. Clinton (click here for the full list of ISA Publications).

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/evolving-cyber-threat-and-how-to-address-it

The EU and Free Flows of Data - Data Protection, Trade and Law Enforcement

praskrishna — 2016-12-22T16:01:52Z

Amelia Andersdotter, Cofounder of Dataskydd.net, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Internet and Society and former Member of the European Parliament gave a talk on December 14, 2016 at the Department of European Studies in Manipal.

Download the brochure

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-eu-and-free-flows-of-data-data-protection-trade-and-law-enforcement

The Dynamics of Education to Employment Journey: Opportunities and Challenges

praskrishna — 2014-04-14T09:40:19Z

KIIT School of Management, KIIT Univeristy is holding the 7th National Management Convention 2014 at its campus in Bhubaneswar on February 21 and 22, 2014. T. Vishnu Vardhan and Subhashish Panigrahi have been invited to address the students of KIIT University.

Click to download the event brochure

Vishnu Vardhan and Subhashish Panigrahi spoke at the event and also evaluated submissions by students and researchers. Subhashish's presentation titled Redefining Education to Employment Journey: Voices of the Youth/Students can be accessed here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/dynamics-of-education-to-employment-journey

The Draft Electronic Delivery of Services Bill, 2011 – Comments by CIS

praskrishna — 2011-08-02T07:37:37Z

The Draft Electronic Delivery of Services Bill, 2011 (“Bill”) is a Bill to provide for delivery of government services manadatorily through electronic means by phasing out manual delivery of services. It is heartening to note that the Bill shifts the approach to electronic delivery of services by Government agencies to one as part of the citizens' right to service delivery through electronic means rather than a luxury or benefit doled out by the Government. The Bill introduces bodies exclusively accountable for ensuring that electronic delivery of services by the Government at the state and central levels. While this is a welcome move on the part of the Government there are a few comments we, at the Centre for Internet and Society, have on the present version of the Bill:

Accessibility
The Bill does not make it mandatory for all Government services to be accessible to all including persons with disabilities. The Bill refers to the term “access”, as defined in Section 2(1)(a) from the prespective of merely gaining physical access to the services or availability of such services1 rather than from the perspective of catering to the ability of a person with print (or other) disbilities from gaining access to the services in the normal format. It is very important that the electronic services are delivered in a format which is accessible to all persons including persons with disbilities, elderly persons etc. It should be mandatory for the Government to comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and National Informatics Centre (NIC) guidelines for web accessibility. It is also important to ensure accessibility of all documents produced during service delivery by Government agencies.
Linguistic Accessibility
Section 5(2)(b) of the Bill requires the Government to prescribe a framework for all its agencies to ensure web presence or enablement which refers to rendering electronic services in the language chosen by the user. In pursuance of the same, it is important for delivery of services to be available in all national languages of India to begin with in addition to the content being encoded in Unicode font for all languages. It is important to note that there are not many open fonts available for Indian languages. Hence, it must be ensured that the Government allocates sufficient funds to ensure linguistic accessbility of the services delivered, while ensuring implementation of the provisions of the Bill.
Public Scrutiny
In order to ensure transparency of Government services and process of service delivery, it is essential that the Bill incorporates a provision to enable citizens to gain access to information provided by the Government as part of the service delivery process unless disclosing such information would amount to violation of any applicable law. Similarly, provision should be made for making public all RTI applications filed with the Government and responses to them.
Use of Free and Open Source Software
Considering that electronic service delivery by Government agencies is effected through public money, it is important that Governments are urged to use Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for service delivery. This cuts costs to a great extent and also make the process more transparent and capable of customisation to varied needs of different departments. It is important to insert a provision requiring the Government to use FOSS as far as possible and in the event of any use of proprietary software, the Government should clearly explain the reason for such use, the costs incurred for the same, the additional benefit derived out of its use and other relevant details.
Open Standards
The Bill must stress on use of open standards for all computer resources and service delivery systems by Government agencies. As is the case with FOSS, such use brings down operation costs drastically and makes the service delivery process transparent and available for all to use. Use of ODF formats for documents, HTML for websites, ISA standards for hardware is recommended. It is also useful to ensure compliance with W3C guidelines by the concerned Government departments during implementation of the Bill.
Whistleblower Exception
The Bill does not contain any safeguards to ensure free and fearless disclosure of any wilful violation of the law impacting larger public interest. It is important to include a provision protecting any person exposing any violation of the provisions of the Bill or blowing the cover off any scam or farudulent activity decieving the public committed by service providers under the Bill. Such protection can be given by ensuring that the actions of such whistleblower, to the extent required for the exposure, does not constitute an offence under the provisions of the Bill.
Penalties for Offences
- Chapter 4 of the Bill gives a detailed list of acts constituting an offence under the Act including Section 15 which specifically relates to offences by companies. It is critical to ensure that the punishment and penalities for offences extend not only to citizens and companies but also to Government officials who misuse information they are privy to under the provisions of the Bill. In fact, a separate provision specifically applicable to the various offences which could be committed by Government officials under the Bill can reduce misuse of its provisions by the Government.
- It is to be noted that several provisions listed under Chapter 4 of the Bill covering offences and penalties are a reproduction of the provisions for the same under the Information Technology Act, 2000 (“IT Act”). Such reprodution is unnecessary and acts which are already deemed to be offences and have punishments prescribed for them under the IT Act (or any other legislation for the time being in force in India) need not be covered again in the Bill. This will avoid duplication and confusion in the legislations.
- Section 19(1) of the Bill provides that no alleged offence under the Bill can be tried in a court of law unless the Central Electronic Delivery of Services Commissioner (“Central Commissioner”) or the State Electronic Delivery of Services Commissioner (“State Commissioner”) authorises the same by issuing a complaint in this regard to the relevant court. This provision directly conflicts with a citizen's constitutional right to seek legal redress since it takes away his freedom to approach a court of law for redressal of his grievance without the permission of the Commissioners. It is recommended that the provision be either deleted or suitably modify so that it is not in violation of this constitutional right.
Bottoms up Approach
A decentralised approach should be adopted along the lines of the Panchayati Raj system giving the citizen a greater say in the framework and implementation of service delivery by Government agencies. Implementation can be at the Panchayat and District levels apart from State levels. Citizens must be able to access and update their information. Furthermore, they should be able to define to a certain extent, access control to their information. This will automatically make them eligible or ineligible for various government services.
Charges for service delivery
Section 4 of the Bill authorises the Government to allow service providers to collect charges for electronic service delivery while Section 3(2) provides for the Government to regulate the manner and method of payment of such charges. It is critical to ensure that such charges levied under the provisions of the Bill do not exceed the charges levied by the Government agency for manual delivery of services. Charges for manual service delivery may include charges for photocopy, printing, paper, postage etc., all of which are totally eliminated during service delivery through electronic means. Thus, levying the same charges, let alone greater charges for electronic service delivery is totally unnecessary and places an additional burden on the citizen ultimately defeating the very purpose of the Bill.
Security in payment of charges
Section 3(2) of the Bill provides for the Government to regulate the manner and method of payment of charges for delivery of services.It is important that each transaction that takes place is done securely and without the exposure of an individuals confidential details. There are many ways to structure the transaction of payment of fees to achieve this goal. We reccommend that the SCOSTA smart card structure is used for completing and processing a transaction.
Data Security and Privacy
Section 5(1)(e) of the Bill requires the Government to ensure integrity, security and confidentiality of data collected, preserved and retained. We recommend that in addition to this, the Government also ensures integrity, security and confidentiality of data or information that is transferred, accessed or deleted. We also recommend that the Bill requires the Government to prescribe a framework under Section 5(2) for agency privacy policies to ensure that they are interoperable and consistent between different departments of the Government.
Functions of the Central Commissioner
Section 8 of the Bill grants the Central Commissioner the power to perform any or all of the functions listed in the provision including Section 8(f) which refers to the power of the State Commissioner in conducting the work of the State Government agencies. A Central Government authority may not have a say in all matters under the purview of the State Governments. This aspect has been left out for consideration while drafting this provision and hence it needs to be relooked at.
Cut-off Date for Implementation
While the Bill mandates a cut off period of 180 days for the Government to finalise on the scope, framework and manner of service delivery under its provisions, it states that the Government “may” prescribe a framework for implementation of the provisions. It is recommended, for the purpose of ensuring speedy implementation of the provisions, that the term “may” in Section 5(2) be replaced by “shall”.
Transparency of Government Agencies
Transparency and accountability of the Government towards the citizen is as important as the transparency of the citizen towards the Government. Therefore, the provisions of the Bill must ensure that the Government activities are transparent to the citizens by making available to the citizens, details of the responsible officials under the Bill, manner of service delivery and other relevant information in this regard.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/draft-electronic-delivery-services

The DNA Profiling Bill: Developing Best Practices

praskrishna — 2012-09-17T05:54:30Z

On the 27th of September 2012 the Centre for Internet & Society invites the public to a meeting and talk with international experts Helen Wallace from GeneWatch UK, and Jeremy Gruber from the Council for Responsible Genetics from the United States. The meeting will take place from 9.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. at the India International Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi in Conference Room No. 2.

The public meeting and talk will focus on the proposed DNA Profiling Bill pending in Parliament and explore best practices concerning the collection, storage, and retention of DNA samples and best practices concerning the analysis of DNA samples and use of DNA samples as evidence in courts. Case studies from the US and the UK will be explored to understand what India can do better from the experiences of other countries.

Dr Helen Wallace

Dr Helen Wallace is Director of GeneWatch UK, a not-for-profit organisation which aims to engage members of the public in ensuring that genetic science and technologies are used in the public interest. She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on the social and ethical issues raised by DNA databases and is widely quoted in the UK press. Helen provided expert evidence to the applicants in the case of S. and Marper v. the UK at the European Court of Human Rights, in which the Court ruled unanimously that the indefinite retention of innocent people's DNA database records was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. She has supplied both oral and written evidence on this issue to numerous parliamentary committees including the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee and the UK Science and Technology, Home Affairs and Constitutional Committees, as well as the scrutiny committee for the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. This new Act requires the removal of about a million innocent people's records from the UK National DNA Database and the destruction of all stored biological samples.

Jeremy Gruber

Jeremy Gruber is the JD, President and Executive Director of Council for Responsible Genetics. Jeremy joined CRG in March 2009. Previously he served as the legal director of the National Workrights Institute, a human rights organization dedicated to the rights of American workers. Prior to that he served as the field director for the ACLU’s National Taskforce on Civil Liberties in the Workplace. Jeremy has worked for over a decade on genetic non-discrimination legislation at the state and Federal level. He helped author and pass numerous state laws on genetic non-discrimination. Jeremy is a founder and executive committee member of the Coalition for Genetic Fairness, a group of 500 organizations that advocated for genetic non-discrimination legislation on Capitol Hill and played a major role in the recently passed Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) by Congress. He worked closely with members of Congress and staff on GINA language as well as strategy and support. He is a prolific writer on privacy issues and is often consulted by state legislatures. He is regularly featured in print, radio and television. Jeremy holds a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from St. John’s University School of Law and a B.A. in Politics from Brandeis University.

Forensic DNA: A Human Rights Challenge

The above video was originally posted in YouTube

Click on the links below to download the files:

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/the-dna-profiling-bill-developing-best-practices

The Digital Oxygen for Odia Language

praskrishna — 2016-07-09T07:52:18Z

The article was published in My City Links on July 4, 2016.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/my-city-links-july-4-2016-digital-oxygen-for-odia-language

The Digital Divide: pros and cons of Modi's latest big initiative

praskrishna — 2015-07-06T02:11:56Z

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Digital India (DI) initiative on 1 July, at an event attended by scores of government officials as well as industry leaders.

The blog post by Suhas Munshi was published in Catch News on July 2, 2015. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

The initiative

Digital India aims to make all citizens digitally literate. Bring e-governance to every doorstep.

Corporates have promised to invest Rs 4.5 lakh crore in the initiative.

This is greater than the total spend on all govt schemes. It is equivalent to 1/4th of the national budget.

The positives

It will be a boost to industry; both large and small enterprises.

It will ostensibly create a lot of jobs.

It's ideal if citizens can connect directly with the government.

The negatives

Will the initiative be genuinely inclusive?

How will corporates recover their costs? Will the promised investments end up as bad loans from banks?

Who will handle the personal data of so many citizens; will it be efficient?

Who will the vendors be?

Will the proposed digital lockers for official documentation be reliable?

Will the initiative give the govt a tool to conduct mass surveillance?

The alternative focus

Some experts feel the govt should concentrate on giving people access to basic necessities like water, power and sewage.

The backbone of the project, the National Optical Fibre Network, has already run into massive infrastructure issues.

The programme aims to make all citizens digitally literate and bring the internet and e-governance to all sections of the society.

Like Modi's past initiatives, this too has polarised opinion, in this case on the government's aggressive push for e-governance.

While some advise patience before arriving at a verdict, others think it isn't too early to begin celebrations.

Astronomical budget

Most of the funds for this initiative are expected to come from the private sector. The total investments promised by big corporates, according to Modi, is Rs 4.5 lakh crore.

That is an astonishing number - it is equivalent to a quarter of the country's budget.

If true, then the amount spent on this project will be way over the total money spent on all of the government's 66 central sponsored schemes.

However, India hasn't been able to deliver on the last big welfare scheme promised - the Food Security Act, two years after it was passed in Parliament.

Investments promised by corporates add up to Rs 4.5 lakh crore, which is one-fourth of India's total budget

This scheme, which is set to cost the country Rs 1.25 lakh crore, aims to provide subsidised food grains to two-thirds of the populace.

The immediate concern experts have expressed with the budget is the possible intervention of the private sector.

The big corporate houses that have promised these staggering investments, would also be looking to recover them.

"As I see it, effectively a new sector is being created for this initiative. While it is good, when the private sector comes in to support big government projects, we also have to examine what the recovery model for those investments are. Hopefully, more details about investments will be made available," said Subrata Das, Executive Director, Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability.

Boost to industry

The initiative has already received a massive thumbs up from the industry. Corporate leaders made a beeline to praise the initiative.

RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani said that with Digital India, the government has moved faster than industry. He added that Reliance Jio Infocomm will invest Rs 2,50,000 crore as part of the Digital India programme.

"Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has partnered with the government for projects like Passport Seva and income tax e-filing, as well as state-level projects," said Cyrus Mistry, chairman of Tata Group, at the event.

Azim Premji, Wipro chairman, was quoted as saying the initiative will democratise the nation and "break down the digital divide in India".

He added that the level of skills of India's people will have to be significantly improved in order to make full use of the new initiative.

Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, said it would leverage its Idea Cellular network of 165 million subscribers across 3,50,000 towns and villages in India to provide mobile-based healthcare and education services, as well as weather forecasting advisories and 'mandi' prices to over one million farmers.

The company will also launch a mobile wallet and payment bank as well as invest over $2 billion in the next five years in various internet-based sectors.

There seems to be a consensus on the kind of platform DI will provide to small entrepreneurs and the massive job opportunities it will create.

"Who has not heard about their computer engineer friends trying to develop a product in their spare time? These small entrepreneurs will get a lot of help if they are brought to a common platform with big companies and if lack of resources don't impede their work. Besides, as government starts to spend, there will be a severe need for hardware technicians, network operators, data entry operators," said Manish Sabharwal, chairman, Teamlease.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, independent lawmaker in the Rajya Sabha, says DI is not only essential for the idea of 'minimum government, maximum governance', it is a big boost for the Indian IT industry.

"It is absolutely essential for good governance that as many people as possible are put directly in touch with their government. One of the biggest achievements, I think, will be in connecting 700 million people, so far sequestered, with the rest of the country. This obviously helps small entrepreneurs with launching their startups and bringing in a healthy workforce into the folds of this scheme," he said.

Many sunrise sectors before have similarly promised job growth that has not materialised. It remains to be seen how much of this euphoria plays out in concrete terms.

Privacy concerns

Therefore, while there's been a lot of positive buzz, not everyone is sold on the initiative.

Concerns are being raised about the handling of personal data of so many citizens.

There is a question about the reliability of the digital lockers in which all citizens will have their official documentation, and the anxiety of the data falling into the wrong hands.

"Of course, the concern with respect to privacy is legitimate and urgent.

Since the data the government will collect will be very large in terms of volume and can be misused, the reliability of the government's systems will have to be quite high.

So let's wait to see the nuts and bolts of the programme," said Apar Gupta, a senior lawyer specialising in information technology.

According to Reetika Khera, associate professor, economics at IIT Delhi, applications like digital lockers will make it easier for government to conduct mass surveillance.

There are questions over the reliability of digital lockers and about data falling into the wrong hands

"Programmes like Aadhar, digi-locker, central monitoring system (of mobile calls) etc are creating and enabling a massive surveillance infrastructure in India that will put NSA's PRISM, XKeyScore etc to shame.

"For instance, if Aadhaar is linked to your mobile number, bank account, travel details, the government can build a profile of each person at the click of a mouse. This is especially worrying because data protection and privacy laws are weak or non-existent," she said.

Sunil Abraham, executive director of Bangalore-based research organisation Centre for Internet and Society, also agrees with the concerns but is optimistic about the safeguards being put in place.

"There is a very mature draft of the Privacy Bill at the Department of Personnel and Training which will hopefully be introduced into Parliament after some rounds of public consultation and feedback.

"This, along with appropriate architectural and technological changes to e-governance services, will mitigate privacy concerns," said Abraham.

Misplaced priorities?

Then there is an argument that the less-privileged sections of society may need basic social services before they're considered for internet inclusion.

"What is true at the ground is that many people still don't have access to basic services, so while I think this is a good initiative, it should be part of our medium-term strategy.

"To begin with, we should focus on setting up basic infrastructure and extending water, power and sewer lines to most of the country," said Amitabh Kundu, retired JNU professor, who's advising the government on various projects.

Apar Gupta wonders how the government intends to bring people who are semi-literate, with no access to internet, within the fold of this e-governance project.

"Extending social welfare schemes to this section of people solely through digital medium is not viable," he said.

Some feel that the whole DI initiative is a mass-scale feel-good exercise. The argument is that using technology to 'uplift' the masses isn't a new idea, and is introduced periodically, and turns out to be largely ineffective.

"From the looks of it, this initiative seems to be nothing but techno-optimism. There is a belief that new technologies will, by themselves, transform the social world, but this doesn't happen.

"Techno-optimism, which we have seen before, is no different to traditional forms of governance, and over time, turns out to be nothing but a public relations exercises. An exercise to make governance visible to masses," said Ravi Sundaram, professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS).

Infrastructure issues

A project of this ambition and magnitude is bound to run into difficulties and, just a day after the launch, The Indian Express reported that the National Optical Fibre Network, the backbone of the initiative, is way behind schedule.

The project was supposed to be completed by December 2016. Initially, the 2014-15 target was to execute the work for one lakh gram panchayats, which was later halved to 50,000.

However, up until March 2015, only about 20,000 gram panchayats have been covered.

The primary problem is the cascading delays faced by central agencies, and when the active intervention of states was sought, 'right of way' charges have become the bone of contention.

Lack of contractors to do specialised work is also turning out to be an issue.

Thus, it won't be a stretch to say that while the initiative sounds like a great thing, doubts over its proper execution will continue till there is some concrete success to show for it.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/catch-news-july-2-2015-the-digital-divide-pros-and-cons-of-modi-s-latest-big-initiative

The DigiLocker was supposed to cut down paperwork but less than 0.1% of Indians are using it

praskrishna — 2016-09-12T01:59:44Z

The official data shows that the platform has not enthused as many users as the government expected.

The blog post by Mayank Jain was published by Scroll.in on September 12, 2016. Sunil Abraham was quoted.

The government has been working hard to make all of India go digital – but its initiatives don't seem to be having the desired effect. Not yet anyway.

DigiLocker was launched in July last year as a secure platform for Indian citizens to store and access their documents on an electronic repository provided by the government of India. This is one of the major planks of the Digital India programme – which aims to take government services online and make the entire country digitally literate – but it does not seem to have enthused too many so far.

To popularise it further, the government on Wednesday integrated it with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to allow people to store a digital version of their driving licence and vehicle documents on the DigiLocker, sparing them the trouble of having to keep the hard copies on them at all times.

More than a year since its release, the platform has about 1.1 million people signed up as users, according to the official statistics on the DigiLocker website.

This might seem like an impressive number – but compare it to the country’s population of about 1.21 billion, or even its internet-using population of 350 million – and it becomes a drop in the ocean.

As this chart shows, only 0.09% of Indians are on DigiLocker – this is less than one user per 1,000 people in the country. DigiLocker is being used by 0.33% of the online population in the country, which implies that there are 33 users per 10,000 people on the internet from India.

Digital dreams

When it was launched by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, the government had envisaged a cloud-based and secure storage platform that would cover the entire population, make it easier to procure and access important documents – including mark sheets, degrees and tax papers – and reduce paperwork as well as save time.

“In effect Digital Locker will touch every citizen's life by bringing in lot of convenience and therefore fulfilling the government's vision of a citizen centric governance model of providing services at the door-step of citizens,” the government said in a press release when the locker reached one lakh users in the first 100 days of its launch.

While the official website claims that the number of users is now about 2.1 million, the state-wise figures add up to only 1.1 million people on the platform.

Among the states, Maharashtra has most DigiLocker users in absolute numbers (more than 1 lakh), while Arunachal, Nagaland and Mizoram have less than 1,000 users each.

When the population of each state is taken into account, however, the picture changes. When adjusted for population, a mere 0.7% Sikkim’s population uses the service – and this is the highest percentage among Indian states. Maharashtra, with the highest number of DigiLocker users, has a much lower percentage of those on the service – 0.12%. The national capital, meanwhile, has just 0.17% of its population on the service.

Lock up

Citizens can use DigiLocker to store up to 10 megabytes of personal documents online.

Since the 10MB storage isn’t enticing enough, considering that internet users can avail themselves of at least 1GB of storage for free through private services such as Google Drive or Dropbox, the government is trying to push usage by integrating several departments with the service and allowing users to access more documents in real time from anywhere.

Among those enrolled so far include the road transport ministry, Maharashtra’s department of registry and stamps and educational bodies such as the Central Board of Secondary Education, which is now trying to release mark sheets and results of competitive exams online.

Though the government hoped that these initiatives would increase its usage, technical glitches have prevented several people from using the service.

A student who gave her National Engineering Entrance Exam this year spoke to Scroll.in about why she didn't sign up for DigiLocker even though her results were released on the platform.

“They allowed us to access results instantly on the platform but it required a sign up using the Aadhaar number,” a student, said on the condition of anonymity. “I tried signing up thrice using my phone number but never received the one-time password and then my Aadhaar verification didn’t go through so I could never sign up.”

The service is linked to the government's biometric-based Aadhaar identification system, but it is not mandatory to have an Aadhaar number, according to the website.

Privacy concerns

Another reason why people are hesitant to sign up for the service are privacy concerns about storing important and private documents on a central repository.

“Any large linked database with personal information is a serious threat to citizen’s data,” G Nagarjuna, a researcher at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education in Mumbai told Scroll.in earlier. “There exists no agency that could secure their data till date without any possibilities of data theft.”

Experts said storing private information, such as biometric and passport data, on the service could pose security and privacy concerns.

Sunil Abraham, Executive Director of the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society told Scroll.in over email that the project can have serious consequences if it is not encrypted well.

“Unless the cryptography and architecture is organised in such a manner that only the citizens will have access, there can be very serious consequences for the individual’s right to privacy,” he said.

Internal resistance

Those working for the project said the usage of the locker is going to go up if more government departments start issuing documents digitally to the locker, instead of handing over hard copies, as this will prompt users to sign up.

If the usage has to be increased, more departments need to come on board and start releasing documents digitally, said Debabrata Nayak, additional director of the National E-Governance Division, which implemented the project.

“It’s only when more departments start implementing digitisation and issuing digital documents that we will see a jump in the number of users because Digital Locker is pushed like that,” Nayak said, adding that National E-Governance Division is facing a fair bit of resistance from the departments.

“But not all departments are doing it yet because it requires a massive change in their work processes and we are trying to get them on board.”

Aadhaar woes

DigiLocker is designed as a push as well as pull service, which means that it should allow departments to issue as well as request documents from users. For this, users need to link their Aadhaar numbers to the locker. This is proving to be a problem, because most departments are not linking the documents they release to Aadhaar just yet, and not all users are registered with the unique identification system.

Moreover, the validity of Aadhaar is under question in the Supreme Court over privacy concerns voiced by the civil society.

An activist had moved the Supreme Court last year over the government making the Aadhaar number mandatory to sign up for DigiLocker. While the petition was quashed on procedural grounds, the government quickly moved to allow users to sign up without their Aadhaar numbers. However, the usability of the locker is restricted for such users.

Nayak said that non-Aadhaar-linked users can only upload their own documents on the system, without being able to use any other facility that DigiLocker claims to provide.

“Earlier Aadhaar was necessary but we changed it because people demanded access, but for most services, like getting government documents or requesting documents, it’s [Aadhaar] necessary,” he said. Nayak said this is because Aadhaar is the only way the government can identify the person who is being issued documents.

So what can one do without an Aadhaar on the DigiLocker?

“Without Aadhaar you can dump your garbage in it, which means you can upload your own files on the digital locker system,” Nayak said, “but why would you do that if you have Google Drive and Dropbox-like services?”

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/scroll.in-mayank-jain-september-12-2016-the-digilocker-was-supposed-to-cut-down-paperwork

The Data Revolution and education post-2015: Considering the promise and the risks

praskrishna — 2015-05-07T06:41:56Z

In August 2014, the secretary-general of the United Nations established the Independent Expert Advisory Group on a Data Revolution for Sustainable Development.

The blog post by Joshua Muskin was published in Brookings on March 31, 2015. Sumandro Chattapadhyay gave his inputs.

This group was charged with evaluating the global state of data and deriving recommendations that permit data to live up to their potential as “the lifeblood of decision-making and the raw material for accountability.” The resulting report, A World that Counts, posits that “Governments, companies, researchers and citizen groups are in a ferment of experimentation, innovation and adaptation to the new world of data, a world in which data are bigger, faster and more detailed than ever before.” This, they assert, “is the Data Revolution.”

Central to the group’s arguments is the assertion that data are and must be treated as a “public good.” Implicit is the notion that all data are good and that more data are “gooder.” Certainly there is much to laud and anticipate in the report’s definition of the Data Revolution and its recommendations. Perhaps most deserving of interest are the call for data that:

come “from other sources, such as qualitative data, citizen-generated data and perceptions data;”
are generated “from all parts of society;”
are “more detailed, timely and relevant;”
increase “usefulness...through a much greater degree of openness and transparency,” while “avoiding invasion of privacy and abuse of human rights;” and
lead to “more empowered people, better policies, better decisions and greater participation and accountability.”

come “from other sources, such as qualitative data, citizen-generated data and perceptions data;”are generated “from all parts of society;”are “more detailed, timely and relevant;”increase “usefulness...through a much greater degree of openness and transparency,” while “avoiding invasion of privacy and abuse of human rights;” andlead to “more empowered people, better policies, better decisions and greater participation and accountability.”

The blog entry by Joshua Muskin was published in Brookings on March 31, 2015. Sumandro Chattapadhyay was quoted.

What could go wrong?

Currently neck-deep in research on the use of student learning assessment data in education, I suggest that this implicit assumption and the promise of unwaveringly positive outcomes are not guaranteed. As we experience the emerging revolution, there is every reason to embrace this promise and to take up arms to ensure its fulfillment. But, as history shows, many a revolution has derailed, claiming the benefits of the rhetoric for a few while leaving many victims. While working towards the noble and indeed crucial aims laid out in the report, vigilance will be vital—as will very strategic action to ensure that the revolution does not veer away from its vision.

It is hardly the aim of this seemingly premature appeal to vigilance to unseat completely the objectives and recommendations of the Expert Advisory Group. (Indeed, the Data Revolution has barely launched, though its roots are already solidly planted, as evident in education in the surge of countries involved in international and national testing. See, for example, Benavot and Tanner, 2007.) Rather, in the spirit of Charles Tilly’s 1963 “Analysis of Counter-Revolution,” my goal is to remind all those ready to enlist in the revolution that this initiative does not necessarily “unite the people.” Regardless the document’s comprehensive and progressive appearance, there are many who take different positions, with some fearing what a reign of big data, irrespective of its origins and nature, will yield once it moves to implementation in its myriad forms and locations. While the document features the poor as a main beneficiary of the revolution, Neva Frecheville (2014), among others, notes the absence of low-income country representatives on the panel. Arguably more significantly, the emergence of citizen-led assessments in education may be perceived as a sort of reaction against the hegemony of centrally managed data regimes, taking control of the data by the local poor to ensure that its use fully serves this population. While the report embraces such initiatives, it would seem important to secure their independence, alert to the risk of a usurpation and hijacking of the mission, the program and the resulting information.

Sumandro Chattapadhyay, research director at the Centre for Internet and Society in New Delhi, has pointed in “An Open Data Agenda for post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals” to a few likely opportunities for the revolution to go awry once operating. For one, the modern technology thrust obvious in the report does not translate automatically into heightened generation, retrieval, or understanding of information for the world’s poor majority. Quite simply, this group does not have automatic access to either the modern modes of communication or the institutions by which the agents of the revolution will transmit the results. Two, come the revolution, there is on the one hand no obvious guarantee that data will supplant politics in policy and decision-making. Yet on the other, big data may provide an even bigger and potentially obfuscating weapon in the hands of politicians’ and other leaders, whether public or not. As one learns in Statistics 101, the same numbers can justify very different conclusions; and those who control the data usually control the story: information is power. Three, the push for standards and comparability in data risk negating or at least undervaluing the validity of non-standard idiosyncratic data and other information that may emerge at the local level and still have great worth; and sometimes be more meaningful, even if not “scientific.” Finally, Chattapadhyay asks “Who is empowered by using (opened up) data?,” warning that the “falling costs of collection and archiv[ing] of data... create strong attractions towards gathering as much data as possible without specific objectives for their collection.” Furthermore, the “...availability of data at a global scale has massive commercial value, [the] unlocking of which may [also] not necessarily lead to positive impacts.” The threats of such an outcome to privacy should be obvious and are widely documented (see, for example, this post from the MIT Big Data Initiative). The fact that in education we are dealing with children raises the danger of this prospect even higher (see, for example, the U.S. Student Data Privacy Act).

What does this mean for the education sector?

In a world where data are “bigger, faster and more detailed than ever,” what are the opportunities and vulnerabilities for the local actors to whom Chattapadhyay refers; in education, these comprise teachers, other “front-line” educators, and parents. This line of inquiry was also central to the analysis undertaken by the Learning Metrics Task Force Learning Champions at their February meeting in Kigali—the topic of a recent blog of mine.

There are many claims of data as a positive asset in education, and these are often matched by actual experience in many settings. Prominent are the impact of information on policy; on the allocation of resources (financial, material and human); on the validation, revision or termination of a particular strategy or initiative; and ultimately on strengthening quality and equity. At the school and classroom level, formative assessment (with feedback) is regarded by many—e.g., see Hattie (2011); Barber & Rivzi (2013), p.65; and Black & William, in Lucas, Claxton & Spencer (2009), p. 3—as the most robust factor in learning. It is a problem, though, that there is little evidence that system-level assessments have real “meaning for...teachers” (Long, Dunne & Mokoena, pg. 158) and that formative assessment is usually either poorly done or not at all (see Shiohata, 2015).

Three fears concerning the Data Revolution come quickly to mind, adding to those mentioned above like the privacy issue. One is that data on what is easily measurable in learning will overwhelm other aspects of information on education that are equally (or even more) essential, but are not easily measured, particularly in the classroom. Conversely, there is a strong risk of eschewing measures that can be both more accurate and more nuanced in the classroom, and therefore more useful in guiding learning. An example might be the assessment of personal competencies, such as creativity, curiosity, confidence, and collaboration. While possible to do, the methodological challenges of devising valid, standardized, and comparable assessment instruments for these are prodigious, particularly across cultures, and any measures would likely be difficult to interpret into pedagogic strategies. In contrast, a school-level inquiry by teachers into the characteristics, observation, and cultivation of these same traits can be very precise, strategic, and effective, especially when facilitated as captured in the OECD background paper by Lucas, Claxton and Spencer.

The third fear is that data will influence policy, planning, and practice to a degree that exceeds the reliability of the numbers and the “external validity” (see Rodrik) of their analysis—sometimes considerably. Such would be the case, as Rodrik explains, when applying the subject of a favorable randomized controlled trial from one setting to another. Related to this, an outsized faith in statistics or a reliance on overly sophisticated analyses—lured to the shoals by the siren song of what is possible—may simply undermine basic common sense; for example, can we not sometimes rely on a teacher to identify which students are struggling and need further help without imposing frequent, narrowly defined tests? (I am reminded of a pun shared by my Swiss friend, Pierre Jaccard, who reformulates the French phrase “panne d’essence”—a breakdown due to running out of gas—to indicate the all-too-frequent occurrence in policy circles of a “panne de sens,” or running out of common sense.)

Where I perceive “red flags” to arise and start flapping most frenetically around data regards its use. In particular, both the U.N. document and much of the discussion around student learning assessment highlight the value of data for central decision-making and policymaking: As stated in A World That Counts, “Without high-quality data providing the right information on the right things at the right time, designing, monitoring and evaluating effective policies becomes almost impossible.” The report hardly ignores local level actors and institutions—in education, the classroom, the school and parents—but this level is definitely under-represented and vaguer in terms of approach. But here is where the greatest clarity and strategic precision is required.

What the Data Revolution risks overlooking most are those education actors who are furthest from policy (even excellent policy), but upon whom positive outcomes ultimately depend. These are teachers, other educators, parents, and students. Even though the Advisory Group claims to speak on their behalf and to embrace them as part of the movement, are they really co-revolutionaries? While the citizen-led assessments clearly are eager to engage with the authorities, does their legitimacy and influence derive from their being fully within the system or, as I suggest above, does it exist because of their status as an honorable and powerful counter-balance? As politicians and policy leaders demand ever more and ever more sophisticated data, and as technology makes the collection, analysis, and dissemination of these data more elaborate and extensive, how great is the risk of overwhelming the capacity of classroom teachers, other local educators, parents, and other local institutions to absorb, let alone make sense of, the information and to use it appropriately and effectively? Are we running in the opposite direction of a solution to the oft-repeated issue of low-capacity with data, especially in the developing world? What does the Data Revolution furnish truly and directly to these critical actors in terms of information, resources, capacity, and authority to make decisions that improve teaching and learning for better education and to foster broader sustainable development outcomes?

The Data Revolution surely has much of vital importance to offer in gathering, organizing, and analyzing the vast array of information that relate to education and learning. As indicated above, the aim here is not to assail the expanded definition of data and their use per se. It is, however, an exhortation to gather, analyze, disseminate and use data on learning to inform decisions and actions that link directly to real education circumstances, challenges, and goals. The language of the Expert Group report claims this as its objective. The admonition addresses the need to be sure that this crucial dimension not get lost or overwhelmed in practice. So, as we hail the intent and elements of the Data Revolution and endeavor actively to attain its full promise, it will be vital to remain keenly vigilant and, if necessary, not to hesitate in summoning a counter-revolution in order to defend fully the ultimate goals: appropriate data in the service of all, including most critically the most marginalized of the world.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/data-revolution-and-education-post-2015

The Dangers Of Birdsong

praskrishna — 2014-02-12T10:29:10Z

Instant gratification? Social media can quickly turn the game into checkmate if you don’t keep your emotions in check.

Namrata Joshi's article was published in Outlook on January 25, 2014. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

“Woke up from a dream in which I had just learned that I was going to keep wickets for India. In my dream, I thought, let me share this news on Twitter. I didn’t, fearing I would be made a laughing stock.” These are few of a series of stream of consciousness tweets about a dream posted this Monday by author-academician Amitava Kumar. Tweets that don’t just have to do with dreaming of a personal achievement, but also about tweeting it. “Twitter has invaded even our sleeping life,” says Amitava on an e-mail but also admits that he didn’t think for a moment that he was sharing something private in a public place while tweeting his reverie. “Instead, perhaps, I was seeking a private connection with a lot of readers.” Which he did rustle up in good measure. He followed it up by tweeting a picture of his son with him, taken by his 10-year-old daughter Ila, as a homage to a similar photostream by author- photographer-art historian Teju Cole.

Amitava’s unfussy and creative candidness about tweeting things personal, which he prefers to see as “grappling with a form of writing” came in the wake of a weekend of vigorous debate on how social media platforms were bringing the private under unblinking public scrutiny—the immediate hook being the sudden, tragic death of Sunanda Pushkar after her no-holds-barred Twitter war with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar (over the latter’s alleged liaison with her husband Shashi Tharoor, which was consumed with much amusement by their vicarious, at times vicious, followers). The Tharoor incident is not a stand-alone case. Be it a confidentiality clause or diplomatic tact, a professional decision or personal affair or even a death of someone close to you, social media has become a stage to play out the classified and the confidential (see infographic) by the celebrities and the aam aadmi alike. The payback? Spats, comebacks, breakdowns, meltdowns, resignations, embarrassments, humiliations, kerfuffles....

And it’s not something confined to India alone. “US Congressman Anthony Weiner’s tweet of his, let’s call it, torso, to a young woman in Seattle is perhaps the most egregious example of a US politician behaving badly online,” says Amitava. No surprise then that Weiner became a butt of late-night comedy shows.

But the larger question here is why. Why this urge and urgency to share it all? What is it about a platform like Twitter or Facebook that makes people bare and dare? Is it that the immediacy, speed and reach allows them the easiest way to extend the boundaries of their secluded, lonely lives, get instant attention and fan the curiosity of someone out there who they don’t even know? And why is propriety and moderation getting thrown out of the window in the world of virtual exchanges? Adman-columnist Santosh Desai calls Twitter a “broadcast system to the universe”. The tweets are often “thought bubbles”, “something you mutter” without a full sense of what public means. “The spur of the moment opinion or feeling acquires public currency,” he says. “The unraveling of the human being, the opening up of the closed box then becomes a new source of stimulation and pleasure,” he says. “I sometimes wonder how we shared before Twitter. We talk about what we like, don’t like at the drop of a hat. At times you are vulnerable and vent things out without an agenda and without knowing the repercussions. We creative bunch are like that,” says popular actress Divya Dutta.

According to Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, private information is a currency in the global attention economy. “One of the many ways of climbing the attention economy is to divulge private information. Those in public life like filmstars and socialites understand this completely and exploit all traditional broadcast channels and contemporary multicast channels like social media to amass public attention,” he says. Look closely and the online space is no different from the real. There are as many exceptions as there are rules. So for every exhibitionist handle that exploits our latent voyeurism, there is a Natasha Badhwar, one of the most life-affirming presences on Twitter. For her, like Amitava, sharing is a mode of expression. “Sharing gives us agency. We take back the power to tell our story, express our views, share our version in our own words,” she says. According to her, “honest” sharing fuels empathy. “It is contagious, it makes the reader want to share too,” she says. And from that sharing could emerge a new pool of acquaintances, friends and well-wishers. It may not be a virtual escape from the real but a journey and connect back to the actual, an expansion of the human circle than a depletion of it.

But not all our friends and followers need necessarily be sympathetic. Often they are also brutally savage. “The anonymity allows people to say exactly what they want without considering the implications. They don’t realise that it’s not just a handle but a human being they are talking to,” says Nikhil Pahwa, founder of medianama.com. Amitava compares it to drone warfare. “The technology of remote destruction has introduced a new experience of war, and a new logic of killing. You can kill with greater abandon; you can strike in unexpected places; you are confronted with few consequences of your fatal mistakes. Similarly, Twitter allows a mode of social exchange with less culpability. There are very few consequences for trolls, but disastrous ones for their victims,” he says.

But surely that doesn’t mean that you blur all the lines between the private and the public? How to exercise caution? How much to open up (or not) and how much of your core to keep to yourself? Life, after all, is too complex and fragile for blame games and finger-pointing at social media alone. It’s those using it who need to own up. “People need to take responsibility for what they say. It’s like someone telling me how he was abused for 15 minutes on the phone when he could have easily cut the call,” says Nikhil Pahwa. “It’s a modern form of communication which you have to embrace but there’s a line you must draw. For instance, my wife and I never interact on FB or Twitter. I keep the family to myself. Jokes are fine but I don’t abuse or use swear words,” says actor Ashwin Mushran. “There has to be a sense of decorum. I won’t put out what I gossip about with my friends. I have no strategy but am guarded by my own belief system,” says actor Rajat Kapoor.

“It’s normal human nature to express. Be it anger or frustration, as a counsellor I tell people to not suppress emotions but some moderation and etiquette need to apply in cyber space,” says Mukta Puntambekar deputy director of Pune-based Muktangan Rehabilitation Centre. “You have to accept that your followers and friends will have access to details about you. You have to exercise discretion in saving something of yourself for yourself. There are areas that need not be opened up for all,” says actor-comedian Vir Das, who recently posted an open letter on FB—‘Twitter Bad? Facebook Evil? or We Stupid?’—on the pointlessness of blaming social media for the Tharoor family tragedy. To extend the argument further, and add another layer to it, aren’t we also living in times when privacy itself is evolving, asks Rajesh Lalwani, CEO of blogworks and a self-confessed people-watcher. “My grandmother would not even eat in public. But we eat in restaurants, on the streets,” he says.

Privacy is also becoming an ambiguous, vague and complex entity. Getting tagged in a friend’s photo compromises your privacy without your involvement or participation. “The line between private and public has mostly dissolved because of the temporal persistence of digital traces in cyberspace, the global nature of the network and the ubiquitous and pervasive surveillance state,” says Abraham. “On Twitter and FB, things get circulated...what we put up, whether it’s a tweet, an update or a picture, is permanent unlike memory,” says Desai. The digital trail stays online. “We are leaving our digital footprints behind. What we post might be easy but the implications of it are complicated,” says writer, filmmaker and media observer Amit Khanna.

According to him, there is a gap between the progression of technology and society. “There are newer windows but our minds are not growing apace to handle the connected world in a mature way,” he says. So one needs to be additionally circumspect about what we do online, how much of us we put out there. The ‘creative minds’ don’t see it as cut and dried. Natasha thinks that sharing can make people vulnerable to ridicule. “Confronting and embracing that vulnerability is the only way forward. These are not real fears to cling to, these are fears to shed as we grow and realise the extent of our individual power.” Amitava says he has seen several careers destroyed because of a single tweet. But he’d hate to back down and be cautious. As he puts it, “You’ve got to push the envelope and experiment with expression. I hope that when my wrong moment comes, people will be forgiving.” Amen to that.

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