Centre for Internet & Society

Digital Native: AI Manifesto

Our intention and government action will determine our relationship with AI.

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A Series of Op-eds on Data Protection

I wrote a short series of three op-eds for Asia Times this week.

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The Fundamental Right to Privacy - A Visual Guide

Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves, or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. This visual guide to the story of privacy law in India and the recent judgement of the Puttaswamy v. Union of India case is developed by Amber Sinha (research and content) and Pooja Saxena (design and conceptualisation).

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Unpacking Data Protection Law: A Visual Representation

This visual explainer unpacking data protection law was developed by Amber Sinha (research) and Pooja Saxena (design), and published as part of the Data Privacy Week celebrations on the Privacy International blog. Join the conversation on Twitter using #dataprivacyweek.

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AI and Manufacturing and Services in India: Looking Forward

This Report provides an overview of the proceedings of the Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Manufacturing and Services: Looking Forward (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Roundtable’), conducted at The Energy Resource Institute (TERI), in Bangalore on January 19, 2018.

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Open Data and Land Ownership - Environment Scan

The State of Open Data is an ambitious research project reflecting on 10 years of action on open data and providing a critical review of the current state of the open data movement across a range of issues and thematic areas. This environment scan represents the first step in gathering information to support a review of the state of open data with regard to land ownership, and in refining the focus of a chapter. The lead author for this chapter is Sumandro Chattapadhyay.

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Internet Researchers' Conference 2018 (IRC18): Offline, February 22-24, Sambhaavnaa Institute

We are proud to announce that the third edition of the Internet Researchers' Conference series will be held at the Sambhaavnaa Institute, Kandbari (Himachal Pradesh) during February 22-24, 2018. This annual conference series was initiated by the Researchers@Work (RAW) programme at CIS in 2016 to gather researchers, academic or otherwise, studying internet in/from India to congregate, share insights and tensions, and chart the ways forward. The *offline* is the theme of the 2018 edition of the conference (IRC18), and the conference agenda will be shaped by nine sessions selected by all the teams that submitted session proposals, and an independent paper track consisting of six presentations.

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CIS Submission to the Committee of Experts on a Data Protection Framework for India

This submission presents comments by the Centre for Internet and Society, India (“CIS”) on the ‘White Paper of the Committee of Experts on a Data Protection Framework for India’ (“White Paper”) released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The White paper was drafted by a Committee of Expert (“Committee”) constituted by the Ministry. CIS has conducted research on the issues of privacy, data protection and data security since 2010 and is thankful for the opportunity to put forth its views. The submission was made on January 31, 2018.

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Matching Realities and Aspirations

Leaving aside fixing the 'mountains' such as land acquisition, NPAs etc, here are some thoughts on systemic focus and action.

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Experience and Learning outcome from Wikipedia Education Program

In this blog post you will find a Christ University student's experience during Wikipedia Education Program.

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Artificial Intelligence in India: A Compendium

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fast emerging as a key technological paradigm in different sectors across the globe including India.

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Submission to TRAI Consultation on "Inputs for Formulation of National Telecom Policy - 2018"

Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) made a submission to TRAI Consultation on inputs to the National Telecom Policy.

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Life of a Tuple: National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Reform of Citizen Identification Infrastructure in Assam

We are proud to announce that a research grant from the Azim Premji University has enabled us to initiate a study of the updation process of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, and the resultant reform of citizen identification infrastructure in India. The study is being led by Khetrimayum Monish and Ranjit Singh, along with Sumandro Chattapadhyay.

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Data Protection: We can innovate, leapfrog

About 27% of India's population is still illiterate or barely literate. Most privacy policies and terms of services for web and mobile applications are in English and therefore it is only 10% of us who can actually read them before we provide our consent.

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Mobile net ban during peaceful protest leaves farmers confused

Strap: Administration says it was done to prevent rumours from spreading, protesters insist they needed internet to fight it.

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‘Hurt sentiments’ cost Udaipur internet access for four days

Strap: Authorities suggest it was more than a Facebook post that led to shutdown.

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The 2G Judgment of December 2017: What Was It About?

The judgment provides a critique of how no proper evidence was presented on existence of an FCFS policy and its improper implementation.

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Patent Working Requirements and Complex Products

The paper titled "Patent Working Requirements and Complex Products" has been published in the latest issue of the NYU Journal of Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law. It is one of the outputs of the Pervasive Technology project and has been authored by Prof. Jorge L. Contreras, Paxton M. Lewis, and Rohini Lakshané.

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Another Step towards Privacy Law

A comparison between the 2012 experts’ report and the 2017 white paper on data protection.

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Government of Odisha adopting Creative Commons License to Promote Transparency and Access to Knowledge

This year started with an astonishing announcement by the Government of Odisha towards the free knowledge movement. On the Public Domain day, which is celebrated every year on 1st January, The Government of Odisha continuing its collaboration with the Odia Wikipedia community has announced to release the content of its two major departments under Creative Commons license.

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