Past Events

Transference: Reimagining Data Systems: Beyond the Gender Binary

torsha — 2021-12-15T12:58:31Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) invites you to participate in a day-long convening on the rights of transgender persons, specifically right to privacy and digital rights. Through this convening, we hope to highlight the concerns of transgender persons in accessing digital data systems and the privacy challenges faced by the community. These challenges include access to their rights — their right to self-identify their gender and welfare services offered by the State and the privacy challenges faced by transgender and intersex persons in revealing their identity.

As the meaning of the word ‘Transference’ goes, through this convening, as a learning, we hope to capture and transfer the realities of transgender persons with engaging and being a part of digital data systems in India. Given the rapid digitisation of different public and private data systems in India, we hope to initiate a conversation that understands their struggles and challenges to realistically initiate the re-imagination of data systems — digital and otherwise — one that is mindful about their everyday struggles with privacy and access.

Owing to the history of systemic exclusions faced by transgender persons, it is important to highlight their difficulties in accessing technological systems and the impact on their privacy, as central issues that require serious consideration. Presently, their realities seem to be ignored by the State while designing most technology laws and policies governing digital systems.

Background

In the landmark verdict in 2014, NALSA Vs Union of India, the Supreme Court of India for the first time recognised the right of an individual to self-identify their gender as male, female or transgender. This verdict detailed nine directives to be implemented by the central and state governments in India for the inclusion of transgender persons.

Similarly, 2017 was a watershed moment in India’s constitutional history when the Supreme Court held the right to privacy to be a fundamental right. More importantly, the Court expounded on this right and held that the protection of an individual’s gender identity is an essential component of the right to privacy and that privacy at its core includes the preservation of personal intimacies, autonomy, the sanctity of family life, marriage, procreation, the home and sexual orientation.

The 2017 privacy judgement led to the Supreme Court pronouncing the Navtej Johar v Union of India in 2018, striking down the Koushal judgement and decriminalising acts of consensual non-hetrosexual acts of intimacy. In 2019, the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 was introduced in Parliament for the regulation and protection of personal data. The PDP Bill classifies data into two categories as (i) personal data; and (ii) sensitive personal data. As per the PDP Bill, data identifying the transgender status and intersex status falls within the ambit of sensitive personal data. Around the time of the PDP Bill being tabled in Parliament, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019 was passed by the Parliament despite severe opposition to the Bill from civil society members as well as members of Parliament.

There is a lack of clarity on the interplay between the PDP Bill and the Transgender Act and the challenges the PDP Bill may pose to the transgender community. Moving beyond mere mentions in the definition of the law through a cisgendered heteronormative lens, it is important for the discourse on data and privacy to broaden its scope to realistically include people of different sexual orientations, gender and sexual identities, gender expressions and sex characteristics.

About the Event

Through these panel discussions, we propose to highlight the concerns of transgender persons with accessing digital data systems and the privacy challenges faced by them . These challenges include access to their rights — their right to self-identify their gender and access welfare services offered by the State and the privacy challenges faced by transgender persons in revealing their identity.

The objective of these discussions is to initiate more conversations about the technological and data exclusions faced by this historically marginalised community in India. The intent is to better understand the realities of transgender persons and contribute to the larger advocacy on privacy, intersectionality and (digital) systems design.

Click to register for the event here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/transference-reimagining-data-systems-beyond-the-gender-binary

Launching CIS’s Flagship Report on Private Crypto-Assets

Admin — 2021-12-03T15:16:27Z

The Centre for Internet & Society is launching its flagship report on regulating private crypto-assets in India, as part of its newly formed Financial Technology (or Fintech) research agenda. This event will serve as a venue to bring together the various stakeholders involved in the crypto-asset space to discuss the state of crypto-asset regulation in India from a multitude of perspectives.

About the private crypto-assets report

The first output under this agenda is our report on regulating private cryptocurrencies in India. This report aims to act as an introductory resource for policymakers who are looking to implement a regulatory framework for private crypto-assets. The report covers the technical elements of crypto-assets, their history, proposed use cases as well as its benefits and limitations. It also examines how crypto-assets fit within India’s current regulatory and legislative frameworks and makes clear recommendations for the same.

About the Event

The launch event will feature an initial presentation by researchers at CIS on the various findings and recommendations of its flagship report. This will be followed by a moderated discussion with 5 panelists who represent the space in policy, academia and industry. The discussion will be centered around the current status of crypto-assets in India, the government’s new proposed regulations and what the future holds for the Indian crypto market.

The confirmed panelists are as follows:

Tanvi Ratna - Founder, Policy 4.0 and expert on blockchain and cryptocurrencies
Shehnaz Ahmed - Senior Resident Fellow and Fintech Lead at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy
Nithya R. - Chief Executive Officer, Unos.Finace
Prashanth Irudayaraj - Head of R&D, Zebpay
Vipul Kharbanda - Non resident Fellow specialising in Fintech at CIS
Aman Nair - Policy Offer, CIS (Moderator)

Registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TdY-EPLoRvGY2rfsq4CENw

Agenda

17.30 - 17.35

Welcome Note

17.35 - 18.35

The status of private crypto-assets in India

Presentation on CIS’ flagship Report on regulating private crypto-assets in India
Moderated discussion with panelists across industry, government, journalism and academia providing their insight as to the current and future state of private crypto-assets, and their regulation, in India.

18.35 - 19.00

Audience questions and discussion

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/launching-cis-flagship-report-on-private-crypto-assets

Reclaiming AI Futures

pranav — 2021-11-17T19:56:07Z

Join us on 23 November (Tuesday) at 7:30pm.

The spectre of artificial intelligence looms large over us. According to the prevalent visions sold to us today, Artificial Intelligence will save us from ourselves — cut out humanity and let technology provide for our futures, mediating our interactions and our relationships with mathematical precision and computerised equanimity: 100 Smart Cities, ‘built from the internet up’, which recognise only the disciplined and data-annotated urban resident. Machines which prophesise on dishonesty and criminality and place us in an information straitjacket from which there is no escape. Technologies will mine data from the depths of our bodies and our environment, and, in turn, displace us from both.

What do these futures hold in store for us? Who do these visions of AI futures serve? How do we resist, reimagine and reclaim our technological futures? To paraphrase Ruha Benjamin, how do we imagine and craft the worlds we cannot live without, just as we dismantle the ones we cannot live within?

In early 2021, artists and activists from India were invited to reflect on the trajectory of Artificial Intelligence in India; to speculate, prophesise and craft new technological imaginaries through their art and writing, as part of Divij Joshi’s fellowship project with the Mozilla Foundation, the AI Observatory.

The resulting projects have been incorporated into the online exhibit – ‘Reclaiming AI Futures’. The projects and artworks in this exhibit span different digital media – films, gifs, written essays, interactive games, social media feeds – each of which critically reflect on AI and its political, cultural, economic and affective implications; on how technology mediates our identities, and how we might ‘reclaim’ agency from, or with, AI.

On November 23, 2021, from 7:30 – 9:00 PM, the contributors to this project will discuss their work and their visions for Reclaiming AI Futures in an online session, hosted by Divij and the Centre for Internet and Society.

The Contributors to Reclaiming AI Futures are:

All India IT and ITeS Employee’s Union and Critter’s Collective, ‘Reclaiming AI Futures for Economic Planning’, Mixed Media (Twitter)
Brindaalakshmi K., ‘Word!’, Speculative Fiction (English and Tamil)
Daksha Dixit, Simran Singh and Kartik Handa, ‘AlgoLeela’, Gifs
diane daayan, ‘I Am AI v.2.3.’, Roleplaying Game
Paulanthony George, ‘Illustrations for the AI Observatory’, Illustrations
Shristi Singh, ‘This Scene May Contain…’, Graphic Media
Vishal Kumaraswamy, ‘your dataset won’t let me thrive’ & ‘ your dataset must die’, Video Essays

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/reclaiming-ai-futures

Platforms, Power and Politics: Digital Labour in India

ambika — 2021-07-20T02:42:47Z

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) invites you to a webinar wherein it will launch and present four research reports on digital labour in India. The webinar will be hosted on July 28, 2021 at 5 p.m. (IST) / 11.30 a.m. (UTC)

Click here to register for the Event Now

Download the brochure of the Event here

Few recent developments in labour and employment have attracted as much attention as the expansion of platform economies. Spanning a range of services and industries, digital platforms have become a permanent fixture in upper-class urban consumption in India.

In this webinar, we will launch and present four research reports on digital labour in India, hosted at the Centre for Internet and Society. Together, they uncover aspects of labouring in three dominant industries of platform work: logistics, transportation, and domestic and care work. These works were supported separately by the Azim Premji University and Foundation, and the Feminist Internet Research Network (incubated by the Association for Progressive Communications).

Informed by deep ethnographic work, these reports unpack the contours of power, control and resistance that shape the experience and outcomes of working for digital platforms. The reports arrive at the ways in which platforms, as moving techno-social assemblages [1] distribute risk and reward in ways that implicate the livelihoods, agency, and bargaining power of actors across digital platforms’ value chains.

Each of these reports also contributes towards developing a southern understanding platform work. In contexts where there is an increasing reliance on technology providers for developmental outcomes and provision of public services, and informality is the dominant labour market structure, what does it mean to work on digital platforms? By situating the histories of informal work in India, and the intersectional identities constituting informality, these reports highlight how digital platforms can both reinforce and reorient the transaction of informal service work.

With restrictions on public mobility and the “hygiene theatre”[2]resulting from the outbreak of covid-19, digital labour platforms have sought to entrench their position in urban India as providers of ‘essential services’. As digital platforms gain centre-stage in India’s various marketplaces, it becomes all the more urgent to collectively reflect upon languages of strategic intervention that can enable a worker-first and southern imagination of digital platform work, and grassroots as well as policy thought around it.

We invite researchers, practitioners, activists and students from across disciplines to join us in this venture.

The event will be segmented into 4 presentations (of 10-12 minutes each), with space for discussion and feedback at the end of each presentation. The detailed agenda, and a reading list are provided below.

Agenda

5.00 p.m.: Introduction

5.05 p.m. Session 1: Perspectives from platformisation of domestic and care work in India - Ambika Tandon and Aayush Rathi, Centre for Internet and Society

5.25 p.m.: Session 2: Promise and prescriptions in the platformisation of food delivery work in Mumbai - Simiran Lalvani, University of Oxford

5.45 p.m.: Break

5.50 p.m.: Session 3: ‘Taxi’ nahi chalata hoon main (I don’t drive a Taxi): Flexibility and risk in the Ridehailing platform economy in Mumbai - Anushree Gupta, IIT Hyderabad

6.10 p.m.: Session 4: The unbearable lightness of being: Performing precarious cab-driving in Delhi - Sarah Zia, Independent researcher

6.30 p.m.: Discussion and Closing

Moderator: Noopur Raval, AI Now

Reading List

Ambika Tandon and Aayush Rathi (2021). Platforms, Power and Politics: Perspectives from Domestic and Care Work in India.
Through exhaustive platform-mapping and feminist ethnographic work, the authors uncovers the implications of digital platforms’ operations on domestic and care workers’ civil liberties, social protection, and gainful work outcomes. Access the full report here.
Simiran Lalvani (2019). Workers’ fictive kinship relations in Mumbai app-based food delivery.
This essay unpacks the kinship term bhai (brother) in order to understand the implications of such kinship sedimentations on food delivery work in Mumbai. Complicating the notion of an atomised worker, it details how having a fictive kinship ties with a bhai eases entry to platform work, upon joining ties guide negotiation with the discipline imposed by the employer and reflects on the experience of women workers. Read the essay here.
Sarah Zia (2019). Not knowing as pedagogy: Ride-hailing drivers in Delhi.
Ride-hailing platforms have “disrupted” public transport in India since their arrival but what hasn’t received enough attention is how these platforms create a deliberate regime of information invisibility and control to keep the drivers constantly on their toes which works to the companies’ advantage. This essay explores how the lack of transparency around algorithmic structures not only prohibits drivers from knowing completely and surely about their work (“why did I get this ride?”, “why did my ratings drop?”) but also how they build tactics of coping and earning from a place of unknowing. Read the essay here.
Anushree Gupta (2019). Ladies ‘Log’: Women’s Safety and Risk Transfer in Ridehailing.
Gig work produces new risks and safety concerns that require new mediations and negotiations. This post outlines the gendered cityscapes that drivers in the ride hailing sector navigate on an everyday basis. Building on insights from fieldwork in the ridehailing economy in Mumbai, the essay argues that drivers rely not only on their spatial knowledge of the city, but also on social knowledge that genders social exchange, predicates identities and draws boundaries. Analysing women’s presence as workers and passengers/customers, the author highlights the figure of the woman and the gendered forms of labour that underpin gig workers’ everyday realities. Read the essay here.
Noopur Raval (2019). Power Chronography of Food-Delivery Work.
This essay presents the observations around the design of temporality within app-based food-delivery platforms in India. It draws on semi-structured interviews by field-researcher Rajendra and his time spent “hanging out” with food-delivery workers who are also often referred to as “hunger saviors” and “partners” in the platform ecosystem in India. Read the essay here.
Simiran Lalvani (2021). Sexual contracts of app-based food delivery: An examination of social reproduction through feeding and being fed in Mumbai, India.
What happens to socially reproductive norms of feeding when apps seem to democratise work? How does this work mediate the tension between workers’, consumers’ choices and the prescription of dominant norms about feeding and being fed? This paper examines the socio-cultural burdens and risks that arise for workers and customers through 3 interrelated aspects – (i) household requirements of food delivery work, (ii) the definition, social meanings and anxieties associated with eating out and (iii) how platforms make anxiety inducing outside food popular, if not palatable. Read the chapter here.

[1] Edwards, D.W. and B. Gelms. (2018). ‘The rhetorics of platforms: Definitions, approaches, futures’, Present Tense: Special Issue on the Rhetoric of Platforms, 6(3).

[2] Thompson, D. (July 27, 2020). Hygiene Theater Is a Huge Waste of Time. The Atlantic. Available at https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/scourge-hygiene-theater/614599/

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-digital-labour-in-india

Disinformation in the Indian Digital News Media Market

pranav — 2021-07-06T09:15:16Z

The Centre for Internet and Society and the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) are launching a study into the risk of disinformation on digital news platforms in India, creating an index that is intended to serve donors and brands with a neutral assessment of news sites that they can utilise to defund disinformation.

To register, please visit this link: https://forms.gle/VDCFpzDyjCbRdP559

India’s news consumption is increasingly dominated by the internet. In 2021, it is estimated that 284 million online users in India will consume their news digitally in the country’s eight top languages, a figure which has nearly doubled since 2016. Yet, greater reliance on online news does not equate to greater trust. A greater share of Indians trust news from newspapers and magazines (55 percent) than do online sources (34 percent).

The harms of disinformation are proliferating around the globe—threatening our elections, our health, and our shared sense of facts. The infodemic laid bare by COVID-19 conspiracy theories clearly shows that disinformation costs peoples’ lives. Websites masquerading as news outlets are driving and profiting financially from the situation.

One effective means of combating disinformation is to target its funding sources. In this report, we analysed 56 websites based on the GDI risk rating, which provides advertisers, ad tech companies and platforms with greater information about a range of disinformation flags related to a site’s content (reliability of content), operations (operational and editorial integrity) and context (perceptions of brand trust).

We invite you to the launch event of the report Media Market Risk Ratings: India, and a panel discussion focused on online misinformation and disinformation in India, the role of digital news publishers, and effective strategies to combat disinformation.

See more details and an agenda here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/disinformation-in-the-indian-digital-news-media-market

Privacy in the Age of the Pandemic

pranav — 2020-07-15T11:34:00Z

The Centre for Internet and Society, JKGA Law Chambers, and LawyersClubIndia invites you to the online panel discussion on ‘Privacy in the Age of the Pandemic.’

This event will happen on July 18 (Saturday), from 5:30pm to 7:00pm. The discussion will bring together an inter-disciplinary group of experts to unpack some of the core Privacy issues that will undoubtedly shape society, and future governance in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Register for the event here.

As panelists, we have:
1) Arnab Kumar, who was instrumental in coming up with the Aarogya Setu app and has led policy initiatives from the front at NITI Aayog;
2) Vrinda Bhandari - well known for her advocacy and academic work in this domain;
3) Sahil Deo - who is helping stakeholders make more informed decisions in policy using data analysis;
4) Mira Swaminathan - a policy researcher with deep domain experience in the dangers of surveillance; and
5) Antaraa Vasudev, founder of Civis, an initiative enabling the layperson to understand the effects of policy changes on them!

The session will be moderated by Shweta Reddy, and Akshit Goyal.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/privacy-in-the-age-of-the-pandemic

How to Shut Down Internet Shutdowns

pranav — 2020-02-03T11:13:12Z

This talk will focus on the challenges and opportunities for research on internet shutdowns after the judgement of the Supreme Court in Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India. Stepping beyond the judgement, there will be a wider discussion on the practice of whitelists, blocking powers of the central government.

About the Speaker

Apar Gupta is the Executive Director of the Internet Freedom Foundation.

Apar has been fighting the good fight for digital rights. While in law school almost 20 years ago, he wrote a legal commentary on the IT Act that is now in its third edition. As a lawyer in the Supreme Court, he worked on landmark cases such as on Section 66A, Intermediary Liability, Internet Shutdowns, the Right to Privacy and Privacy.

He also helped create public campaigns to advance net neutrality, reform defamation laws, fight Internet shutdowns and create a privacy statute. Apar previously ran his own successful law firm, was profiled in Outlook Magazine and listed in Forbes India's list of 30 under 30. He has also worked as a commercial litigator and partner in top law firms, written papers cited widely in local and international publications and taught courses at NLS and NLU.

RSVP here, or by sending an email Torsha (torsha@cis-india.org).

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/how-to-shutdown-internet-shutdowns

How safe is your harbour? Discussions on intermediary liability and user rights

gurshabad — 2020-01-10T04:43:35Z

The Centre for Internet and Society is holding discussions on 10 January 2020 to discuss research on automated content filtering, content takedown, traceability and the future of intermediary liability in India

Background

The Manila Principles outline three kinds of liability regimes that countries follow while regulating intermediaries; expansive protections against liability, conditional immunity and primary liability. Post Avneesh Bajaj, India has been following the second model, where intermediaries are provided safe harbour for the acts of their users. In December 2018, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), released a draft of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules), 2018. These rules raised a host of concerns in the way they envision liability and user rights in the digital domain. The proposed amendments may mark a departure from the current model by creating cumbersome obligations for intermediaries to avail safe harbour.

At the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), we have been closely examining some of the draft rules to decipher the changed regime. Our research has focussed on the impact of mandating automated content filtering, shortened turnaround times for intermediaries to take content down, and the traceability of originators of information.

As part of our ongoing work, we are hosting this event to contribute to the discussion around the nuances of the rules and the future of intermediary liability in India. As such, this event will begin with a brief analysis of the proposed amendments. We will also address the restrictions these would place on freedom of expression online and the way intermediaries do their business, among others. Subsequently, we would be having sessions on particular aspects of the rules. Finally, we would dedicate the last session on contemplating the future of intermediary liability regime in India.

Panels

Automated content filtering

One of the more controversial and stringent rules introduced in the proposed amendments is Rule 3(9) which necessitates the use of automated technology in filtering content. The draft rule does not specify the scope of the content to be detected, the technologies to be used, or any procedural safeguards that accompany the deployment of the technology. The discussion on the rule will, thus, centre around the legal validity of the proposal, the effect on different scales of intermediaries, and the consequences of intermediaries’ compliance on the exercise of freedom of expression in India.

Panelists: Kanksshi Agarwal (Senior Researcher, Centre for Policy Research); Nayantara Ranganathan (Independent researcher); Shashank Mohan (Counsel, Software Freedom Law Centre); Moderator: Akriti Bopanna (Policy Officer, CIS)

Content takedown

In this session, we will examine S.69 and S.79 of the IT Act that permit the Government to mandate intermediaries to remove/block content. Our discussion will focus on the procedural flaws of the law, issues of due process, and the lack of transparency in the legal process of content takedown. Additionally, we will discuss findings from our research on the feasibility of a specific turnaround time, and regulatory factors that need to be considered before fixing an appropriate takedown timeframe.

Panelists: Bhavna Jha (Research Associate, IT for Change); Divij Joshi (Technology Policy Fellow, Mozilla); Moderator: Torsha Sarkar (Policy Officer, CIS)

Traceability

The draft Intermediary Guidelines propose requiring intermediaries to enable traceability of originators of information. While this move is ostensibly to crack down on misinformation and fake news, there are questions regarding its feasibility and effects on platform architecture. More importantly, it poses grave dangers for the freedom of expression and privacy of users. The discussion will be centred around how traceability interacts with the Constitution and other laws in India, the litigation around it, possible methods to implement traceability (by or without breaking encryption) and what it means for the larger debate on intermediary liability and free speech.

Panelists: Aditi Agrawal (Senior Research Associate, MediaNama); Anand Venkatanarayanan (Cybersecurity researcher); G S Madhusudan (Principal Scientist, IIT Madras); Moderator: Tanaya Rajwade (Policy Officer, CIS)

Future of intermediary liability in India

The panel will bring together the threads from the previous discussions and discuss the ways in which the draft intermediary guidelines represent a departure from the current model of intermediary liability in India, and its potential effects on similar regulation in other countries. We will discuss the nature of changes, especially as they relate to classification of intermediaries, and whether they are within the scope of S.79 of the IT Act and the intermediary guidelines. We will also aim to address the effects of legislation and jurisprudence in related areas such as data protection and competition law. Finally, we will discuss regulatory frameworks for intermediary liability that should be considered in India.

Panelists: Alok Prasanna (Senior Resident Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy); Sarvjeet Singh (Executive Director, Centre for Communication Governance); Tanya Sadana (Principal Associate, Ikigai Law); Udbhav Tiwari (Public Policy Advisor, Mozilla); Moderator: Gurshabad Grover (Research Manager, CIS)

RSVP

To register for the event, please RSVP here.

Note that this is a research event. Please ignore social media messages that have erroneously identified this event as a protest.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/how-safe-is-your-harbour-discussions-on-intermediary-liability-and-user-rights

Cybersecurity Visuals Media Handbook: Launch Event

saumyaa — 2019-12-06T09:27:37Z

6th December | 6 pm | Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore

The existing cybersecurity imagery in media publications has been observed to be limited in its communication of the discourse prevailing in cybersecurity policy circles, relying heavily on stereotypes such as hooded men, padlocks, and binary codes.

In order to enable a clearer, more nuanced representation of cybersecurity concepts, we, at CIS, along with Design Beku are launching the Cybersecurity Visuals Media Handbook. This handbook has been conceived to be a concise guide for media publications to understand the specific concepts within cybersecurity and use it as a reference to create visuals that are more informative, relevant, and look beyond stereotypes.

We will be launching the interactive digital handbook on 6th December, 2019, at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, at 6 pm. The event would include a discussion on the purpose, process, and concepts behind this illustrated guide by CIS researchers and Design Beku.

The launch will be followed by a panel discussion on Digital Media Illustrations & the Politics of Technology. We will be joined by Padmini Ray Murray, Paulanthony George, and Kruthika N S in the panel. It will be moderated by Saumyaa Naidu.

Padmini Ray Murray

Padmini founded the Design Beku collective in 2018 to help not-for-profit organisations explore their potential through research-led design and digital development. Trained as an academic researcher, Padmini currently as the head of communications at Obvious, a design studio. She regularly gives talks and publishes on the necessity of technology and design to be decolonial, local, and ethical.

Paulanthony George

Paulanthony hates writing bios in the third person.
My research focuses on the relationships between made objects, the maker and the behaviour of making, in the context of spreadable digital media (and behaviours stemming from it). I study internet memes inside and outside of India and phenomenon such as dissent, satire, free expression and ambivalent behaviour fostered by them. The research is at the intersection of digital ethnography, culture studies, human-computer interaction, humour studies and critical theory. I spend my time watching people. I draw them, the way they are, the way some people want to be and sometimes I have interesting conversations with them.

Kruthika N S

Kruthika NS is a lawyer at LawNK and researcher at the Sports Law & Policy Centre, Bengaluru. She uses art as a medium to explore the intersections of the law and society, with gender justice featuring as the central theme of her work. Her art has included subjects such as the #MeToo movement in India, and the feminist principles of the internet, among several other doodles.

Saumyaa Naidu

Saumyaa is a designer and researcher at the Centre for Internet and Society.

Agenda
6:00 - 6:15 pm - Introduction
6:15 - 6:45 pm - Presentation on the Media Handbook by Paulanthony George
6:45 - 7:00 pm - Tea/ Coffee
7:00 - 8:00 pm - Panel discussion on Digital Media Illustrations & the Politics of Technology
8:00 - 8:30 pm - Tea/ Coffee and Snacks

The interactive version of handbook can be accessed here. The print versions of the handbook can be accessed at: Single Scroll Printing, Tiled-Paste Printing.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cybersecurity-visuals-media-handbook-launch-event

Domestic Work in the ‘Gig Economy’

aayush — 2019-12-06T04:52:11Z

The CIS and Domestic Workers’ Rights Union (DWRU) are hosting a discussion on the ‘gig economy’ and domestic work on Saturday, November 16 at Student Christian Movement of India, Mission Road, Bangalore. This event is a part of a project supported by the Feminist Internet Research Network led by Association for Progressive Communication (APC) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.

Presentation: Download (PDF)

Concept Note: Download (PDF)

Venue: Student Christian Movement of India (29, 2nd Cross, CSI Compound, Mission Road, Sampangi Rama Nagara)

Date and Time: Saturday, November 16, 3:00-5:30 pm

Location: URL (Google Maps)

Feminist Internet Research Network: URL

Over the last few months, the Centre for Internet and Society, India (CIS) and the Domestic Workers’ Rights Union (DWRU) have been doing research on the platformisation of domestic work in India. In the first phase of the research, we gathered data through interviews with several stakeholders. More information about the project can be found here: https://cis-india.org/raw/digital-domestic-work-india-announcement.

We now find ourselves in the second phase of the research in which we have prepared a preliminary report and are seeking feedback and inputs from experts. For this, we invite you to a roundtable discussion on domestic workers in the ‘gig economy’.

The participants at the roundtable will comprise of representatives from key stakeholder groups including platform workers (i.e. domestic workers sourcing jobs through platforms), platform companies, domestic workers organisations, civil society researchers and the state labour department.

The event will begin with a presentation of the project and our initial findings. The rest of the time is set aside for a semi-moderated discussion between all participants. To ensure a focused discussion, we are also limiting participation to 30, and are hoping to have a good mix across stakeholder groups.

If you will be joining us, please RSVP to Aayush Rathi at aayush@cis-india.org.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/domestic-work-in-the-gig-economy-20191116

Cultivating India’s Cyber Defense Strategy

pranav — 2019-11-01T08:24:03Z

The Centre for Internet & Society is hosting this roundtable discussion to identify critical vectors in India's Cyber Defense debate, and hash out next steps for a robust cyber defense agenda.

Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) are woven into every aspect of life in the twenty-first century. In India, individuals, government institutions, and the private sector increasingly rely on cyberspace for discharging economic, social, and political functions. However, as both states and non-state actors alike continue to engage in the weaponization and exploitation of cyberspace for reaping strategic dividend, India needs a strategy that secures its digital frontiers. As India firms up its cyber security strategy in 2020, critical discourse on response, detection, and publication of incidents, and governance of vulnerabilities, exploitation, and disclosure is certainly the need of the hour.

Recently, the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu is suspected to have fallen victim to a potentially disastrous cyber attack. In September 2019, Kaspersky Labs published their report on the DTrack remote administration trojan, which is suspected to have been operated by Lazarus APT. After initially refuting claims made by security researchers, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited has finally confirmed an incident. The reason for the initial denial remains unknown, and the consequences of India’s defense posturing need to be re-examined.

Undoubtedly, India’s defense posturing needs to adopt multilateral cooperation underscored by robust technical readiness. The question is “What does the Indian government need, at the technical, legal, and policy levels, to achieve this readiness?”

Find more details here.

If you are interested in applying for a spot at the event, please fill up this form.

Please note, filling up this form does not guarantee you a seat, since seats are limited. Please await an official email confirmation from us.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/cultivating-india2019s-cyber-defense-strategy

Draft Model Fintech Security Standards: Closed Door Consultation

pranav — 2019-10-15T13:20:21Z

The Centre for Internet and Society has been researching privacy and security standards in the Indian ‘Fintech space’ for the past year. One component of our research has been to create Draft Security Standards for Fintech Entities, which are more specific than the requirements of the SPDI Rules. We hope that these will serve as a set of useful parameters that enables innovation while furthering privacy and security. Through this consultation, we hope to further explore these gaps, understand the hurdles that players in the market may face when complying with these requirements and thereby improve these parameters.

More details about the event can be found here.

If you would like to participate in this consultation event, please send an email to pranav@cis-india.org

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/draft-model-fintech-security-standards-closed-door-consultation

AI: A Full Spectrum Regulatory Challenge

pranav — 2019-10-02T04:21:04Z

Sunil Abraham will be discussing the Policy Brief on AI: A Full Spectrum Regulatory Challenge from 6.30 - 7.30pm on September 27, 2019 at the Viceregal (2nd Floor), the Claridges, New Delhi. The discussion is being hosted by the Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University Delhi and the Centre for Internet and Society and is supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.

Today, there are certain misconceptions regarding the regulation of AI. Some corporations would like us to believe that AI is being developed and used in a regulatory vacuum. Others in civil society organisations believe that AI is a regulatory circumvention strategy deployed by corporations. As a result, these organisations call for onerous regulations targeting corporations. However, some uses of AI by corporations can be completely benign and some uses AI by the state can result in the most egregious human rights violations. Therefore policy makers need to throw every regulatory tool from their arsenal to unlock the benefits of AI and mitigate its harms.

This policy brief proposes a granular, full spectrum approach to the regulation of AI depending on who is using AI, who is impacted by that use and what human rights are impacted. Everything from deregulation, to forbearance, to updated regulations, to absolute and blanket prohibitions needs to be considered depending on the specifics. This approach stands in contrast to approaches of ethics, omnibus law, homogeneous principles, and human rights, which will result in inappropriate under-regulation or over-regulation of the sector.

RSVP by sending an email to shwetar@cis-india.org, or by signing up here: https://forms.gle/y7CUQRFoLAUvU4yPA

Find the files for reference here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/ai-a-full-spectrum-regulatory-challenge

#MappingDigitalLabour - Panel discussion on platform-work in Mumbai and New Delhi

sumandro — 2019-07-20T11:58:19Z

With the rise and popularity of app-based platforms such as Ola, Uber, Swiggy Zomato, and others, there are growing public conversation about regulation of such 'gig-work' platforms and the work conditions of people who work for them. The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) invites you to a panel discussion on Friday, July 19 in our Bangalore office, where the researchers associated with the project will present preliminary findings, and ethical and methodological challenges of studying app-based platform-work in India. Panelists Anushree Gupta, Rajendra Jadhav, Sarah Zia and Simiran Lalvani, who have conducted field studies of ride-hailing and food-delivery work in Mumbai and New Delhi, will share their preliminary field insights along with reflections on what it meant to do such studies, how they went about studying gig-work, and challenges that arose in their work. The discussion will be moderated by Noopur Raval who co-led the project. We invite scholars, journalists, and all interested members of the public to join us for the event. Tea and snacks will be served at 5 pm.

This project is supported by research assistance from the Azim Premji University.

Download: Poster and Flyer

Session Recording: Video (YouTube)

Agenda

5:00 pm - Tea and snacks in the CIS lawn

5:30 pm - Introduction to the project (Sumandro)

5:40-6:20 pm - Reflections based on field studies by the speakers (Anushree, Rajendra, Sarah, and Simiran)

6:20-6:40 pm - Speakers' responses to questions posed by the moderator (speakers and Noopur)

6:40-7:15 pm - Open discussion (moderated by Noopur)

Speakers and Moderator

Anushree Gupta is a Research Associate at Tandem Research. She is interested in studying the embeddedness of technology in society, with a focus on technical workers. Her research interests include technology mediated work, digital technologies and labour sociology. Her masters thesis examined the structure and dissemination of training in vocational education institutes (ITIs). Anushree has worked professionally on software development projects, including game development and social media analytics. She holds an MA in Development Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and a B. Tech. (ICT) from DA-IICT, Gandhinagar.

Anushree studied dimensions of platform-work among taxi drivers in Mumbai for this project.

Rajendra Jadhav is working as a research consultant, research fellow, researcher and research mentor with various non government organisations and academic institute for last 12 years. Rajendra has worked with Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai as a Research Officer, as Program Director for PUKAR’s Youth Research Fellowship Program, and with National Dalit Watch - NCDHR, New Delhi as a National Coordinator for Research and Advocacy. Rajendra has pursued MA in Media and Cultural Studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Rajendra studied dimensions of platform-work among food delivery persons in New Delhi for this project.

Sarah Zia is an education reporter working with Live Mint, and has previously worked with the Times of India and has undertaken an independent study of mobility and transport in Delhi (focusing on paratransit in Delhi and the Delhi Ring Railway). Sarah has pursued MA in Mass Communication from AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi.

Sarah studied dimensions of platform-work among taxi drivers in New Delhi for this project.

Simiran Lalvani is currently working as a Consultant at Microsoft Research on a Future of Work project. She has an MA in Development and Labour Studies from the Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.

Simiran studied dimensions of platform-work among food delivery persons in Mumbai for this project.

Noopur Raval is a PhD researcher at the University of California Irvine where she studies issues of labor technology. She has also worked with the Wikimedia Foundation and Microsoft Research in the past. She is interested in questions of intersectionality, and is an avid consumer of popular culture and food.

Noopur is a co-principal investigator of this project (along with Sumandro).

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/raw/platform-work-india-panel-discussion-20190719

Discussion on Open Standards with Bernd Erk and Jiten Vaidya

Admin — 2019-07-04T16:53:37Z

Rootconf organised a discussion on open standards at CIS Bangalore office. Zainab Bawa, Karan Saini and Anwesha Das coordinated and organised the event.

The discussions created awareness on:

Consequences of building your applications around non-open standards.
Risks associated with non-open standards.
How to build your applications around open standards.

Open standards are important for:

Business
Application development
Communications
Open internet

The event kicked off with Bernd Erk talking about how the convenience of availing services from a few 'cloud' providers is killing open standards in the space. Jiten Vaidya then discussed his experience running a successful open source product and business, and the future of open standards in the space. Kiran Jonnalagadda and Gurshabad Grover contributed to and moderated the subsequent discussion.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/discussion-on-open-standards-with-bernd-erk-and-jiten-vaidya