Centre for Internet & Society

Response to the Draft of The Information Technology [Intermediary Guidelines (Amendment) Rules] 2018

by Gurshabad Grover, Elonnai Hickok, Arindrajit Basu, Akriti

In this response, we aim to examine whether the draft rules meet tests of constitutionality and whether they are consistent with the parent Act. We also examine potential harms that may arise from the Rules as they are currently framed and make recommendations to the draft rules that we hope will help the Government meet its objectives while remaining situated within the constitutional ambit.

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CIS Submission to UN High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation

by Aayush Rathi, Ambika Tandon, Arindrajit Basu and Elonnai Hickok

The UN high-level panel on Digital Cooperation issued a call for inputs that called for responses to various questions. CIS responded to the call for inputs.

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CIS Submission to UN High Level Panel on Digital Co-operation

by Aayush Rathi, Ambika Tandon, Arindrajit Basu and Elonnai Hickok

The High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation was convened by the UN Secretary-General to advance proposals to strengthen cooperation in the digital space among Governments, the private sector, civil society, international organizations, academia, the technical community and other relevant stakeholders. The Panel issued a call for input that called for responses to various questions. CIS responded to the call for inputs.

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India should reconsider its proposed regulation of online content

by Gurshabad Grover

The lack of technical considerations in the proposal is also apparent since implementing the proposal is infeasible for certain intermediaries. End-to-end encrypted messaging services cannot “identify” unlawful content since they cannot decrypt it. Presumably, the government’s intention is not to disallow end-to-end encryption so that intermediaries can monitor content.

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Response to GCSC on Request for Consultation: Norm Package Singapore

by Arindrajit Basu, Gurshabad Grover and Elonnai Hickok

The GCSC opened a public comment procedure to solicit comments and obtain additional feedback. CIS responded to the public call-offering comments on all six norms and proposing two further norms.

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The DNA Bill has a sequence of problems that need to be resolved

by Shweta Mohandas and Elonnai Hickok

In its current form, it’s far from comprehensive and fails to adequately address privacy and security concerns.

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How to make EVMs hack-proof, and elections more trustworthy

by Pranesh Prakash

Free and fair elections are the expression of democratic emancipation. India has always led by example: the Nehru Committee sought universal adult franchise in 1928, at a time when France didn’t let women vote, and laws in the USA allowed disqualification of poor, illiterate, and African-American voters. But how reliable are our voting systems, particularly in terms of security?

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Registering for Aadhaar in 2019

by Sunil Abraham

It is a lot less scary registering for Aadhaar in 2019 than it was in 2010, given how the authentication modalities have since evolved.

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Economics of Cybersecurity: Literature Review Compendium

by Natallia Khaniejo

The twenty first century has witnessed an unprecedented conflation of everyday experiences and technosocial practices. The emergence of technologies like the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Digital Payment infrastructures are all emblematic of this conflation of technology with economic, social and political modes of existence.

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Is the new ‘interception’ order old wine in a new bottle?

by Elonnai Hickok, Vipul Kharbanda, Shweta Mohandas and Pranav M. Bidare

The government could always authorise intelligence agencies to intercept and monitor communications, but the lack of clarity is problematic.

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