Internet Governance Blog
Report of the Group of Experts on Privacy vs. The Leaked 2014 Privacy Bill
Following our previous post comparing the leaked 2014 Privacy Bill with the leaked 2011 Privacy Bill, this post will compare the recommendations provided in the Report of the Group of Experts on Privacy by the Justice AP Shah Committee to the text of the leaked 2014 Privacy Bill. Below is an analysis of recommendations from the Report that are incorporated in the text of the Bill, and recommendations in the Report that are not incorporated in the text of the Bill.
Net Neutrality, Free Speech and the Indian Constitution - I
In this post, I will explore net neutrality in the context of Indian law and the Indian Constitution.
Who Governs the Internet? Implications for Freedom and National Security
The second half of last year has been quite momentous for Internet governance thanks to Edward Snowden. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff became aware that they were targets of US surveillance for economic not security reasons. They protested loudly.
Between the Local and the Global: Notes Towards Thinking the Nature of Internet Policy
This post by Nishant Shah is part of a series related to the 2014 Milton Wolf Seminar on Media and Diplomacy: The Third Man Theme Revisited: Foreign Policies of the Internet in a Time Of Surveillance and Disclosure, which takes place in Vienna, Austria from March 30 – April 1, 2014.
Marco Civil da Internet: Brazil’s ‘Internet Constitution’
On March 25, 2014, Brazil's lower house of parliament passed bill no. 2126/2011, popularly known as Marco Civil da Internet. The Marco Civil is a charter of Internet user-rights and service provider responsibilities, committed to freedom of speech and expression, privacy, and accessibility and openness of the Internet. In this post, the author looks at the pros and cons of the bill.
Leaked Privacy Bill: 2014 vs. 2011
The Centre for Internet and Society has recently received a leaked version of the draft Privacy Bill 2014 that the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India has drafted.
Intermediary Liability Resources
We bring you a list of intermediary resources as part of research on internet governance. This blog post will be updated on an ongoing basis.
The Age of Shame
The ability to capture private images is breeding a dangerous form of digital shaming. Within the online space, where wonderments often run rife, and conspiracy theories travel at the speed of light, there are many dark recesses where netizens half-jokingly, self-referentially, in a spirit of part-truth, part-exaggeration, often wonder on what the real reason is for the internet to exist.
CIS Statement at ICANN 49's Public Forum
This was a statement made by Pranesh Prakash at the ICANN 49 meeting (on March 27, 2014), arguing that ICANN's bias towards the North America and Western Europe result in a lack of legitimacy, and hoping that the IANA transition process provides an opportunity to address this.
European Union Draft Report Admonishes Mass Surveillance, Calls for Stricter Data Protection and Privacy Laws
Ever since the release of the “Snowden files”, the secret documents evidencing the massive scale of surveillance undertaken by America’s National Security Agency and publically released by whistle-blower Edward Snowden, surveillance in the digital age has come to the fore of the global debate on internet governance and privacy.
Privacy worries cloud Facebook's WhatsApp Deal
Privacy activists in the United States have asked the competition regulator or the Federal Trade Commission to put on hold Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp. Why have they done this when Facebook has promised to leave WhatsApp untouched as a standalone app?
Net Neutrality and Privacy
The highly contentious and polarising debate on net-neutrality will have a large impact on shaping the future of the internet and ultimately on the users of the internet. One important issue which needs to be prioritized while debating the necessity or desirability of a legal regime which advocates net-neutrality is its implication on privacy.
NTIA to give up control of the Internet's root
On Friday evening the U.S. government's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it was setting into motion a transition to give up a few powers that it holds over some core Internet functions, and that this would happen by September 2015. Pranesh Prakash provides a brief response to that announcement.
New Standard Operating Procedures for Lawful Interception and Monitoring
Government issues new guidelines to TSP’s to assist Lawful Interception and Monitoring.
Institute for Internet & Society 2014, Pune
Last month, activists, journalists, researchers, and members of civil society came together at the 2014 Institute for Internet & Society in Pune, which was hosted by CIS and funded by the Ford Foundation. The Institute was a week long, in which participants heard from speakers from various backgrounds on issues arising out of the intersection of internet and society, such as intellectual property, freedom of expression, and accessibility, to name a few. Below is an official reporting summarizing sessions that took place.
Comparison of Section 35(1) of the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill and Section 4 of the Identification Act Revised Statute of Canada
A comparison of section 35(1) of the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill, section 4 of the Identification Act, Revised Statute of Canada, and a review of international best practices.
Big Democracy, Big Surveillance: India's Surveillance State
In India, surveillance is on the rise by the state to tackle crime and terrorism, and private companies are eager to meet the demand.
Surveillance and the Indian Constitution - Part 3: The Public/Private Distinction and the Supreme Court’s Wrong Turn
After its decision in Gobind, the Supreme Court's privacy floodgates opened; a series of claims involving private parties came before its docket, and the resulting jurisprudence ended up creating confusion between state-individual surveillance, and individual-individual surveillance.
UIDAI Practices and the Information Technology Act, Section 43A and Subsequent Rules
UIDAI practices and section 43A of the IT Act are analyzed in this post.
Open Call for Comments: The Privacy Protection Bill 2013 drafted by the Centre for Internet and Society
The Centre for Internet and Society is announcing an Open Call for Comments to the CIS Privacy Protection Bill 2013.
