We are anonymous, we are legion

Targeting surveillance

praskrishna — 2014-12-30T14:10:58Z

In the fall of 2005, Scotland Yard raided a flat in west London and arrested a suspected al-Qaeda militant known by a teasing Arabic nickname, Irhabi (“Terrorist”) 007.

The article by Ajai Sreevatsan was published in the Hindu on December 28, 2014. Sunil Abraham gave his inputs.

The similarities between Irhabi 007, later identified as Younis Tsouli, and India’s Mehdi Masoor Biswas are uncanny.

Neither participated in any terror attack. Their reputation stems from an alleged involvement as cyber propagandists for proto-terror groups — Irhabi was distributing manuals and teaching online seminars on behalf of the emerging al-Qaeda faction in Iraq, while Mehdi is alleged to be an IS sympathiser. Both in their early 20s with cover identities during the day, and separated by a decade in technological evolution.

Such expertise within terror groups is hardly surprising, says Sunil Abraham of the Centre for Internet and Society. “Any organisation engaged in a war for hearts and minds and oil fields will exploit contemporary technology to its fullest potential,” he says.

Irhabi currently serves a 16-year jail term, while Mehdi awaits his trial. What their cases highlight is that the phenomenon of young, tech-savvy armchair radicals is nothing new.

Research done at Israel’s Haifa University, which tracks the proliferation of terrorist websites, shows that the number of such sites went up from fewer than 100 in the late-1990s to more than 4,800 in just a decade. There is also credible evidence that an al-Qaeda website posted a sketched-out proposal for the 2004 Madrid bombings three months before the attack. Another macabre example is the crowd-sourcing effort launched in 2005 by the Victorious Army Group to build its website. By the competition’s rules, the winner would get to fire a rocket at an American base.

As Indian agencies gear up to respond to similar online threats in this part of the world, Mr. Abraham says India should not repeat the mistakes made by the West over the previous decade. “We should not get caught up in big data surveillance,” he says.

“Surveillance is like salt. It could be counter-productive even if slightly in excess. Ideally, surveillance must be targeted. Indiscriminate surveillance just increases the size of the haystack, making it difficult to find the needles,” Mr. Abraham says.

“Even in the case of Mehdi, his identity was uncovered not by online spying but by Channel 4 which did some old-fashioned detective work,” he says.

In any case, recent events show that the threat of online terror propaganda might be overblown. Much like online activism, it is subject to the law of diminishing returns.

A set of letters sent by newly recruited volunteers of IS was leaked to the French newspaper Le Figaro earlier this month and it shows youngsters complaining about being made to do the dishes or the Iraqi winter. One of them wrote: “I’m fed up to the back teeth. My iPod no longer works out here. I have got to come home.” Of the estimated 1,100 young French who are believed to have joined the IS, more than 100 have already returned.

The IS may have Twitter on its side. But the harsh realities of Iraq and the gruesome ideology behind the slick doctrinal videos are a lot harder to sell.

Mr. Abraham says there is no such thing as a Twitter revolution or a social media terror group. “Such statements underestimate the role of ideology and human beings,” he says.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-december-28-2014-ajai-sreevatsan-targeting-surveillance

Locating Constructs of Privacy within Classical Hindu Law

Ashna Ashesh and Bhairav Acharya — 2015-01-01T13:56:04Z

This white paper seeks to locate privacy in Classical Hindu Law, and by doing so, displace the notion that privacy is an inherently ‘Western’ concept that is the product of a modernist legal system.

Introduction: Conceptions of Privacy

Because of the variance exhibited by the various legal, social, and cultural aspects of privacy, it cannot be easily defined. As a legal concept, privacy may form a constitutional claim, a statutory entitlement, a tortious action or an equitable remedy. As a constitutional claim, privacy is either an explicitly recognised right that is capable of independent enforcement, read into a pre-existing right , or located within the penumbra of a larger right. Statutory recognition of privacy may be afforded by both criminal and civil statutes. The offence of criminal defamation for instance, is perceived as an act of violating an individual's privacy by tarnishing his or her reputation. Similarly the provision of in camera trials for divorce proceedings is an illustration of a civil statute implicitly recognising privacy. As a tortious claim the notion of privacy is commonly understood in terms of the right against trespass of property. Equity, co-terminus with a statutory mandate or in isolation, may also be a source of privacy.

Most legal conceptions of privacy in everyday use in India originated from the English common law. Other constitutional and statutory constructions of privacy, even when not found in the common law, arise within a broader modernist system of law and justice that originated in Europe. During the European colonisation of India, the British (and, in a different manner, the French ) attempted to recreate the common law in India through the establishment of a new legal and courts system, and the wholesale importation of the European idea of law. The very notion of privacy, as well as its legal conception, is a product of this legal modernity. In post-colonial societies, the argument against the right to privacy is usually premised on its perceived alien-ness - as a foreign idea brought by colonisers and imposed on a traditionalist society that favoured communitarian living over individual rights - in an effort to discredit it.

The fallacy of this argument lies in its ignorance of the cultural plurality of privacy. To begin with, the idea that is connoted by the modernist notion of privacy pre-dated the introduction of common law in India. By the time of the Enlightenment, Hindu law and Islamic law were established legal systems with rich histories of jurisprudence and diverse schools of law within them, each with their own juristic techniques and rules of interpretation. While neither Hindu law nor Islamic law use a term that readily translates to "privacy", thereby precluding a neat transposition of meanings between them, the notion of privacy existed and can be located in both the legal traditions. In this paper, the term 'privacy' is used to describe both the modernist notion that arises from the principle of personal autonomy as well as the diverse pre-modern concepts in Hindu and Islamic jurisprudence that resemble or relate to this notion. These pre-modern concepts are diverse, and do not permit an easy analysis. For instance, the Manusmriti, which is a source of classical Hindu law, prohibits bathing in tanks that belong to other men. Additionally it prohibits the use of wells, gardens, carriages, beds, seats and houses without the owner's permission. These prohibitions are not driven by the imperatives of privacy alone. The rationale is that in using others' belongings one appropriates a portion of their sins. Hence, these privacy protections are linked to an ideal of purity. Islamic law also restricts the use or misappropriation of another's property. However, this prohibition is designed to protect private property; it has no ideological link to purity.

This paper attempts to locate constructs of privacy in classical Hindu law. The purpose of this exercise is not to privilege one legal system over another. Therefore, we do not intend to normatively assess the existing modernist discourse on privacy. We simply seek to establish the existence of alternate notions of privacy that pre-date modernity and the common law.

The scope of the paper is confined to locating privacy in classical Hindu law. The materials within the realm of classical Hindu law, relevant to this exercise are- the sruti, smriti, and acara. Sruti comprises of the Vedas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and the Upanishads. It is considered to symbolise the spirit of Hindu law and is not the source of any positivist command as such. Smriti involves various interpretations of the sruti, We have however restricted ourselves to the Dharmashastras in this realm. Acara refers to the body of customary practices.

The review of the material at hand however, is not exhaustive. The reasons for this are twofold- first, given the vast expanse of Hindu jurisprudence, the literature review has been limited; second, there is a limited availability of reliable English translations of ancient legal treatises.

This paper is divided into two parts. The first part of this paper deals with the interface of colonisation with Hindu law and elucidates the nature of Hindu law. With the advent of colonialism, classical Hindu law was gradually substituted by a modernist legal system. Exploring the characteristics of modernity, the factors that contributed to the displacement of classical Hindu law will be identified.

One of the factors that contributed to the displacement was the uncertainty that characterised classical Hindu law. Classical Hindu law was an amalgamation of three sources, as. In an attempt to rule out the uncertainty, and the lack of positive command, the modernisation of Hindu law was brought about. Accordingly this part shall also examine the nature of Hindu law. Furthermore it shall determine whether the application of codified modern Hindu law, is informed by the precepts of classical Hindu law.

Having explicated the nature of Hindu law, the next part will focus on identifying instances of privacy in classical Hindu law.

Before ascertaining specific instances, however, this part will lay down a general understanding of privacy as it existed then. It will be demonstrated that regardless of the absence of an equivalent term, an expectation of privacy existed.

The specific illustrations of privacy will then be mapped out.

Given the different aspects wherein an expectation of privacy exists, there is also a possibility of competing claims. In the event that such conflicts arise, this part will attempt to resolve the same.

Part 1: The Transmogrification of the Nature of Hindu Law

The evolution of Hindu jurisprudence can be charted through three phases- classical, colonial, and modern.

In the classical phase, it was embodied by the Dharmashastra which elaborated on customary practices, legal procedure, as well as punitive measures. The Dharamshastra was accompanied by the Vedas, and acara. Whether this body of jurisprudence could be called 'law' in the strict modernist sense of the term is debatable.

Modernity has multifarious aspects. However, we are concerned with modernity in the context of legal systems, for the purpose of this paper. The defining attribute of a modernist legal system is the need for positivist precepts that are codified by a legislature. The underlying rationale for formalised legislation is the need for certainty in law. Law is to be uniformly applied within the territory. The formalised legislation is to be enforced by hierarchized courts. Furthermore this codified law can be modified through provisions for amendment, if need be.

This modernist understanding is what informs the English common law. With the advent of colonialism, common law was imported to India. The modernist legal system was confronted by plural indigenous legal systems here that were starkly different in nature. In the given context, the relevant indigenous system is classical Hindu law. The classical precepts were interpreted by the British. These interpretations coupled with the sources of Classical Hindu law, constituted colonial Hindu law.

It is pertinent to note that these interpretations were undertaken through a modernist lens. The implication was the attempted modernisation of a traditional legal system.

The traditional system of Classical Hindu law did not exhibit any of the introduced features. To begin with not all of classical Hindu law was text based. The problem with the textual treatises was threefold. First, they were not codes enacted by a legislature, but written by various scholars. Second, they were not phrased as positivist precepts. Third, their multiplicity was accompanied with the lack of an established hierarchy between these texts.

Additionally classical Hindu law was the embodiment of dharma, which in itself was an amorphous concept. The constitutive elements ofdharma were law, religious rites, duties and obligations of members of a community, as well as morality. These elements do not however, exhaustively define dharma. There exist varying definitions of dharma, and in some cases even ancient texts dealing with dharma fail to articulate its definition. This is on account of the fact that the meaning of dharma, varied depending on the in which it is used Owing to the fact that classical Hindu jurisprudence was informed by dharma, the former was an amalgamation of law, religion and morality. Therefore it was categorised as jurisprudence that lacked the secularity exhibited by modern positivist law.

The co-existence of law and morality in classical Hindu law has led to various debates regarding its nature. Before explicating the nature of classical Hindu law, its sources must be elaborated on. As referred to, the sources are sruti, smriti, and acara.

Sruti is constituted by the Vedas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads. Vedas are divine revelations that contain no positive precept per se. They are considered as the spirit of law, and believed to be the source of the rules of dharma. The Vedas are constituted by the Rigveda, Samveda, Yajurveda and Athravaveda. Based on the Vedic texts, treatises have been written elucidating religious practices. These texts are known as the Brahmanas. The Aranyakas and the Upanishads engage in philosophical enquiries of the revelation in the Vedas.

Interpretations of the Sruti by various scholars are embodied in the Smriti. The connotations of smriti are twofold. First, it implies knowledge transmitted through memory, as opposed to knowledge directly revealed by divinity. Additionally, it is the term used to collectively reference the Dharmasutras and Dharmashastra.

Dharmasutras were essentially interpretations of revelation in only prose form, or a mixture of prose and verse. They detailed the duties and rituals to be carried out by a person, through the four stages, of his or her life. The duties laid down also varied depending on the caste of a person. They also laid down guidelines for determining punishments.

Dharmasastras on the other hand were in the verse form. Though their subject matter coincided with the Dharmasutra in terms of domestic duties and rituals, they had a wider ambit. The Dharmasastras also dealt with subjects such as statecraft, legal procedure for adjudicating disputes. In a limited way, they marked the diversification from strictly religious precepts, from those that were legal in nature. For instance the Manusmriti was an amalgamation of law and ritual. The Yajnawalkya Samhita however, has separate parts that deal with customary practices, legal procedure, and punitive measures. The Narada Smriti, in turn deals only with legal procedure and rules of adjudication.

It is opined that in due course of time, the Aryan civilisation diversified. Their life and literature were no longer limited to sacrificial practices, but took on a more 'secular' form. The Arthashastra is evidence of such diversification. Unlike the Dharmashastra, it deals with strategies to be employed in governance, regulations with regard to urban planning, commercialisation of surrogacy, espionage, among other things.

The third source of classical Hindu law, acara refers to customary practices and their authoritativeness was determined by the people. Their prevalence over textual tradition is contentious. Some opine that acara prevails over textual traditions. However, the opposing school of thought believes that customary practices prevail only if the text is unclear or disputed.

Other sources of classical Hindu law include the itihas (epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana), and digests written by scholars.

Given the diversity of sources and its non-conformity to positivism, the nature of classical Hindu law is a heavily contested issue. For instance, with regard to the legal procedure in the Dharmashastra, Maynes opines that these rules qualified as law in the modernist sense. Ludo Rocher however, opines that textual treatises would not qualify as law. Classical Hindu law can admittedly not be identified as strictly legal or strictly moral. However, it does in a limited way recognise the distinction between legal procedure and morality. This is to say, it is not merely a source of rituals, but also lays down precepts that are jurisprudentially relevant.

On account of its non-conformity with characteristics of a modernist legal system, classical Hindu law was displaced by its colonial version. The British attempted to accomplish this though the process of codification. The colonial attempts to codify Hindu law were carried forward by the Indian government post-independence. The result was the Hindu Code Bill. The context in which this codification took place must be examined in order to better comprehend this transmogrification. Post-independence, the idea of a Uniform Civil Code had been debated. However it was at odds with the Nehruvian notion of secularity. The codification of Hindu personal law was an attempt at modernising it, without infringing on the religious freedom of Hindus. The idea was to confine the influence of religion to the private sphere. What emerged was the Hindu Code Bill, which served as the blueprint for the Hindu Marriage Act, the Hindu Succession Act, the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act and, the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act. Colonial Hindu law was thus displaced by modern Hindu law.

As Galanter observes however, modernisation through legislations may formalise or even modify classical precepts, but cannot erase them completely. For instance, Section 7 of the Hindu Marriage Act, which prescribes the ceremonial requirements for a Hindu marriage, replicates those prescribed in Classical Hindu law. Additionally a plethora of judicial decisions have relied on or taken into consideration, precepts of ancient Hindu jurisprudence.

It is evident thus that ancient precepts still inform modern Hindu law. Given their relevance, it would be erroneous to write off classical Hindu law as completely irrelevant in a modernist context.

Part II: Precepts of Privacy in Classical Hindu Law

As referred to, we have not come across a terminological equivalent of the term 'privacy' in the course of our research. The linguistic lacuna is admittedly a hurdle in articulating the pre-modern understanding of privacy as found in Hindu jurisprudence. It is not however, an argument against the very existence of privacy. The lack of pre-modern terminology necessitates the usage of modern terms in classifying the aspects of privacy detailed in Hindu jurisprudence.

Thus, broadly speaking, the aspects of privacy we have culled out from the material at hand are those of physical space/ property, thought, bodily integrity, information, communication, and identity. As will be demonstrated these aspects overlap on occasion and are by no means an exhaustive indication. In order to contextualise these aspects within the realm of Hindu jurisprudence, they are detailed below through specific illustrations.

A. Privacy of physical Space/ property

Akin to the modern legal system that first understood privacy in proprietary terms, Hindu jurisprudence too accorded importance to privacy in terms of physical space. This is further illustrated by the similarity between the common law notion of a man's house being his castle, and the institutional primacy accorded by the Naradsmriti to the household . The common denominator here is the recognition of a claim to privacy against the sovereign. This claim operated against society at large as well. For instance, an individual caught trespassing on someone else's property was liable to be fined.

These religious precepts were supplemented by those reflected in texts such as the Arthashastra. By way of illustration the house building regulations prescribed by it are largely informed by the recognition of a need for privacy. To begin with, a person's house should be built at a suitable distance from a neighbour's house, to prevent any inconvenience. In addition the house's doors and windows should ideally not face a neighbours doors and windows directly. The occupants of the house should ensure the doors and windows are suitably covered. Furthermore in the absence of a compelling justification, interference in a neighbour's affairs is penalised.Juxtaposed to religious texts that often perceived privacy as a concept driven by the imperative of purity, the Arthashastra is reflective of a secular connotation of privacy.

Though the household was privileged as the foundational institution in Hindu jurisprudence, claims of privacy extend beyond one's house to other physical objects as well, regardless of whether they were extensions of the household or not. For instance, both the Yajnawalkya Samhita and the Manusmriti condemn the usage of another person's property without his or her permission.

What is noteworthy in the context of personal property is that in an era infamous for the denigration of women, Hindu jurisprudence recognised a woman's claim over property. This property, also known as Stridhana, had varied definitions. In the Yajnawalkya Samhita for instance, it is conceptualised as, "What has been given to a woman by the father, the mother, the husband or a brother, or received by her at the nuptial fire, or given to her on her husband's marriage with another wife, is denominated Stridhana or a woman's property". In the Manusmriti, it is defined as "What was given before the nuptial fire, what was given on the bridal procession, what was given in token of love, and what was received from her brother, mother, or father, that is called the sixfold property of a woman".

Beyond mere cognizance of proprietary rights however, these precepts were also informed by the notion of exclusivity. Consequently, a woman's husband or his family were precluded from using her Stridhana, unless they were in dire straits. Additionally it was a sin for a woman's relatives to use her wealth even if the same was done unknowingly.

B. Privacy of Thought

In addition to the aspect of physical space, a claim to privacy vis-a-vis the intangible realm of thought was afforded by Hindu jurisprudence. In the modern context the link between solitude and privacy has been recognised as early as 1850 by Warren and Brandeis. The key distinction is that in the modern era this need for solitude was seen as a function of the increasing invasion of privacy. In the pre-modern era however, solitude was considered essential for self-actualisation, and not as a response to the increasing invasion of the private realm. Meditation in solitude was perceived as enabling existence in the highest state of being. In fact a life in solitude was identified as a pre-requisite for being liberated.

Though solitude itself is intangible, engaging in meditation would require a tangible solitary space. This is where the privacy of thought overlapped with the aspect of privacy of space. Accordingly, the Arthashastra prescribed that forest areas be set aside for meditation and introspection. It also recognised the need for ascetics to live within these spaces harmoniously, without disturbing each other.

It is evident, that as far as the aspects of privacy were concerned, there were no watertight compartments.

C. Privacy with respect to bodily integrity

A claim to privacy of thought can only be substantively realised when complemented by the notion of privacy with respect to bodily integrity, as corporeal existence serves as a precursor to mental well-being. The inference drawn from the relevant precepts concerning this aspect is that they were largely women-centric. Arguably they were governed by a misplaced patriarchal notion that women's modesty needed to be protected. At best they could be considered as implicit references to an expectation of privacy.

The Manusmriti states, "But she who…goes to public spectacles or assemblies, shall be fined six krishnalas". Restrictions operating during a woman's menstruation were twofold. Her family was prohibited from seeing her. Additionally cohabitation with such a woman was also forbidden. It should be pointed out that that these constructs had little to do with a woman's expectation of privacy. They were forbidden due to the attached implications of impurity that would vest in the defaulter. A woman's autonomy with regard to her body was not regarded as a factor meriting consideration.

However, there were constructs, albeit limited, which were more egalitarian in their approach and did recognise her autonomy. They established that women do have an expectation of privacy in terms of bodily integrity. Sexual assault was considered as an offence. Evidence of this is found in the Yajnawalkya Samhita which states, "If many persons know a woman against her will, each of them should be made to pay a fine of twenty four panas". In addition, the Arthashastra vested in commercial sex workers the right to not be held against their will. Further it expressly states that even a commercial sex worker cannot be forced to engage in sexual intercourse.

Women could make a claim to privacy not only against society at large, but also against their husbands. Ironically, while our contemporary legal system (i.e., the Indian legal system) fails to criminalise marital rape, the Manusmriti considered it an offence. Additionally, husbands were also prohibited from looking at their wives when the latter were in a state of relaxation.

D. Privacy of Information and Communication

While the three aspects explicated above were by and large restricted to the individual, the privacy of information and communication has been largely confined by Hindu jurisprudence to the realm of the sovereign. Both the Manusmriti and the Arthashastra acknowledge the importance of a secret council that aids the king in deliberations. These deliberations are to be carried on in a solitary place that was well-guarded. The decisions made in these deliberations are to be revealed on a need to know basis. That is to say, only persons concerned with the implementation of these decisions are to be informed. The Manusmriti also provides for private deliberation by the king on matters not involving governance. It provides, "At midday or midnight , when his mental and bodily fatigues are over, let him deliberate, either with himself alone or with his ministers on virtue, pleasure, and wealth".

Apart from governance, privacy of information also pertained to certain types of documents that were considered private in nature. These are documents that involve transactions such as partition, giving of a gift, purchase, pledge and debt. What is interesting about this precept is the resemblance it bears to the common law notion of privity. The common characteristic of the documents referred to, is that they concerned transactions undertaken between two or more persons. The rights or obligations arising from these transactions were confined to the signatories of these documents. It could be possible that the privatisation of these documents was aimed at guarding against disruption of transactions via third party intrusions.

The limited reference to private communications is found within the realm of governance, within the context of privacy of information. The only illustration of this that we have come across is the precept in the Arthashastra that requires intelligence to be communicated in code.

E. Privacy of Identity

The final aspect that warrants detailing is the privacy of identity. The notion of privacy of identity can be understood in two ways. The first deals with protection of personal information that could be traced back to someone, thus revealing his or her identity. The second recognises the component of reputation. It seeks to prevent the misappropriation or maligning of a person's identity and thus reputation. In ancient Hindu jurisprudence there is evidence of recognition of the latter. An illustration of the same is offered by the precept which states "For making known the real defects of a maiden, one should pay a fine of a hundred panas". Another precept prescribes that false accusations against anyone in general are punishable by a fine. Additionally, there is also a restriction operating against destroying or robbing a person of his or her virtue. In the modern context, the above would be understood under the rubric of defamation. These precepts are indicative of the fact that defamation was recognised as an offence way before the modern legal system afforded cognizance to the same.

Conclusion

The dominant narrative surrounding the privacy debate in India is that of the alien-ness of privacy. This paper has attempted to displace the notion that privacy is an inherently 'Western' concept that is the product of a modernist legal system. No doubt the common understanding of the legal conception of privacy is informed by modernity. In fact, the research conducted in support of this paper has been synthesised from privacy information through a modernist lens. The fact still remains however, that privacy is an amorphous context, and its conceptions vary across cultures.

To better appreciate the relevance of Classical Hindu law in a modernist context, the nature of Hindu law must be examined first. While Hindu jurisprudence might not qualify as law in the positivist sense of the term, its precepts continue to inform India's statues and judicial pronouncements.

Privacy is subjective and eludes a straitjacketed definition. On occasion this elusiveness is a function of its overlapping and varying aspects. At other times it stems from a terminological lacuna that complicates the explication of privacy. These impediments notwithstanding, it is abundantly clear that the essence of privacy is reflected in Hindu culture and jurisprudence. This may give pause to thought to those who seek to argue that 'collectivist' cultures do not value privacy or exhibit the need for it.

Daniel J. Solove, A Taxonomy of Privacy, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 154(3), January 2006.

Id.

Upendra Baxi, Who Bothers About the Supreme Court: The Problem of Impact of Judicial Decisions, available at http://clpr.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/whobothersabouttheSupremeCourt.pdf (Last visited on December 23, 2014) (The enforceability of rights often sets their individual enjoyment apart from their jurisprudential value); In India, the reading of privacy into Article 21 has not resulted in a mechanism to enforce a standalone right to privacy, See R.H. Clark, Constitutional Sources of the Penumbral Right to Privacy, available at http://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2046&context=vlr (Last visited on December 23, 2014) (In the United States, the right to privacy was located in the penumbra of the right to personal autonomy).

See PUCL v. Union of India, AIR 1997 SC 568.

See Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965); Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003).

See The Indian Penal Code, 1850, Section 499.

See The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 Section 22; The Special Marriage Act, 1954, Section 33.

Bhairav Acharya & Vidushi Marda, Identifying Aspects of Privacy in Islamic Law, available at http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/identifying-aspects-of-privacy-in-islamic-law (Last visited on December 23, 2014).

See Robert Lingat, The Classical Law of India (1973).

Donald R. Davis, Jr., The Spirit of Hindu Law (2010) (This importation must be viewed against the backdrop of the characteristics of the era of Enlightenment wherein primacy was accorded to secular reason and the positivist conception of law. Davis observes "One cannot deny the increasing global acceptance of a once parochial notion of law as rules backed by sanctions enforced by the state. This very modern, very European notion of law is not natural, not a given; it was produced at a specific moment in history and promulgated systematically and often forcibly through the institutions of what we now call the nation-state, especially those nations that were also colonial powers.)"; But see Alan Gledhill, The Influence of Common Law and Equity on Hindu Law Since 1800, available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/755588 (Last visited on December 23, 2014); Werner Menski, Sanskrit Law: Excavating Vedic Legal Pluralism, available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1621384 (Last visited on December 23, 2014) (However, this replacement of traditional legal systems did not extend to personal laws. Personal laws in India continue to be community-based, sometimes un-codified, draw from a diverse set of simultaneously applicable sources and traditional schools of jurisprudence.).

Supra note 8, Acharya & Marda.

Privacy International, A New Dawn: Privacy in Asia, available at https://www.privacyinternational.org/reports/a-new-dawn-privacy-in-asia/background (Last visited on December 28, 2013) ("It is only recently that the debate around privacy was stuck in this "collectivist" vs. "individualistic" cultural discourse…we discovered that privacy concerns and the need for safeguards were often embedded deeply in a nation, and not just as a response to a modern phenomenon.").

Privacy International, A New Dawn: Privacy in Asia, available at https://www.privacyinternational.org/reports/a-new-dawn-privacy-in-asia/background (Last visited on December 28, 2013)

J. Duncan M. Derrett, The Administration of Hindu Law by the British, available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/177940 (Last visited on December 23, 2014).

Manusmriti, Chapter IV, 201.

Manusmriti, Chapter IV, 202.

Id.

Wael B. Hallaq, An Introduction to Islamic Law 31 (2009).

Donald R. Davis, Jr., The Spirit of Hindu Law (2010).

Marc Galanter, The Displacement of Traditional Law in Modern India, Journal of Social Issues, Vol. XXIV, No. 4, 1968.

Id.

Supra note 20, Galanter.

Supra note 10, Menski.

Werner Menski, Hindu Law: Beyond Tradition and Modernity (2003).

Id.

Ashcroft as cited in Werner Menski, Hindu Law: Beyond Tradition and Modernity (2003).

Supra note 20, Galanter.

Id.

Id .

Supra note 19, Davis.

Id.

Id .

J. Duncan M. Derrett, Introduction to Modern Hindu Law (1963); Supra note 19, Davis.

Supra note 9, Lingat.

Id.

John D. Mayne, Hindu Law (1875).

Id.

Supra note 49, Mayne.

Id.

Supra note 19, Davis.

Id.

Supra note 49, Mayne.

Ludo Rocher, Studies in Hindu Law and Dharamasastra (2012).

For instance the Yajnawalkya Samhita has clear delineations in its chapters, segregating customary practices, legal procedure and punitive measures.

Madhu Kishwar, Codified Hindu Law: Myth and Reality, available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/4401625 (Last visited on December 23, 2014).

Id .

Supra note 59.

Id.

Supra note 20, Galanter.

See The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, Section 7.

Saroj Rani v. Sudarshan Kumar Chadda, AIR 1984 SC 1562 (reflected the importance accorded by classical Hindu law to marital stability); M Govindaraju v. K Munisami Goundu 1996 SCALE (6) 13(The Supreme Court looked to ancient Shudra custom to adjudicate on a matter of adoption); Rajkumar Patni v. Manorama Patni, II (2000) DMC 702 (The Madhya Pradesh High Court, relied on the definition of Stridhan by Manu.).

Supra note 8, Acharya & Marda.

Semayne v. Gresham, 77 Eng. Rep. 194, 195; 5 Co. Rep. 91, 195 (K.B. 1604).

As cited in Julius Jolly, The Minor Law Books 164 (1889), ("A householder's house and field are considered as the two fundamentals of his existence. Therefore let not the king upset either of them; for that is the root of the householders").

Manmath Nath Dutt, The Dharamshastra - Hindu Religious Codes, Volume 1, 103 (1978) (Yajnawalkya Samhita, Chapter II 235-236: "He…who opens the doors of a closed house [without the permission of the master]…should be punished with fifty panas. Such is the law.").

L.N. Rangarajan, Kautalya: The Arthashastra 371 (1992) ("O be built at a suitable distance from the neighbours property so as not to cause inconvenience to the neighbour").

Id ., ("…doors and windows shall be made so as not to cause annoyance by facing a neighbour's door or window directly").

Supra note 72, Rangarajan, ("when the house is occupied the doors and windows shall be suitably covered").

Id., 376.

See Manusmriti, Chapter IV, 201-202.

Supra note 71, Dutt, 27 (Yajnawalkya Samhita, Chapter I , 160: "One should avoid the bed, seat, garden-house and the conveyance belonging to another person.").

Supra note 71, Dutt, 89 (Yajnawalkya Samhita, Chapter II, 146).

Manusmriti, Chapter IX, 194.

Supra note 71, Dutt Volume 2, 276 (Angiras Samhita, Chapter I, 71).

Samuel D. Warren & Louis D. Brandeis, The Right to Privacy, Harvard Law Review, Vol. IV, December 15, 1890, No.5.

Id.

Manusmriti, Chapter IV, 258; Supra note 71, Dutt, 134 (Yajnawalkya Samhita Chapter III, 111: "Having withdrawn the mind, understanding, retentive faculty and the senses from all their objects, the soul, the lord…should be meditated upon.").

Manu Chapter VI, 44.

Supra note 71, Dutt, 186 (Harita Chapter VII, 6: "Situated in a solitary place with a concentrated mind, he should, till death mediate on the atman, that is situated both in the mind and the external world… ").

Supra note 72, Rangarajan, (Arthashastra, 2.2.2).

Supra note72, Rangarajan, (Arthashastra 3.16.33-36).

Manusmriti IX, 84

Supra note 71, Dutt, Volume 2, 350 (Samvarta Samhita,163).

Supra note 71, Dutt, Volume 1, 112 (Yajnawalkya Samhita, Chapter II, 291).

Supra note 71, Dutt, Volume 1, 113 (Yajnawalkya Samhita, Chapter II, 294).

Supra note 72, Ranjarajan (Arthashastra 2.27.14).

Supra note 72, Rangarajan (Arthashastra 4.13.38).

Manusmriti, X, 62

Manusmriti Part VII, Supra note 101, Rangarajan (Arthashastra 1.15.2-5, 1.15.13-17).

Supra note 72, Rangarajan (Arthashastra 1.15.2-5 : The scrutiny of governance related affairs was take place in a secluded and well-guarded spot, where it could not be overheard. No unauthorised person was allowed to approach these meetings.).

Supra note 72, Rangarajan (Arthashastra 1.15.13-17: "…Only those who have to implement it should know when the work is begun or when it has been completed.").

Supra note 72, Rangarajan.

Supra note 71, Dutt, Volume 1, 112 (Yajnawalkya Samhita, Chapter II, 292).

Supra note 71, Dutt, Volume 4, 919 (Vishnu Samhita, Chapter LII, 16).

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/loading-constructs-of-privacy-within-classical-hindu-law

Why did India fail to discover the ISIS Twitter handle?

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T03:27:16Z

India's surveillance system fails to track the servers of internet giants like Google or Facebook because these do not have servers in the country, says a leading cyber law expert.

The article by Anita Babu was published in the Business Standard on December 26, 2014. Sunil Abraham gave his inputs.

Back in 2009, after the investigation team, probing into the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, almost cracked the case, it was the US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which connected the missing links by arresting David Headley, the mastermind.

Five years later, India is staring at a similar situation, when Bengaluru-based Mehdi Masroor Biswas, was allegedly found to be operating a pro-ISIS (Islamic State) Twitter handle. It was a British broadcaster, Channel 4, which blew the lid off Biswas’s activity. Soon after the report, Indian authorities swung into action. Last year, when communal violence broke out in some parts of Uttar Pradesh, a Pakistani news organisation reported that a fake video was being circulated to fan sentiments.

But, why have Indian agencies failed to detect such activities which pose a threat to the national security? A senior government official said intelligence agencies in the country scan the internet for leads. But, in the light of increased threats, systems need to be beefed up significantly. Perhaps, as a first step towards this, the home ministry on Wednesday formed a committee to prepare a road map for tackling cyber crimes in the country.

It will give suitable recommendations on all facets of cyber crime, apart from suggesting possible partnerships with public and private sector, non-governmental organisations and international bodies.

According to Sunil Abraham, executive director of a Bengaluru-based research organisation, the Centre for Internet and Society, it’s time we move closer towards intelligent and targeted surveillance, rather than mass surveillance. This will require monitoring a selected accounts or profiles, instead of tapping information from across the population. Old-fashioned detective work is also very important, as it has helped zero in on Biswas.

Another problem the country faces is that a lot of data is being pooled in by multiple agencies, but of little use. “We must free up our law enforcement agencies and intelligence services from the curse of having too much data,” Abraham adds. Since most of the internet companies are headquartered outside India, the authorities face a lot of difficulties in accessing information from these networks.

“India’s surveillance system fails to track the servers of internet giants like Google or Facebook because these do not have servers in the country. Our system is only confined within the country,” says Pavan Duggal, a leading cyber law expert.

Since the US has the capability to access information from telecom companies, service providers such as Twitter and Facebook and the consortia that run submarine cables, these companies cooperate in a much more effective and immediate manner, adds Abraham. “But these are things that we will never be able to do in India,” he adds.

For instance, India follows the mutual legal assistance treaty procedure, to gather and exchange information in an effort to enforce public laws or criminal laws. However, this is a time-consuming process and often takes up to two years before we get any data from these companies.

But due to the threat of cyber-terrorism being shared by both companies and governments, companies such as Google, Twitter and Facebook are cooperating more than before, experts say.

Internet and Jurisdiction Project, an international group that works towards ensuring digital coexistence, tries to get a procedural law between two countries in a harmonised manner and includes collection, storage, handling and processing of evidence.

More lubricating efforts should be undertaken internationally on these lines, say experts. Hopefully, the new committee will take steps in this direction.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-december-26-2014-anita-babu-why-india-failed-to-discover-the-isis-twitter-handle

Security, Governments, and Data: Technology and Policy

elonnai — 2014-12-24T08:06:59Z

The Centre for Internet & Society and the Observer Research Foundation invite you to a one day conference on January 8, 2015 in New Delhi.

About the Conference

The conference will focus on the technologies, policies, and practices around cyber security and surveillance. The conference will reach out to a number of key stakeholders including civil society, industry, government, and academia and explore the present scenario in India to reflect on ways forward.

Conference Context

Ensuring the security of the India’s cyber space is a complex, challenging, and ever changing responsibility that the government is tasked with. Doing so effectively requires a number of factors to come together in a harmonized strategy including: laws & policies, technical capabilities, markets, and a skilled workforce. It also requires collaboration on multiple levels including with foreign governments, domestic and foreign industry, and law enforcement. The first of these is particularly important given the ability of attackers to penetrate across borders and the global nature of data. Any strategy developed by India must be proactive and reactive – evolving defences to prevent a potential threat and applying tactics to respond to a real time threat. To do so, the government of India must legally have the powers to take action and must have the technical capability to do so. Yet, many of these powers and technical capabilities require a degree of intrusion into the lives of citizens and residents of India through means such as surveillance. Thus, such measures must be considered in light of principles of proportionality and necessity, and legal safeguards are needed to protect against the violation of privacy. Furthermore, a principle of optimization must be considered i.e, how much surveillance achieves the most amount of security and how can this security be achieved with the optimal mix of technology, policy and enforcement.

Panel Descriptions

Challenges & Present Scenario

Protecting and enhancing the cyber security of India is a complex and dynamic responsibility. The challenge of securing cyber space is magnified by the demarcated nature of the internet, the multiplicity of vulnerabilities that can be exploited at the national level, the magnitude of infrastructure damage possible from a cyber attack, and the complexity of application of a jurisdiction’s law to a space that is technologically borderless. A comprehensive ‘cyber security’ ecosystem is required to address such challenges – one that involves technology, skills, and capabilities – including surveillance capabilities. The Government of India has taken numerous steps to address and resolve such challenges. In July 2013, the National Cyber Security Policy was published for the purpose of creating an enabling framework for the protection of India’s cyber security. In February 2014, the 52^nd Standing Committee on Information Technology issued a report assessing the implementation of this policy – in which they found that a number of areas needed strengthening. The Government of India has also proposed the establishment of a number of centres focused on cyber security – such as the National Cyber Coordination Center and the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre. CERT-IN, under the Department of Electronics and Information Technology is presently the body responsible for overseeing and enforcing cyber security in India, while other bodies such as the Resource Centre for Cyber Forensic and TERM cells under the Department of Telecommunications play critical roles in overseeing and undertaking capabilities related to cyber security.

Law & Policy

India has five statutes regulating the collection and use of data for surveillance purposes. These laws define circumstances on which the government is justified in accessing and collecting real time and stored data as well as procedural safeguards they must adhere to when doing so. The Department of Telecommunications has also issued the Unified Access License which, among other things, mandates service providers to provide technical support to enable such collection. The Indian judicial system has also provided a number of Rulings that set standards for the access, collection, and use of data as well as defining limitations and safeguards that must be respected in doing so. The draft Privacy Bill 2011, released by the Department of Personnel and Training, also contained provisions addressing surveillance in the context of interception and the use of electronic video recording devices. In the Report of the Group of Experts on Privacy, the AP Shah Committee found that the legal regime for surveillance in India was not harmonized and lacked safeguards. Furthermore, in the era where the direct collection of large volumes of data is easily possible, there is a growing need to re-visit questions about the legitimate and proportionate collection and use (particularly as evidence) of such data. Questions are also arising about the applicability of standards and safeguards to the state. At a global level, catalyzed by the leaks by Edward Snowden, there has been a strong push for governments to review and structure their surveillance regimes to ensure that they are in line with international human rights standards.

Architecture & Technology

India is in the process of architecting a number of initiatives that seek to enable the collection and sharing of intelligence such as the CMS, NATGRID, and NETRA. At a regional level, the Ministry of Home Affairs is in the process of implementing ‘Mega Policing Cities’ which include the instalment of CCTV’s and centralized access to crime related information. Globally, law enforcement and governments are beginning to take advantage of the possibilities created by ‘Big Data’ and ‘open source’ policing. The architecture and technology behind any surveillance and cyber security initiative are key to its success. Intelligently and appropriately designed projects and technology can also minimize the possibility of intrusions into the private lives of citizens. Strong access controls, decentralized architecture, and targeted access are all principles that can be incorporated into the architecture and technology behind a project or initiative. At the same time, the technology or process around a project can serve as the ‘weakest link’ – as it is vulnerable to attacks and tampering. Such possibilities raise concerns about the use of foreign technology and dependencies on foreign governments and companies.

International and Domestic Markets

Globally, the security market is growing – with companies offering a range of services and products that facilitate surveillance and can be used towards enhancing cyber security. In India, the security market is also growing with studies predicting that it will reach $1.06 billion by 2015. Recognizing the potential threat posed by imported security and telecom equipment, India also develops its own technologies through the Centre for Development of Telematics –attached to the Department of Telecommunications, and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing – attached to the Department of Electronics and Information Technology. At times India has also imposed bans on the import of technologies believed to be compromised. Towards this end, the Government of India has a number of bodies responsible for licensing, auditing, and certifying the use of security and telecommunication equipment. Though India has recognized the security vulnerabilities posed by these technologies, as of yet it has not formally recognized the human rights violations that are made possible. Indeed, though India has submitted a request to be a signing member of the Wassenaar agreement, they have yet to be accepted.

Agenda

11.00	Registration & Tea
11.30	Key Note Speech
12.00	Challenges & Present Scenario
13.00	Law & Policy
14.00	Lunch
15.00	Architecture & Technology
16.00	International & Domestic Markets
17.00	Tea
17.30	Conclusion & Closing Remarks

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/security-governments-data-technology-policy

Reply to RTI filed with BSNL regarding Network Neutrality and Throttling

tarun — 2014-12-22T14:45:03Z

As part of its work on Network Neutrality, the Centre for Internet and Society through Tarun Krishnakumar had filed a Right To Information (RTI) application with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), a state-owned teleco holding a market share of 65 per cent in the Indian land line and broadband markets — regarding its position on and adherence to Network Neutrality principles.

The application — targeted at easing the information asymmetry between internet service providers (ISPs) and consumers — elicited responses that provide interesting insights into the functioning of ISPs in India.

The application queried BSNL about its:

Adherence to net neutrality / non-discrimination principles
Throttling on the basis of content
Throttling on the basis of protocol
Limiting traffic / speeds for pornographic websites
Limiting traffic / speeds for P2P / torrent connection

In its reply, BSNL denied all forms of throttling on the basis of content and reaffirmed that it is bound by the terms of its ISP license granted by the Department of Telecommunications. The application and response are below:

Application:

Request for Information under the Right to Information Act, 2005

To,

Sh. Suresh Kumar
Addl.GM (MIS) & CPIO ,BSNL Co.
R. No. -29, IR Hall
Eastern Court, Janpath
New Delhi – 110001

Date of application: 08-10-2014

Subject: Network Neutrality / Throttling / Data discrimination policies of BSNL

Please provide information as to the policies of BSNL / decisions taken in respect of the following questions. Please supply where possible a copy of the relevant documents, minutes of meeting, position papers etc.

Does BSNL support the principle of net neutrality and non-discrimination of data?
Does BSNL regulate internet traffic flows depending on the type of content being accessed by the user on its broadband connections?
Does BSNL regulate internet traffic flows depending on the type of protocol being used by the user on its broadband connections?
Please provide details of the various types of content/protocols for which BSNL regulates traffic and the nature of such regulations, restrictions as the case may be.
Please provide a list of traffic for which BSNL engages in limiting internet speed or throttling.
Does BSNL limit internet traffic or upload/download speeds for pornographic websites and content?
Does BSNL limit internet traffic or upload/download speeds for Peer-to-peer or torrent connections?

Please provide copies of all documents that pertain to BSNL’s policies and decisions in this regard.

It is certified that I am a citizen of India and that I do not fall within the BPL category. I am enclosing Rupees thirty (Rs. 30) towards the application fee and photocopying costs under the RTI Act for the information and documents requested. Kindly inform me at the address stated below if any further fees are required to be paid.

Applicant:

Tarun Krishnakumar
Centre for Internet and Society
No.194, 2nd C Cross Road, Domlur II Stage,
Bangalore - 560071

RESPONSE FROM BSNL:

To,

Sh. Tarun Krishnakumar
Centre for Internet and Society
No. 194, 2^nd C Cross Road, Domulur II stage,
Bengaluru – 560071

Subject: Supply of Information under RTI ACT – 2005

Case of Shri. Tarun Krishnakumar – reg.

Ref: - 1. No. BSNL/BBNW/RTI Act/Vol II/2012-13/52 dtd 28.10.2014

2. No. 23-744/14-RTI dtd 21.10.2014

With reference to the above subject, for the point wise information furnished as below:

BSNL is following the guidelines as per the ISP License Agreement of DOT.
NO, BSNL is NOT regulating the Internet traffic flow based on content.
NO, BSNL is not regulating the Internet traffic flow based on the type of protocol.
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
NO
NO
The documents relating to above are available on DOT’s website http://dot.gov.in

(Sd/-)

DE Admin and APIO
O/o General Manager
BBNW, BSNL,
5^th floor, BG (E), TE Building,
Lazar Road, Fraser Town,
Bengaluru – 560005
Tel No. 080 - 25808878

Copy to:

The Addl. GM (A) & CPIP O/o CGM, BBNW, New Delhi for information pl.

The scanned version of the reply is available here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/reply-to-rti-filed-with-bsnl-regarding-network-neutrality-and-throttling

Thank You To Our 2014 Sponsors

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T14:27:26Z

Today’s the last day of work in 2014 for the editorial team at MediaNama, though we’ll run a Holiday Wire update intermittently this week, we’ll have a brief year end review for each major segment. Thank you for reading us in 2014, and have a great Christmas and New Year.

The blog entry was published in Medianama on December 22, 2014.

From the business side, it’s been a great 2015 for us, and we really appreciate the support we received in 2014 from all our sponsors, especially Spice Digital, our annual sponsor, and Antfarm, which supported us for almost the entire year. We’re still working, for an idea of our 2015 plans and editorial calendar, please see the presentation here.

Annual Sponsor:

- Spice Digital Ltd: a part of Spice Global Group – US$2 Billion conglomerate promoted by Dr. BK Modi, is one of India’s leading Mobile Value Added Services company and offers innovative solutions for Telecom Operators, Enterprises and Government using mobile connectivity media – Voice, SMS, USSD, WAP & 3G. We are preferred partner of all major telecom service providers in India and providing services to international telecom players in over 20 countries across the globe. We are pioneers in innovation and technology and committed to deliver excellent Award winning products and services to the customers.

We have exclusive tie-ups with Hungama and PPL for music streaming services.
We have acquired two leading international VAS players, MMS (Indonesia) and Beoworld (Malaysia).
Recently, we had a major financial investment from MediaTek (Taiwan).

Our sponsors during 2014:

- Antfarm is an innovation sandbox based out of Mumbai. It is led by a team of blue sky thinkers, entrepreneurs and professionals. The company takes great ideas with disruptive potential, puts together all the key ingredients of people, technology, strategy, marketing and capital to build these into scalable companies. The ultimate aim is to create global businesses that are ideated and built out of India. The first set of companies launched are Stylista.com, Arrive.com, Fork Media, and the farm is currently scaling up ideas in education, travel & leisure, retail, ad-tech and healthcare.

- Astro-Vision is a name easily recognized and held in great esteem in the world of astrology services. Its products range from software that run on the latest operating systems to web based solutions for major portals and the latest range of mobile phones. Astro-Vision’s focus has always been on providing innovative astrology solutions using the latest technologies in the field of IT and communications. From Desktop PCs to internet portals and mobiles phones, Astro- Vision’s range of solutions includes stand alone applications, online apps and astro content services. The company has strategic tie-ups with major IT enabled service networks like Suvidhaa, Reliance world, One stop shop and many networks under the Government of India’s CSC scheme, including Spanco and GNG. Many popular Indian websites today are powered by Astro-Vision’s web based astrology solutions and astrology content.

– Bruce Clay

- Buongiorno, founded in 1999, is known in the worldwide mobile commerce ecosystem for developing and managing paid apps and content that help consumers get greater enjoyment from mobile devices. On July 2012, after the settlement of a successful public tender offer, Buongiorno became a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTT DOCOMO – a global leader in mobile telecommunications technologies and services.

With direct connections to more than 130 telecom operators in 25 countries, over 10 years’ experience and a team of 600 professionals, Buongiorno makes the mobile internet experience happen for consumers globally.

- CCAvenue is India’s largest payment gateway solution powering 85% of the eMerchants in India across all verticals & has played the role of a catalyst to the growth of ecommerce with real time, multi-currency, multiple payment options online payment processing services. The solution is powered by proprietary technology that integrates transaction-processing, advance shopping cart, Invoicing, mobile page, risk assessment and fraud control, smart analytical dashboards, live monitoring of bank gateways, financial reporting etc. CCAvenue is the only complete PG solution in the country that has the unique ability to offer the full spectrum of 100+ Internet payment options.

5 Credit Cards
50 Debit Cards
6 ATM cum Debit Cards
50+ Netbankings
Mobile Payments
4 Cash Cards
CCAvenue PhonePay IVRS Based Payment Systems.

– The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government data, free/open source software, open standards, open access to scholarly literature, open educational resources, and open video), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.

CIS critically engages with concerns of digital pluralism, public accountability and pedagogic practices, in the field of Internet and Society, with particular emphasis on South-South dialogues and exchange.

Hosting and Support

- E2E Networks: India’s most clued in dedicated hosting company founded by geeks. E2E Networks Private Limited has been into the business of providing Low latency Dedicated Servers and VPS Servers in India since 2009. E2E Networks goes way beyond merely provisioning servers/cloud infrastructure. Our expertise includes strategies and managed services help for implementing the most suitable cloud architecture based on public, private or hybrid cloud platforms for your web facing or enterprise applications.

- Fortumo allows any developer to set up payment processing for web and mobile services, games or apps using carrier billing. Payments work for PC applications, web services and HTML5, Android, Windows Phone & Windows 8 apps. Fortumo supports payments in 81 countries through 300 mobile operators. Get started with our self-service setup (no monthly fees or minimum volume commitments) at http://fortumo.com.

– Getit Infomedia is India’s digital supermarket for SMEs to get relevant business leads. We seamlessly deliver excellent value across all media platforms be it Voice, Mobile Applications, Online, WAP, Web chat, Print etc. The services provide presence, enquiries and leads to its advertisers while ensuring end users (consumers) have access to the best information, benefits and offers.

Event Sponsor

- Google is a global technology leader focused on improving the ways people connect with information. Google’s innovations in web search and advertising have made its website a top internet property and its brand one of the most recognized in the world.

- India.com is a joint venture between two media giants – Zee Entertainment Enterprise Ltd (ZEEL) and www.PMC.com is all about the new India that is funny, witty, shocking. It shows the new age Indian in their language. India.com provides a perspective that is reflective of the changing dynamic of the role media plays in India. Find out what the new India is saying only at india.com. Discover India and Indians at india.com for no one covers the new India as india.com! Get the latest updates follow @indiacom on Twitter.

– Info Edge (India) Limited is among the leading internet companies in India. Info Edge runs leading internet businesses – Naukri.com -India’s no. 1 job site, Jeevansathi.com – one of the leading matrimonial portal,99acres.com – India’s No.1 real estate portal and Shiksha.com – India’s leading education portal. The company also owns Quadrangle – an offline executive search business, and Naukri Gulf (a leading jobsite in the Middle East market). Info Edge also owns Brijj.com, a professional networking site and Allcheckdeals.com, an online real estate brokerage firm which is run as a subsidiary company.

- OnMobile Global Ltd. is a pioneer in white-labelled, Value Added Products and Services [VAS] for mobile, landline and media service providers. The #1 VAS specialist in emerging and high-growth markets, OnMobile touches the lives of over 1500 million mobile users across 55 countries each month. With our diverse product portfolio of Mobile Music, multi-screen Video Gateway and delivery solutions, Phone Backup and Personal Cloud Management solutions, Voice and Video portals, M-Commerce products and services, we generate 2 – 5% contribution for top customers and top line revenues of over US $800 million for over 92 customers globally. We deliver our products by the best combination of a hosted Cloud with on-site operations at the customer premises or through products deployed in customer networks.

Founded in 2000, OnMobile has business spread across India, U.S., LATAM, Africa, Australia, Middle East and Europe. The company was publicly listed in India in 2008. Recent acquisitions include Voxmobili (2007), Telisma (2008), Dilithium Networks (2010) and LiveWire (2013).

OnMobile is the first Indian telecom VAS Company to go public. The company’s shares are listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) as on March 31, 2010

– Qualcomm Ventures is the investment arm of Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), a Fortune 500 company with operations across the globe.As the Venture Capital investment arm of Qualcomm, the world leader in next-generation mobile technologies, Qualcomm Ventures has been making strategic investments in early-stage technology companies since 2000. With a $500 million fund commitment, Qualcomm Ventures seeks to make strategic investments in early stage high-technology companies that have the potential to dramatically transform our world.

QPRIZE (www.qprize.com)

QPrize™ is Qualcomm Venture’s Seed investment competition. It’s designed to provide entrepreneurs their first level of funding so they can launch their idea into a successful start-up business. The QPRIZE competition was first launched in 2009 to promote innovation in the technology industry and is designed to identify the industry’s most promising early-stage technology companies. We are looking for bright, energetic and resourceful entrepreneurs who have a passion for bringing new technologies and services to market. Our goal is to have QPrize act as a catalyst for our winners, providing the initial capital to launch their great ideas and support the company to its first institutional funding round.

– Times Internet (TIL) is a premier digital product company and the digital arm of The Times of India Group. It reaches over 100m visitors and serves 2 billion pageviews every month across web and mobile, with businesses across news, entertainment, sports, local, ecommerce, classifieds, startup investments, local partnerships, and more.TIL’s key properties in the news category includetimesofindia.com, economictimes.com and navbharattimes.com. Under its fold are topmost internet entertainment portals in India — Gaana.com – the music broadcasting service and BoxTV.com – the video streaming site. Indiatimes Shopping emerges as one of the top five e-commerce companies in India & TimesCity, a lifestyle destination covering recommendations across Restaurants, Movies, Events, Nightlife in your city. Times Internet has also entered into partnerships with global companies offering them its tremendous reach through online media platforms under its initiative called Times Global Partners(TGP). The TGP portfolio ranges from licensing partnerships to investments and acquisition. In the last year, TGP has made four acquisitions, twelve global partnerships, four minority investments and over 20 investments into start-ups through TLabs in the Indian ecosystem.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/medianama-december-22-2014-thank-you-to-our-2014-sponsors

Security and Surveillance: A public discussion on Optimizing Security while Safeguarding Human Rights

praskrishna — 2014-12-19T08:46:34Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) invites you to a public discussion on optimizing security and safeguarding human rights at its Bangalore office on Friday, December 19th, 2014, 16:00 to 18:00.

The Centre for Internet and Society, in collaboration with Privacy International UK, has undertaken exploratory research into surveillance, security, and the security market in India.

Through this research, we hope to understand and document policy and law associated with security, surveillance, and the security market in India and learn about the regulation of security and related technologies such as encryption, filtering, monitoring software, and interception equipment. We also hope to understand the import and export policy regime for dual use technologies.

Such findings will be critical in creating evidence based research to inform security policy and regulation in India and work towards enabling regulatory frameworks that optimize the nation’s security while protecting the rights of citizens.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/security-and-surveillance-optimizing-security-human-rights

Identifying Aspects of Privacy in Islamic Law

Vidushi Marda and Bhairav Acharya — 2015-01-01T14:04:44Z

This white paper seeks to identify aspects of privacy in Islamic Law and demonstrate that the notion of privacy was recognized and protected in traditional Islamic law.

I. Introduction

The nuances of privacy have been deliberated by numerous scholars till date, without arriving at a definite answer. It has been perceived as a right to be left alone, as mere secrecy, as the right to a legitimate area of seclusion and solitude. Privacy is a particularly nebulous concept, with a tendency of resting on intuitionist arguments. However, finding refuge in intuitionist arguments has not lent to a clear understanding of the term itself. This presents a peculiar predicament; while privacy is demanded, nobody seems to have a clear understanding of what it truly means. Daniel Solove opines that privacy is a concept in disarray, it is about everything and hence it seems to be about nothing. Solove finds agreement in a variety of literature, where privacy has been described as a "chameleon-like word", a term suffering from an "embarrassment of meanings", a "powerful rhetorical battle cry".

Traditional notions such as bodily privacy, privacy within one's home, or privacy resulting out of private property are received with far less scepticism than more recent aspects of privacy. With the burgeoning increase in information exchange, the ambit of privacy concerns is widened but not always understood. While earlier notions of privacy confined themselves to physical intrusions, it is now possible to invade a person's privacy without physically intruding on their space. As capabilities to intrude on privacy increase, the demand for respecting privacy grows stronger. In their historic article, Warren and Brandeis referred to privacy as an incorporeal notion, referring to cases of defamation, proprietary harms, contractual harms, breach of confidence to conclude that all such cases belonged to an umbrella principle of the right to privacy.

I.II Aspects of Privacy

William Prosser, a torts scholar, in 1860 attempted to classify privacy comprehensively. He contemplated four kinds of activities as impinging on a person's privacy. They were
1. Intrusion upon the plaintiff's seclusion or solitude, or into his private affairs.
2. Public disclosure of embarrassing private facts about the plaintiff.
3. Publicity which places the plaintiff in a false light in the public eye.
4. Appropriation, for the defendant's advantage, of the plaintiff's name or likeness.
While this classification lent some structure to the understanding of privacy, it restricted itself to only tort law.

A wider taxonomy was offered by Daniel Solove, imbibing concerns of digital privacy and information technology. Focussing on activities that invade privacy, Solove argued that information collection, aggregation of information, dissemination of such aggregated information and invasion into people's private affairs are the aspects integral to understanding the privacy concerns of a data subject.

In its policy paper on privacy in India, the Data Security Council of India (DSCI) recognised privacy issues in the context of e-commerce, transactional privacy, cyber crime, national security, and cross border data flows. Similarly the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in 2011 focussed on understanding privacy in the context of data protection and surveillance. Subsequently, in 2012, the Planning Commission of India set up the A.P. Shah Committee to look into issues of data protection. This Committee classified the dimensions of privacy into four main categories; interception and access, audio and video recording, access and use of personal identifiers, and bodily and genetic material.

The classification of privacy for the purpose of this paper is under the heads of bodily privacy, informational and communications privacy, and territorial and locational privacy. Bodily privacy stems from the notion of personal autonomy and inviolate personality. Battery, rape, voyeurism are all examples of the recognition of the need to protect the privacy of one's body. Communications and informational privacy refers to the protection of sensitive personal information, specific communications and private conversations. Interception of messages, spying, hacking or tapping phone lines are all activities that impinge on privacy under this head. India's ambitious biometric project, Aadhar, has brought to the fore concerns surrounding personal information. Territorial privacy is developed from the notion of private property, the tort of trespass being ample recognition of the same.

I.III Is India a Private Nation?

In October, 2010, the government published an approach paper for legislation on privacy. In explaining the need for privacy legislation in India, the paper states,

"India is not a particularly private nation. Personal information is often shared freely and without thinking twice. Public life is organized without much thought to safeguarding personal data. In fact, the public dissemination of personal information has over time, become a way of demonstrating the transparent functioning of the government."

The notion of privacy being a foreign construct carves the argument that legislation on privacy would mean subjecting India to an alien cultural value. However, this ignores the possibility of privacy being culturally subjective. Cultures have exhibited different measurements by which they measure public and private realms. This paper aims to demonstrate that while the word "privacy" does not find explicit reference in traditional Indian law, the essence of privacy as we understand it today has existed in traditional Indian culture, specifically Indian Islamic culture, pre-dating colonialism in India and modernity in India's legal system.

I.IV Displacement of traditional Indian Law

Contemporary Indian law functions within a rubric that was constructed after the "expropriation" of traditional law. India's colonial legacy rendered the displacement of traditional Indian law with a unified modern legal system abounding in European ideas of modernity and legal systems, leaving it is a state of "fractured modernity". Before the British rule, Indians were governed by their personal laws and these laws did not aim to unify the nation in ways that Western legal systems did.. The decision to establish a modern legal system stemmed from the desire to administer the law as a function of the state, which would have been impractical at best in the absence of a unified legal system.

Edward Said eloquently states that the colonial experience does not end when the last European flag comes down or when the last white policeman leaves. One cannot help but agree with Said, as the understanding of law in contemporary India is constructed on the principles of the English common law and on ideas of a modern legal system. While the word "privacy" does not arise in traditional law, this paper argues that the notions of privacy as we perceive it today did exist hitherto the modernization of India's legal system.

I.V Structure of the paper

While Part I has laid down the foundation of this paper and the arguments it endeavours to make, Part II explains the sources of Islamic law and attempts at locating privacy in them. It also explains certain pervasive concepts that will enhance an understanding of privacy in Islamic law. This paper restricts itself to Sunni Islamic law. Part III gives an indication of privacy rights in India's neighbouring Islamic countries (both predominantly Sunni), Pakistan and Bangladesh; and highlights the legal framework for privacy in these countries.

II. Privacy in Islamic Law

II.I Sources of Islamic Law

Before locating aspects of privacy in Islamic Law, an understanding of its structure and sources will be helpful. Islamic Law is composed of Shariah, and fiqh. Shariah indicates the path a faithful Muslim must undertake to attain guidance in the present world and deliverance to the next. Fiqh, the jurisprudence of Islam, refers to the rational understanding of Shariah and human reasoning to appreciate the practical implications of Islam. While Shariah is divine revelation, fiqh is the human inference of Shariah.

The principle tenet of Islam is unwavering obedience to the teachings of God. According to Muslim belief, the Quran is the divine communication from Allah to the Prophet of Islam. It is the foremost record of the word of God, and for this reason is considered the apex source of Islamic law. It is in the Quran that basic norms of Shariah are found, and it embodies the exact words of God as was revealed to the Prophet over a period of 23 years. Fiqh, or the understanding of Shariah, also finds its origins in the holy Quran.

The Sunnah or Prophetic traditions are the ingredients for the model behaviour of a Muslim as demonstrated by the Prophet. It is a "way, course, rule, mode, or manner, of acting or conduct of life." The Sunnah were compiled through the communications of Prophet Muhammad in the form of Hadiths which are communications, stories or conversations; and may be religious or secular; historical or recent. The narrators of the Hadith are known as "isnad" who convey the "matn" or the substance of the Prophet's actions or words as narrated through oral communications through the years. Due to its very nature, the accuracy of the Sunnah came under considerable scrutiny, with concerns as to its possible fabrication and dilution. However, with a well devised system of recording and verifying sources, the Sunnah accompanies the imperative source of Islamic law, the Quran.

The other sources of Islam are found in human reasoning, or ijtihad. Ijtihad assumes a variety of secondary sources such as analogical reasoning (Qiyas), unanimous consensus (Ijma), decisions in favour of public interest (isthihsan), and presumption of continuity (istishab).
Ijtihad entails a resilient effort; an exertion in interpreting the primary sources in order to understand Shariah, to infer the law which is not explicit or evident. The legitimacy of Ijma is found in the Prophetic tradition, which states that the followers of Islam would never agree on an error, and will never unite on misguidance.

The Quran and Sunnah lie at the pinnacle of Islamic jurisprudence and their authoritativeness lends a ready inference of legal principles derived from them. In exploring the concept of Privacy in Islamic Law, this paper will focus mainly on the material available in the Quran and Sunnah.

II.II The Public and Private in Islam

According to the doctrine of Shariah, every aspect of life is deemed to be private unless shown otherwise. The public sphere is that in which governmental authority operates, making it both transparent and open to scrutiny and observation. Since its inception, Islam has considered the idea of governance with reasonable scepticism, ascribing to the view that there is no concept of a human ruler beyond reproach. This perhaps gave impetus to the idea of a private sphere as one that is inhabited exclusively by an individual and the divine, excluding any interference of the State; except with permission from religious law. In Islamic belief, a pious individual had submitted himself to God, and not the worldly State. Hence, all aspects of his life will align with the tenets of Islamic law and in pursuance with the will of God. Any failure to perform religious duties on the part of a Muslim is beyond the scope of another; it is only a consideration between him and the divine. It is believed that the Prophet said, "Those, who acknowledge God in words, and not at heart, do not find fault with their fellow Muslims. The wrongdoing of those who do so become the subject of God's scrutiny, and when God looks into someone's wrongdoing then all shall be truly exposed" The individual is bestowed with complete freedom of action in the private sphere, subject only to the will of the divine. To govern another is wholly beyond the capacity of any individual, and this forms a pervasive theme in Islamic jurisprudence.

Islamic Law recognizes that it is inevitable for every society to impose certain requirements on individuals both by the law and by societal norms. In respect of a public domain, Islam prescribes an amalgam of requirements of a Muslim community and the teachings of Islam. While committing sins in private is beyond the scope of public or governmental scrutiny, committing a sin in public amounts to a crime, meriting worldly punishment.

Islamic law provides for an individual's obligations to the divine at all times, and to the state in matters within the public domain. This is the most striking difference between Islamic law and modern law, as the function of enforcement of the law and punishment are forfeited to the state in a modern legal system, by virtue of the social contract. However, in Islamic societies, the concept of social contract does not exist. Instead, an individual's obligations lie to the state only if acts meriting worldly punishment occur in the public sphere. It is this distinction in the obligations of individuals that leads to conflicts between the application of Islamic law and modern law.

The Quran is replete with rules for all believers to ordain good and forbid evil (al-amrbi al-Ma'rufwa al-nahy 'an al-munkar'). This divine injunction is a restriction of freedom in the private sphere. The notion of privacy in the public sphere was tested through the office of the muhtasib, or compliance officer. These officers were appointed to ensure that the quality of life is preserved in Islamic societies. Personal or private matters which were visible in the public realm were liable to scrutiny from the muhtasib as well. However, this does not extend to matters such as surveillance and spying even on the authority of the state. The Prophet, according to the hadith of Amir Mu'awiyah remarked, " If you try to find out the secrets of the people, then you will definitely spoil them or at least you will bring them to the verge of ruin." In fact, modern jurists admonish the idea of surveillance as "exactly what Islam has called as the root cause of mischief in politics."

II.III. Privacy in Islamic Law

Bodily Privacy

The sanctity of one's bodily privacy is well recognised in Islamic Law. The Quran (24:58) demarcates certain periods in a day which are times of privacy for an individual, and indicates the need for prior permission before one may enter the private sphere of another. These periods are before the prayer at dawn, during the afternoon where one rests, and after the night prayer. This verse also calls upon children who have not yet reached the age of puberty to get accustomed to asking for permission before entering rooms apart from their own.

As far as bodily seizure of individuals accused of crimes goes, the Traditions indicate a general disinclination towards pre-adjudication restraint of individuals. The very occurrence of it appears to be a cause of discomfort as recorded in the Traditions. One of the Prophet's closest companions, Umar, is believed to have encourages officials to speed up adjudication processes so that the accused could not be deprived of the comfort of their homes and families.

bodily privacy and modesty

Although the Quran stipulates gender equality, the norms of bodily privacy and modesty applicable to men are far less rigorous than the rules of modesty that apply to women. While staring is not contemplated as a crime in modern jurisdictions, the Quran directs "believing men to lower their gaze and be modest." At the same time, it directs women to adhere to strict rules of clothing and conduct, with directions on how to conduct oneself both in private as well as public. Interestingly, with the use of full-body scanners at airports around the world, the bodily privacy of Muslims came to the forefront with several Muslim scholars opining that such use of scanners was in direct violation of the tenets of Islam. According to the Quran, the modesty of a Muslim woman is an indication of her faith.

Communication and Informational Privacy

Privacy is, in many ways, inextricably linked to the notions of personal autonomy, and inviolate personality. Privacy in matters apart from those concerned with proprietary interests was only developed as a legal idea around the ninth century, although the Quran made ample references to it. Whilst the term "privacy" is not directly alluded to in the Quran, it contains verses emphasizing the importance of respecting personal autonomy. The Quran (49:12) rebukes those who wish to pry into matters which do not concern them, or harbour suspicions in respect of others, conceding that some suspicions can even be considered crimes. This implies an injunction against investigation; which complements the prohibition of circulation of information pertaining to an individual's private sphere (24:19). According to this verse, publication of immorality is desirous of punishment. A reasonable conclusion from the reading of these verses is that the Quran mandates respect for the private sphere, guaranteeing that a faithful believer will not violate it. The Prophet is reported to have said that non interference of individuals in matters that do not concern them is a sign of their good faith. Interestingly, the injunction against unwarranted search is for all members of a Muslim community, not just followers of Islam. An extension of the concept of informational privacy is the privacy of one's opinion, which is believed to be beyond reproach regardless of its contents. Deeds in the public sphere can be subject to worldly punishment, but thoughts and opinions everywhere, are not subject to it.

The Sunnah have also emphasized on privacy in communications. The Prophet once said, "He, who looks into a letter belonging to his brother, looks into the Hellfire" , indicating that private communications shall enjoy their privacy even in the public domain. This is evident from another saying of the Prophet,"Private encounters result in entrustment", which entails a restriction on communications arising out of private meetings.

Territorial Privacy

Domestic privacy is considered an important facet of Islamic life and this idea pervades different aspects of Shariah. Privacy in regard to proprietary interests was in fact the first legal conception of privacy recognised by Muslim jurists. The Quran (24:27-8) forbids entering another's house in lieu of permission to do the same. It seeks to ensure that a person visiting another's house is welcome in that house; reminding individuals of their rights during such visits. Further, the Quran (2:189) envisions visits made to other's houses only through the front door, indicating respect and transparency in visiting another's dwelling place. Muslim scholars are of the opinion that such rules were laid down in order to safeguard one's private sphere; to allow people to modify their behaviour to accommodate a visitor in a private domain. Clarifying the reasons for such rules, a jurist offered the following explanation, "The first greeting is for the residents to hear the visitor, the second is for the residents to be cautious( fa-ya khudhu hidhrahum),and the third is for them to either welcome the visitor or send him away."

Privacy in the domestic sphere extends to both physical privacy as well as intangible privacy. The Prophet opined that if one's gaze has entered into a private home before his body does, permission to enter the home would be redundant. This follows from the idea that if a person curiously peeps into another's home, it is equivalent to him entering it himself. The right to privacy is extended to absolve the home owner of any guilt in the event of attack on the intruder. Curiously, the right to privacy within one's home is extended to privacy in respect of sinful behaviour within his private sphere; the accountability of a Muslim to his fellow humans is only to be discerned in respect of his public actions. This is illustrated by an interesting story in the Hadith of Umar ibn al-Khattab. Khattab climbed the wall of a house on the suspicion of wine being consumed within the premises. On his suspicion being confirmed, he chided them for their conduct. They then reminded him that while he pointed out their sins, he himself was guilty of three sins; spying on them, failing to greet them and also not approaching their house through the front door. He agreed with them and walked away.

The rationale behind recognising privacy in the domestic sphere is not just illegal intrusion into one's physical space; it is also intrusion into matters of sensitivity which widens the scope for privacy in Islamic Law.

III Privacy in Shariah Based States

Locating aspects of privacy is Shariah-based states is particularly challenging due to the duality of obligations that exists in their legal framework. While Islamic law focuses on obligations of individuals to the divine in all affairs and the state only in public matters, legal obligations in modern states are understood vis-à-vis the state only. The incorporation of Islam into these modern legal systems represents the attempt at reconciling two distinct sources of law. This Part will consider the legal frameworks for privacy in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

III.I Pakistan

Islamic law has had a profound impact on the legal system of Pakistan. This Islamic Republic integrates Shariah law into its common law system, as is evident from Article 227(1) of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan ("the 1973 Constitution"). It reads, " All existing laws shall be brought in conformity with the Injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah, in this Part referred to as the Injunctions of Islam, and no law shall be enacted which is repugnant to such injunction". In addition to the Constitutional safeguards, General Zia-ul-Haq, between 1977 and 1988 provided great impetus to Pakistan's process of incorporating Islam into its common law system through the establishment of appellate religious courts and also enactment of the Hudood criminal law, which was consequently criticized for being discriminatory and arbitrary.

Constitutional Provisions

Enshrined in the 1973 Constitution is the fundamental right of persons not to be subject to any action detrimental to the life, liberty, body, reputation or property. While referring to the rights of individuals, Article 4(1) lays down, "To enjoy the protection of law and to be treated in accordance with law in the inalienable right of every citizen. Wherever he may be, and of every other person for the time being within Pakistan." While aspects of privacy can be read into this Article quite emphatically, the 1973 Constitution explicitly recognises the right to privacy, dignity and the inviolability of persons in Article 14(1),"The dignity of man, subject to law, the privacy of home, shall be inviolable". The sanctity of these rights is vigorously upheld as laws inconsistent with fundamental rights are declared to be void to the extent of their inconsistency.

Bodily Privacy

The 1973 Constitution recognises the fundamental right of persons not to be subject to any action detrimental to the life, liberty, body, reputation or property. The Pakistan Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860) refers to the protection of privacy of women in Section 509, upholding the modesty of women.

Communications and Informational Privacy

The Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organisation) Act 1996 enables investigating authorities under the Act to take cognizance of illegalities in communications. These authorities submit their reports to the courts, ensuring the accountability of such events, as well as legitimising search and seizure in pursuance of intercepted communications. The Act also makes arrangements for authorised interception of communications in cases of national security, although the wide and sweeping powers bestowed under this Section are a cause for concern. Moreover, any person causing annoyance to another through a telephone is liable to criminal punishment under the Telegraph Act, 1885.

Medicaland Financial information is recognised as a unit of privacy in the legal system of Pakistan. The delicate balance between transparency of government action and extent of privacy of information is struck in the Freedom of Information Ordinance, which exempts divulging information regarding personal privacy of individuals, private documents and financial privacy.

As far as digital privacy is concerned, the law in Pakistan is still at a nascent stage. In 2000, Pakistan implemented the National Information Technology Policy and Action Plan, which provided for confidentiality of transactional information. In 2002, an Electronic Transactions Ordinance was passed with a view to recognise and protect electronic transactions, setting up a framework within which privacy of information can be guaranteed and authenticity can be verified. There is no devoted law on data protection yet, although a Draft Electronic Data Protection Bill was published by the Ministry of Information in 2005.

Territorial and Locational Privacy

Akin to notions of privacy of the home in Islamic law, criminal trespass is a punishable offence under the Pakistan Penal Code. Pakistan has an unfortunately intimate relationship with terrorism. The Anti Terrorism Act of 1997 incorporates some provisions which raise concerns as to the sanctity of individual privacy. The Act allows an officer of police, armed forces or civil armed forces to enter and search any premise, and to seize any property they suspect to be connected to a terrorist act, without a warrant. Perhaps what is more worrying is that the entry of an officer is not subject to review, unlike in other Islamic countries like the United Arab Emirates. The trade off between personal liberties and national security is acutely felt in Pakistan, with intelligence agencies carrying on mass surveillance, without any legal framework providing for the same.

III.II Privacy in Bangladesh

Bangladesh identifies itself as a secular nation, although Islam is the state religion. The Constitution of Bangladesh uses the word privacy in the context of both territorial and communications privacy.

Bodily Privacy

The Bangladesh Penal Code, similar to Pakistan's, contains a section guaranteeing the bodily privacy of a woman and prohibiting any form of outraging her modesty. It criminalises assault, and also provides for private defence in case of assault.

Communications Privacy

The privacy of communications is subject to interception for the purpose of public safety, as envisaged in the Telegraph Act, 1885. It also contains provisions regarding unlawful interception of messages, as well as tampering or damaging communications. The Telecommunications (Amendment) Act 2006 gives the police sweeping powers to intercept mobile communications as well. However, a notice was issued to the government after this amendment to demonstrate its legality. Bangladesh also has the Right to Information Act, 2009 to promote transparency in governance, although it has a considerable number of agencies exempt from the Act as well. Provisions for cyber crime are enshrined in the Information and Communication Technology Act, 2006.

Territorial Privacy

In the context of territorial privacy, the Bangladesh Penal Code recognises criminal trespass, house trespass, lurking house trespass and house breaking as offences under Bangladeshi law.

IV. Conclusion

Privacy is a comprehensive term that entails a plethora of claims, making an exact definition of the term difficult to come by. In the absence of an explicit reference to privacy in the Indian Constitution, the Supreme Court has brought the right to privacy within the penumbra of Article 21 through various case laws. In 2010, the Government in its approach paper on privacy claimed that India is not a particularly private nation. In order to comprehensively understand India's modern legal framework, it is imperative to analyze the concepts of traditional law as they existed hitherto the colonial era. Although the term "privacy" is a modern construct, this paper has sought to demonstrate that the notion of privacy was well recognized and protected in traditional Islamic law.

From the discussion above, it is evident that the concept of privacy in Shariah law rests convincingly within the taxonomy adopted in this paper. The Quran and Hadith accommodate concerns surrounding private property, personal autonomy, protection of private communications, domestic life, modesty and the modern idea of surveillance. In addition to this, Islamic jurisprudence ascribes to the idea of a public and private sphere. The public sphere is occupied by society and governmental action, being liable to scrutiny and observation. On the other hand, the private sphere is occupied by the individual and the divine alone, free from any interference except in accordance with Shariah law. Inspite of the term "privacy" not finding explicit mention in the Quran or Hadith, a closer analysis of Shariah reveals privacy as a pervasive theme in Islamic jurisprudence.

Daniel Solove, A Taxonomy of Privacy, Vol. 154, No.3 University of Pennsylvania Law Journal, 477 (2006).

Samuel D. Warren & Louis D. Brandeis, The Right to Privacy, 4 Harvard Law Review 193, 193 (1890).

Richard A. Posner, Privacy, Surveillance and the Law, Vol. 75 No. 1 The University of Chicago Law Review 245, 245 (2008).

Blanca Rodríguez Ruiz, Privacy in Telecommunications: A European and an American Approach 39 (1st ed. 1997).

James Q. Whitman, The Two Western Cultures of Privacy : Dignity versus Liberty, 113 Yale Law Journal 1152, 1153 (2004).

Whitman, supra note 5, at 1153.

Solove, supra note 1, at 479.

Ibid. Referencing Lillian r. BeVier, Information About Individuals in the Hands of Government: Some Reflections on Mechanisms for Privacy Protection, 4 WM. & MARY BILL RTS. J. 455, 458 (1995) .

Ibid. Referencing KIM LANE SCHEPPELE, LEGAL SECRETS 184-85 (1988).

Ibid. Referencing 1 J. THOMAS MCCARTHY, THE RIGHTS OF PUBLICITY AND PRIVACY § 5.59 (2d ed. 2005).

Solove, supra note 1, at 560.

Samuel D. Warren & Louis D. Brandeis, supra note 2, at 193.

William L Prosser, Privacy, 48 California Law Review 383,389 (1960).

Solove, supra note 1, at 488.

Data Security Council of India, Policy Paper: Privacy in India. Available at https://www.dsci.in/sites/default/files/Policy%20Paper%20-%20Privacy%20in%20India.pdf.

Department of Personnel and Training, (DoPT) Approach Paper for a Legislation on Privacy. Report available at http://ccis.nic.in/WriteReadData/CircularPortal/D2/D02rti/aproach_paper.pdf.

Justice Ajit.P.Shah Committee, Report of the Group of Experts on Privacy, 60. Available at - http://planningcommission.nic.in/reports/genrep/rep_privacy.pdf.

Bhairav Acharya, at http://freespeechhub.thehoot.org/freetracker/storynew.php?storyid=565&sectionId=10.

DoPT, Approach Paper. supra note 16.

Whitman, supra note 5, at 1154.

Chandran Kukathas, Cultural Privacy, Vol. 91, No. 1 The Monist 68, 69 (2008).

Marc Galanter, Displacement of Traditional Law in Modern India, Vol XXIV, No. 4 Journal of Social Issues 65, 67 (1968).

Stuart Corbridge & John Harriss, Reinventing India: Liberalization, Hindu Nationalism and Popular Democracy 238 (Reprint, 2006).

Galanter, supra note 22, at 66.

Ibid. at 67.

Edward Said, Representing the Colonized: Anthropology's Interlocutors, Vol. 15 No.2 Critical Inquiry 205, 207 (1989).

Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Shari'ah Law, An Introduction 19 (2009)

M Mustafa Al Azami, Studies in Hadith Methodology and Literature 7 (2002).

Id. at 3.

NJ Coulson, A History of Islamic Law 22 (1964)

Kamali, supra note 27, at 19.

Sunan Ibn Majah , Book of Tribulations (Kitab al-Fitan) , #3950, available at http://sunnah.com/ibnmajah/36.

Mohsen Kadivar, An Introduction to the Private and Public Debate in Islam, Vol.70 , No. 3 Social Research 659, 663 (2003).

Lara Aryani, Privacy Rights in Shariah and Shariah-based States, Vol. 3, Iss.2, Journal of Islamic State Practices in International Law, 3 (2007)

Kadivar, supra note 33, at 664.

Ibid. at 665.

Ibid. at 667. Referencing Koleini, Mohammad. Al-Kaafi. Qom, Vol. 2: 353 1388.

Ibid. at 671.

Ibid. at 664.

Social Contract Theory of John Locke(1932-1704) in the Contemporary World , SelectedWorks of Daudi Mwita, Nyamaka (2011) Available at http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=dmnyamaka.

Kadivar, supra note 33, at 664.

Ibid. at 673.

Abul a'la Mawdudi, Human Rights in Islam 24 (1995). Also available online, at http://books.google.co.in/books?id=RUJWdCOmmxoC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Aryani, supra note 34, at 13.

This indicates Sura 24 : verse 58.

Holy Quran, 24:58 - O you who have believed, let those whom your right hands possess and those who have not [yet] reached puberty among you ask permission of you [before entering] at three times: before the dawn prayer and when you put aside your clothing [for rest] at noon and after the night prayer. [These are] three times of privacy for you. There is no blame upon you nor upon them beyond these [periods], for they continually circulate among you - some of you, among others. Thus does Allah make clear to you the verses; and Allah is Knowing and Wise. (Translation from Sahih International available at http://quran.com/24/58)

Reza Sadiq, Islam's Fourth Amendment : Search and Seizure in Islamic Doctrine and Muslim Practice, Vol. 40 Georgetown Journal of International Law 703, 730 (2008 - 2009).

Ibid. at 733. Referencing IBRAHIM ABDULLA AL-MARZOUQI, Human Rights in Islamic Law 392 (2000).

Rohen Peterson, The Emperor's New Scanner :Muslim Women at the Intersection of the First Amendment and Full Body Scanners, 22 Hastings Women's Law Journal 339, 343 (2011).

Holy Quran, 24:30 - Tell the believing men to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts. That is purer for them. Indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what they do. (Translation from Sahih International available at http://quran.com/24/30-31).

Holy Quran, 24:31- And tell the believing women to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which [necessarily] appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests and not expose their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers, their brothers' sons, their sisters' sons, their women, that which their right hands possess, or those male attendants having no physical desire, or children who are not yet aware of the private aspects of women. And let them not stamp their feet to make known what they conceal of their adornment. And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed. (Translation from Sahih Internation, available at http://quran.com/24/30-31).

David Garner, Muslims warned not to go through airport body scanners because they violate Islamic rules on nudity, The daily mail, (Feb 12, 2010). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250616/Muslims-warned-airport-body-scanners-violate-Islamic-rules-nudity.html#ixzz3KF8hS6q3 .

Holy Quran, 33:59 - O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful. (Translation from Sahih International, available at http://quran.com/33/59.)

Eli Alshech, "Do Not Enter Houses Other than Your Own": The Evolution of the Notion of a Private Domestic Sphere in Early Sunnī Islamic Thought Vol. 11, No. 3, Islamic Law and Society 291, 304 (2004).

Holy Quran, 49:12 - O you who have believed, avoid much [negative] assumption. Indeed, some assumption is sin. And do not spy or backbite each other. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his brother when dead? You would detest it. And fear Allah ; indeed, Allah is Accepting of repentance and Merciful. ( Translation from Sahih International, available at http://quran.com/49/12)

Holy Quran, 24:19 - Indeed, those who like that immorality should be spread [or publicized] among those who have believed will have a painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter. And Allah knows and you do not know. ( Translation from Sahih International, available at http://quran.com/24/19)

Kadivar, supra note 33, at 666.

Ahmad Atif Ahmad, Islam Modernity violence and everyday life 176 (1^st ed. 2009)

Kadivar, supra note 33, at 667.

Ibid , at 178.

Ibid.

Alshech, supra note 54, at 291.

Holy Quran, 24:27-8 - O you who have believed, do not enter houses other than your own houses until you ascertain welcome and greet their inhabitants. That is best for you; perhaps you will be reminded. And if you do not find anyone therein, do not enter them until permission has been given you. And if it is said to you, "Go back," then go back; it is purer for you. And Allah is Knowing of what you do. ( Translation from Sahih International, available at http://quran.com/24)

Holy Quran, 2:189 - They ask you, [O Muhammad], about the new moons. Say, "They are measurements of time for the people and for Hajj." And it is not righteousness to enter houses from the back, but righteousness is [in] one who fears Allah. And enter houses from their doors. And fear Allah that you may succeed. (Translation from Sahih International, available at http://quran.com/2)

Alshech, supra note 54, at 308.

Ibid. at 306. Referencing Ibn Abi Hatim, 8 TAF5IRAL-QUR'ANAL-'ADHIM 2566 (Makiabat Nlilr Mustaffi 1999).

Ahmad, supra note 58, at 177.

Alshech, supra note 54, at 324.

Aryani, supra note 34, at 4. Also see Ahmad, supra note 24, at 178.

Alshech, supra note 54, at 310.

Kadivar, supra note 33, at 664.

Moeen Cheema, Beyond Beliefs: Deconstructing the Dominant Narratives of the Islamization of Pakistan's Law, 60 American Journal of Comparative Law 875 (2012).

The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973. Available at http://www.na.gov.pk/publications/constitution.pdf.

Cheema, supra note 72, at 879.

The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, supra note 73.

Ibid.

Ibid. Article 8 - "(1) Any law, or any custom or usage having the force of law, in so far as it is inconsistent with the rights conferred by this Chapter, shall, to the extent of such inconsistency, be void. (2) The State shall not make any law which takes away or abridges the right so conferred and any law made in contravention of this clause shall, to the extent of such contravention, be void

Ibid. Article 4(2)(a) - "no action detrimental to the life, liberty, body, reputation or property of any person shall be taken except in accordance with law."

Section 509, Pakistan Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860), Available at http://www.oecd.org/site/adboecdanti-corruptioninitiative/46816797.pdf.

Section 32, Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-Organisation) Act, 1996. Available at http://www.pta.gov.pk/media/pta_act_140508.pdf.

Ibid. Section 54.

Section 25-D, Pakistan Telegraph Act, 1885. Available at http://www.fia.gov.pk/law/Offences/26.pdf.

Section 12, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Code of Ethics. Available at http://www.pmdc.org.pk/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=v5WmQYMvhz4%3D&tabid=292&mid=845.

http://www.sbp.org.pk/publications/prudential/ordinance_62.pdf

Section 8, Freedom of Information Ordinance, 2002. Available at http://infopak.gov.pk/Downloads/Ordenances/Freedom_of_%20Information_Ordinance2002.pdf.

Pakistan IT Policy and Action Plan, available at http://www.unapcict.org/ecohub/resources/pakistan-information-technology-policy.

Electronic Transactions Ordinance, available at http://www.pakistanlaw.com/eto.pdf.

For a more detailed account, see http://www.supremecourt.gov.pk/ijc/articles/10/1.pdf. Second draft available at http://media.mofo.com/docs/mofoprivacy/PAKISTAN%20Draft%20Law%202nd%20Revision%20.pdf.

Sections 441 - 462, Pakistan Penal Code (XLV of 1860) Chapter XVII, "Offences against Property".

Section 5, Anti Terrorism Act, 1997. Available at http://www.fia.gov.pk/law/ata1997.pdf.

Ibid. Section 10.

Lara Aryani, supra note 34, at 21.

Julhas Alam, Bangladesh moves to retain Islam as state religion, Cns News, http://cnsnews.com/news/article/bangladesh-moves-retain-islam-state-religion.

Article 43, Constitution of Bangladesh. Available at http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/research/bangladesh-constitution.pdf.

Section 509, Bangladesh Penal Code,1860. Available at http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/print_sections_all.php?id=11.

Ibid. Sections 351- 358.

Ibid . Section 100.

Section 5, Bangladesh Telegraph Act, 1885. Available at http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/print_sections_all.php?id=55.

Ibid . Section 24.

Ibid. Section 25.

Bangladesh Penal Code, 1860. supra note 95. Section 441.

Ibid. Section 442.

Ibid. Section 443.

Ibid. Section 445.

See, Kharak Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh, AIR 1963 SC 1295 : (1964) 1 SCR 332; Govind v. State of Madhya Pradesh, AIR 1975 SC 1378; Rajagopal v. State of Tamil Nadu, AIR 1995 SC 264; People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) v. Union of India, AIR 1997 SC 568; X v. Hospital Z, AIR 1999 SC 495.

DoPT, Approach Paper. supra note 16.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/identifying-aspects-of-privacy-in-islamic-law

FrndiNeed; an app for passengers' safety

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T17:05:38Z

The article by Athira A. Nair was published in the Economic Times on December 10, 2014. Sunil Abraham gave his inputs.

Even as the nation recovers from the shock of an Uber passenger being raped by her cabbie, there is a new app that has repackaged itself to "get back the lost trust and security for the daily commuter". FrndiNeed, a socially-enabled app, which utilizes the user's geo-location, connects the user with friends in the vicinity and requests them for a lift. The app, a variant of those that poke friends for instant meet-ups, has an SOS tab for emergency.

Kunal Kishore, the Delhi-based co-founder of FrndiNeed, said the app was originally meant to catch up with friends who were within a 2-5 km radius."However, when we developed the app in August, we thought of such (women's security) situations also," he told ET.

Newer app developers are looking at preventing a crisis and creating safer situations for women rather than just providing panic buttons. Delhi-based group Socialcops collects data from civilians and authorities to find the safest and fastest routes for users. This app tells the police about the routes which need attention. Prukalpa Shankar, co-founder, said: "We are launching the SocialCops application in Kar nataka through the new Mobile One governance platform."

Jasmeen Patheja, founder of the Blank Noise Project, said apps should be part of a larger system connecting the woman with the neighbourhood, the police and family, and not something that creates panic. "The Circleof6 app created primarily in the US scenario where daterapes are rampant, puts the user in touch with six friends the minute she begins to feel uncomfortable on a date," she said.Jasmeen has not come across a case in which an app has helped a woman in an emergency .

The police is tweaking its app to connect women in trouble to the police. Their six-month-old `DCP SahAya' app will incorporate a facility which will alert the police control room or the local police station, revealed Rohini Katoch Sepat, DCP Bengaluru South-East.

Sunil Abraham, the executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, believes that while certain mobile apps could provide a degree of safety, it would be naive to think that technology will be the solution."How many people do you trust to help you at any time of night? For women, whose emergency contacts are their parents, it would be difficult to alert them on a date night. Also, in the most pessimistic scenario, the mobile signal could be dead, and you may not be able to give an alert at all."

Jessie Paul, CEO of Paul Writer Strategic Advisory, felt that although IT is an enabler and apps are a step in the right direction, they were not preventive.

"To some extent, I believe these are superficial. We should have a centralized database for crime which will make it difficult for criminals to escape and rehabilitate in other parts of the country ," he said.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/economic-times-december-10-2014-athira-a-nair-frndineed-an-app-for-passenger-safety

Are Cab Apps safe?

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T17:01:39Z

Cab services are increasingly relying on mobile apps to book, track and charge you for journeys. While tech watchers say there is a digital trail.

Originally published by IBNLive on December 8, 2014. Sunil Abraham gave his inputs.

"You can always share your location, the app has a feature for you to share your location through the way to whoever is waiting at the other end," said Aprameya Radhakrishna, CEO Taxi For Sure.

There's also a major safety loopholes. "We have more complicated technological safegaurd. All the cab driver has to do is use a very primitive technique. He just has to pull off his battery and can ensure that he throws away the phone of the traveller, and no one would know," said Sunil Abraham, Head, Centre For Internet And Society.

So can you trust technology to safeguard you? Rest assured that someone will be monitoring your journey back in some control room?

People feel that there should be some kind of an automatically generated alert system. Had the tracker been switched off, that could have been a point of loophole.

Great degree of automation is possible here but finally it is the human oversight which is critical eventually, in any technology.

Technology, ultimately, doesn't have all the answers, can't provide all solutions against crime prevention. We have seen instances when criminals have attacked women in ATMs knowing full well they are caught on camera, we have seen attacks by unruly drivers at road toll booths, regardless of the surveillance cameras.

While technology helps in tracking digital footprints that a criminal has taken, it hasn't deterred the criminal from doing what he wants to. For that, we have to be on guard.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ibn-live-december-8-2014-are-cab-apps-safe

India sees biggest improvement in Internet freedom, says report

praskrishna — 2014-12-07T11:08:34Z

Big stride ascribed to removal of restrictions imposed in 2013; globally, Internet freedom sees decline.

The article by Moulishree Srivastava was published in Livemint on December 5, 2014. Sunil Abraham gave his inputs.

India fared better this year when it came to freedom of the Net, while globally Internet freedom declined for the fourth consecutive year in 2014 with a growing number of countries introducing more aggressive online censorship and monitoring practices, said a report by Freedom House, an independent watchdog.

The global Freedom on the Net report 2014, which covered the period between 1 May 2013 and 31 May 2014 and was released on Thursday, said India scored 42 points this year, an improvement of five points over the previous reporting period.

It’s the largest increase in Internet freedom over the past year and was ascribed to the removal of temporary restrictions on access and content that had been imposed in 2013 to stem an exodus of people from north-eastern states from wherever else they were in India.

Of the 65 countries assessed, 36 saw a decline in Internet freedom. The most significant declines were in Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. Iran, Syria and China are the world’s worst abusers of Internet freedom, said Freedom House.

A low score indicates higher Internet freedom.

The US remained relatively free compared with the rest of the world with a total score of 19, the report said.

“Any report on Internet freedom that ranks US as free cannot be taken seriously,” said Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Bengaluru-based research organization Centre for Internet and Society.

There is massive intellectual property rights (IPR)-related censorship in the US, which Freedom House does not consider censorship, and the total surveillance regime of the National Security Agency that resulted in self-censorship was also ignored by Freedom House, he said.

In India, curbs on content and arrests related to online publishing under Section 66A of the information technology (IT) Act declined in the past year.

There have been nine criminal complaints filed against social media posts in the period, but the Supreme Court did its bit by curtailing arrests for online expression under the IT Act.

Independently, the Supreme Court is assessing the constitutionality of provisions in the IT Act and secondary legislation that restrict content and criminalize speech online. Section 66A of the IT Act criminalizes a wide range of speech and led to several arrests for social media posts in 2012 and early 2013. On 2 December, the Supreme Court asked the government to clarify its stand on the constitutionality of these provisions by 9 December.

Several petitioners have also challenged parts of the IT Act, including rules introducing potential criminal liability for intermediary companies for content posted by third parties, as unconstitutional in the Supreme Court.

“Legislation and procedures to effectively protect privacy, meanwhile, remain lacking, and the scope of a privacy law currently being drafted is unclear,” said the Freedom House report.

India was expected to get a privacy law before the launch of the Unique ID, or Aadhar, programme, but this has not happened.

“Allegations of procedural abuses by state officials in surveillance cases have emerged in the states of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, in the latter while the present Prime Minister was chief minister,” the report said. “Partly in response to these scandals, the government tightened procedures in January 2014, saying officials must issue interception orders to telecommunications providers in written form, though they still require no warrant or judicial oversight.”

Currently, the government can retrieve data from intermediaries such as Internet service providers, which are required to install infrastructure for surveillance and keyword scanning of all traffic passing through each gateway.

What can curb Net freedom substantially in India, according to the report, is the Indian government’s ambitious nationwide surveillance programme, the Central Monitoring System, which allows authorities to monitor individuals’ digital communications directly without issuing orders to service providers, written or otherwise—that is, “without judicial oversight”.

The move allows government agencies to intercept any online activities, phone calls, text messages and even social media conversations in real time by directly accessing interception equipment on intermediary premises.

The Indian government also requested user information from international Web-based platforms including Google Inc., which received 2,794 data requests from Indian government agencies from January to June 2014. Facebook Inc. got 3,598 such requests and Twitter Inc. 19.

Apoorva contributed to this story.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-december-5-2014-moulishree-srivastava-india-sees-biggest-improvement-in-internet-freedom

Cyber bullying is a crime, but open to interpretation: Expert

praskrishna — 2014-12-07T10:54:32Z

The social media attack on a Doordarshan anchor who made a series of gaffes at the recent Goa film festival would qualify as cyber bullying, experts say, but hasten to add there is not much that can be done to prevent such behaviour online, given the humungous size of the virtual universe.

The article by Neha Alawadhi was published in the Times of India on December 2, 2014. Pranesh Prakash gave his inputs.

The anchor reportedly shut down all her online accounts following the slew of unflattering and personal comments that she was bombarded with after the video of the event went viral and was shared across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, among other such platforms.

Under Section 66 (A) of the IT Act, 2000, cyber bullying is a bailable offence, punishable with three years of imprisonment and fine. However, the complainant and police can interpret what constitutes offensive behaviour, said cyber law expert Pavan Duggal.

"Just as we don't regulate jeering and taunting of adults when it happens in person, as opposed to a threat of violence, unless there is a special case made out for the harm of online taunting, I don't think there is a case for a legislative response," said Pranesh Prakash, policy director at Bengaluru-based Centre for Internet and Society.

According to a recent report by McAfee, part of Intel Security, half of Indian youths have had some experience with cyber bullying and of these over a third (36%) have been bullied themselves online.

IT and cybersecurity expert Rakshit Tandon recalled the trauma a young professor at one of the top colleges underwent when an old picture of her, from one of her social media accounts, went viral and became the butt of unflattering comments by students. "Once it goes viral, you can't track who is sharing or sending it," he said.

"We don't have one personality anymore," said Adhvith Dhuddu, founder and CEO of digital marketing agency Alive-Now, which handles social and digital for brands online. "We have an offline personality and we have an online personality, and this is true for anyone —whether you are a brand, person, book or a movie," he added.

Several schools, NGOs and individuals are working towards educating children and young people about the dangers of sharing information online, but often find themselves at a loss when confronted with real situations every day.

The approach AliveNow's Dhuddu takes is to "engage first and ban later". He said, "We try to reason with people. We always take any grievance offline, we don't try to solve a grievance online."

For individuals, however, the offline route may be impractical or infeasible. Tandon believes the only way is to "sensitise people", while CIS's Prakash says a person can "block abusive users, set one's account in private mode and just get off such social networks for a while till the situation cools off".

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/economic-times-december-2-2014-neha-alawadhi-cyber-bullying-is-a-crime-but-open-to-interpretation

Digital Security Training

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T15:16:39Z

Rohini Lakshane participated as a trainer in a digital security training conducted by Front Line Defenders for the Afghan Women's Network in New Delhi in November 2014.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/digital-security-training

November 2014 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2014-12-15T13:27:04Z

We at the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) welcome you to the eleventh issue of the newsletter (November 2014).

Highlights

On 13 November, 2014, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion had released a Call for Suggestions for India's proposed National IPR Policy. CIS sent its comments.
As part of the Pervasive Technologies we published four methodology documents: Rohini Lakshané wrote on Patent Landscaping for the Indian Mobile Device market ; Anubha Sinha wrote on Intellectual Property in Mobile Application Development in India ; Maggie Huang wrote on Access to Music through the Mobile; and Nehaa Chaudhari wrote on Sub Hundred Dollar Mobile Devices and Competition Law .
Odisha's most circulated newspaper Sambad has collaborated with CIS-A2K to relicense 19 books published by its sister concern "Ama Odisha".
Vipul Kharbanda in a blog entry examines the relationship between privacy and transparency in the context of the right to information in India .
Geetha Hariharan in a blog entry explores what India's ITU proposal means for Internet Governance.
Pranesh Prakash wrote an article in the Economic Times exploring net neutrality.
In her final blog post on the mapping exercise undertaken by CIS-RAW, P.P.Sneha summarises some of the key concepts and terms that emerged as significant in the discourse around Digital Humanities in India.

►Job

Programme Officer (Access to Knowledge - Institutional Partnerships): CIS is seeking applications for the post of Programme Officer for its Access to Knowledge (A2K) Programme. The position will be based in its Bangalore office. Programme Officer will collaboratively work with the A2K Team and would report to the Programme Director, Access to Knowledge at CIS.

Accessibility and Inclusion

Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing two projects. The first project is on creating a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India. CIS in partnership with CLPR (Centre for Law and Policy Research) compiled the National Compendium of Policies, Programmes and Schemes for Persons with Disabilities (29 states and 6 union territories). The publication has been finalised and is currently in the process of being printed. The draft chapters and the quarterly reports can be accessed on the project page. The second project is on developing text-to-speech software for 15 Indian languages. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed here.

►NVDA and eSpeak

Monthly Update

November 2014 Report (Suman Dogra; November 30, 2014).

Upcoming Event

Training in Use of eSpeak with Malayalam (co-organized by CIS, DAISY Forum of India and Chakshumathi Assistive Technology Centre; Trivandrum; January 24 - 25, 2015, Trivandrum).

►Other

Blog Entry

Central Guidelines and Schemes (Anandhi Viswanathan; November 6, 2014).

Access to Knowledge

As part of the Access to Knowledge programme we are doing two projects. The first one (Pervasive Technologies) under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is for research on the complex interplay between pervasive technologies and intellectual property to support intellectual property norms that encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The second one (Wikipedia) under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.

Submission

Comments on the Proposed Intellectual Property Rights Policy to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (Pranesh Prakash, Nehaa Chaudhari, Anubha Sinha and Amulya P.; November 30, 2014).

Blog Entries

MHRD IPR Chairs - Underutilization of Funds and Lack of Information Regarding Expenditures (Amulya Purushothama, November 19, 2014).

Participation in Events

Ubiquity, Mobility, Globality: Charting Directions in Mobile Phone Studies (Organized by Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; November 6 - 7, 2014). Nehaa Chaudhari made a presentation on Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Marketplace.
Countering US pressures on India's IP regime (Organized by Lawyer's Collective; November 16, 2014). Anubha Sinha attended the event.
Technology and Gender Based Violence (Organized by the Bachchao Project; November 24, 2014). Rohini Lakshané was a speaker at the event. She spoke about various strategies that women use to respond to online harassment, such as reporting the abuser, and enlisting support from online followers, or friends or family in order to deal with the abuser.

►Pervasive Technology

Blog Entries

Methodology: Patent Landscaping (Rohini Lakshané; November 10, 2014).
Methodology: Intellectual Property in Mobile Application Development in India (Anubha Sinha; November 17, 2014).
Methodology: Access to Music through the Mobile (Maggie Huang; November 18, 2014).
Methodology: Sub Hundred Dollar Mobile Devices and Competition Law (Nehaa Chaudhari; November 25, 2014).

►Wikipedia

As part of the project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation we have reached out to more than 3500 people across India by organizing more than 100 outreach events and catalysed the release of encyclopaedic and other content under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) license in four Indian languages (21 books in Telugu, 13 in Odia, 4 volumes of encyclopaedia in Konkani and 6 volumes in Kannada, and 1 book on Odia language history in English).

Op-Ed

Odia Wikisource, its Potential (Subhashish Panigrahi, The Samaja, November 17, 2014).

Blog Entries

55 Works of Iconic Indian writer released under Free Licence to benefit Wikisource (T. Vishnu Vardhan, November 13, 2014).
Odia author Nirmala Kumari Mohapatra's 21 books relicensed under CC-by-SA 4.0 (Subhashish Panigrahi, November 17, 2014).
Nineteen Books Published by Ama Odisha Relicensed under CC-by-SA 4.0 (Subhashish Panigrahi, November 25, 2014).

News and Media Coverage

CIS-A2K team gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

ಭಾಷಣದಿಂದ ಭಾಷೆ ಉಳಿಯಲ್ಲ, ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲೇ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಿಗುವುದು ಅಗತ್ಯ: ಪವನಜ (Just Kannada; November 23, 2014).
Kannada Wikipedia Presentation in Mysuru (Prajavani; November 24, 2014).
Now, Tulu set to be promoted through Wikipedia articles (Hindu; November 24, 2014).
'Tulu Wikipedia' in incubation stage, 600 articles uploaded, says U.B. Pavanaja (Ravi Prasad Kamila; Hindu; November 26, 2014).
Odia Wikisource launched in Odisha capital (Odisha Sun Times; November 28, 2014).
Odia Wikisource aims to bring valuable and rare books on the Internet (Odisha Diary; November 28, 2014).

Event Co-organized

Odia Wikisource Sabha 2014 (Co-organized by CIS-A2K and Odia Wikimedia Community; November 28, 2014). Subhashish Panigrahi participated in the event.

Participation in Event

A Seminar on E-publishing of Odia Books (Organized by Molybtech Technology Solutions; November 30, 2014). Subhashish Panigrahi was a speaker.

►Openness

Blog Entry

Privacy vs. Transparency: An Attempt at Resolving the Dichotomy (Sunil Abraham with feedback and inputs from Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Elonnai Hickok, Bhairav Acharya and Geetha Hariharan; November 14, 2014).

News and Media Coverage

Getting Strategic about Openness and Privacy (Tim Davies; Open Data Research Lead at Web Foundation; November 3, 2014).

Participation in Event

Content co-ordination for the Panel Discussion on Crypto-Currencies (organized by the Law and Technology Society; November 15, 2014). Sharath Chandra Ram was a panelist and made a presentation Scalability and Security Issues in Distributed Trust based Cryto-Currency Systems like BITCOIN

Internet Governance

►Privacy

As part of our Surveillance and Freedom: Global Understandings and Rights Development (SAFEGUARD) project with Privacy International we are engaged in enhancing respect for the right to privacy in developing countries. During the month we published the following blog entries:

Blog Entries

White Paper on RTI and Privacy V1.2 (Vipul Kharbanda; November 9, 2014).
Introduction: About the Privacy and Surveillance Roundtables (Manoj Kurbet; November 27, 2014).

Event Organized

IOCOSE's talk at CIS (CIS, Bangalore; November 27, 2014). There was a presentation of the work of the artists group IOCOSE, current artists in residence at T.A.J./SKE Residency.

Upcoming Event

CPDP 2015 : The eighth international conference on computers, privacy and data protection will be held in Brussels from January 21 to 23, 2015. CIS is a moral supporter of CPDP.

Participation in Events

E-Consultation on Cyber Security, Justice, and Governance Begins! (Organized by the Hague Institute for Global Justice; November 4, 2014). Sunil Abraham facilitated the e-consultation on "Internet access, the freedom of expression online, and development in the Global South".
Learning Forum: Transparency and Human Rights in the Digital Age (Organized by Global Network Initiative; November 6, 2014). Pranesh Prakash gave a talk on transparency reports and their use and abuse in India; the Intermediary Liability Rules in India (and its non-provision of any transparency mechanism); and the need for transparency in private speech regulation, not just governmental speech regulation.
Fourth Discussion Meeting of the Expert Committee to Discuss the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill (Organized by the Department of Biotechnology; New Delhi; November 10, 2014). Sunil Abraham was unable to participate because of technical problems.
Ground Zero Summit 2014 (Organized by India Infosec Consortium; November 13-14, 2014). Geetha Hariharan participated in this event.
Privacy, security and surveillance: tackling international dilemmas and dangers in the digital realm (Organized by Wilton Park; November 17-19, 2014). Pranesh Prakash was a panelist in the session "Beyond the familiar: how do other countries deal with security and surveillance oversight?"

►Free Speech

Under a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, CIS is doing research on the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government and contribute studies, reports and policy briefs to feed into the ongoing debates at the national as well as international level. As part of the project we bring you the following outputs:

Blog Entries

Good Intentions, Recalcitrant Text - II: What India's ITU Proposal May Mean for Internet Governance (Geetha Hariharan; November 1, 2014).
India's Statement at ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, 2014 (Geetha Hariharan; November 4, 2014).

Newspaper Article

The Socratic debate: Whose internet is it anyway? (Pranesh Prakash; Economic Times; November 18, 2014).

News & Media Coverage
CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

Twitter users find several accounts suspended for unknown reasons (Vasudha Venugopal; Economic Times; November 2, 2014).
Several Indian Twitter users' accounts suspended due to tech glitch (Silky Malhotra; digit; November 3, 2014).
Game release cancelled over gay character (Jaison Lewis; Mumbai Mirror; November 19, 2014).
Leave the Net Alone (Businessworld; November 25, 2014).

Digital Humanities

CIS is building research clusters in the field of Digital Humanities. The Digital will be used as a way of unpacking the debates in humanities and social sciences and look at the new frameworks, concepts and ideas that emerge in our engagement with the digital. The clusters aim to produce and document new conversations and debates that shape the contours of Digital Humanities in Asia:

Blog Entry

Mapping Digital Humanities in India - Concluding Thoughts (P.P.Sneha; November 30, 2014).

About CIS

The Centre for Internet and Society is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government, FOSS, open standards, etc.), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.

► Follow us elsewhere

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k
Visit us at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge
E-mail: a2k@cis-india.org

► Support Us

Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of 'The Centre for Internet and Society' and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru - 5600 71.

► Request for Collaboration:

We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, atsunil@cis-india.org or Nishant Shah, Director - Research, at nishant@cis-india.org. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia, write to T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, A2K, at vishnu@cis-india.org.

CIS is grateful to its primary donor the Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/november-2014-bulletin

Know thy selfie

praskrishna — 2015-08-05T01:23:12Z

The trend of clicking selfies is not a mere self-indulgent fad. It's a modern form of peer validation that helps in building a social bond, say Prasun Chaudhuri and Sharmistha Ghosal

The article was published in the Telegraph on November 27, 2014. Nishant Shah and Rohini Lakshane were quoted.

Ever since her father gifted her an expensive smartphone, Anwesha Ray, a third year student at a Calcutta college, can't stop clicking selfies. First, she started uploading selfies on her Facebook page once a week. But the growing number of 'likes' inspired her to capture more images. Now she clicks at least five pictures a day and changes her profile picture at least twice a week. She deletes a picture within hours if it fails to garner at least 200 'likes' from over 4,000 friends.

Rohit Chattopadhyay, a third year student at an engineering college in south Calcutta, mastered the art of taking selfies and editing them courtesy Instagram. He uploads at least a couple of self-portraits a day. Sometimes he works well past midnight chasing that "perfect" shot.

Aliah Shamim, a second year student at a top Calcutta college, loves to click selfies with friends and family. However, she shares them only with her close contacts on Facebook and WhatsApp.

Welcome to the world of selfie-engrossed teenagers ready to do anything to get that perfect self-portrait. In every college you'll find students who are mad about selfies. Anwesha knows her obsession leads to her "wasting a lot of time", but she can't kick her habit of clicking selfies.

"I simply love those 'likes' on Facebook. It gives me a feeling of deja vu. I feel as if I'm a celebrity," she says a tad sheepishly. "Just imagine how many admirers I have," says Rohit proudly showing a particular top shot of his face which has garnered 602 'likes'.

Are these students really being too self indulgent? Or is it just their way of getting endorsement of their self worth? Dr Shefali Batra, founder, Mind Frames, a psychiatric clinic in Mumbai, feels the act of taking selfies is a way of feeling "empowered" as students attempt to compensate for their lack of self worth in the real world. According to her, the selfie obsession borders on narcissism — an excessive interest in or admiration of oneself and one's physical appearance — and clouds their judgement; they fail to see the real world.

She is worried because she's been getting quite a few teen patients who are obsessed with selfies. Although not as extreme as a 15-year-old girl from Philippines who died after falling down the stairs while taking a selfie or a Russian teen who plunged to his death after trying to take a selfie atop a railway bridge, she is scared the trend might catch on in India.

Calcutta-based psychiatrist J.R. Ram too is concerned about the increasing number of selfie-obsessed teens in his clinic. He says, "Last week, I met a 13-year-old girl who stole money to get a haircut like pop singer Rihanna. Her parents were worried but she was nonchalant as her portrait got 167 'likes' on a social networking site."

According to Ram, selfies are the modern day equivalent of a reflection in a pool which led mythological Greek hunter Narcissus to drown in a stream as he was enamoured of his own image. "The virtual image is more important to these teenagers than the real one," he avers.

Agrees Rima Mukherjee, a psychiatrist based in Calcutta. "Virtual appreciation means a lot to these kids and it doesn't matter if most of the 'likes' they get on social networking sites are fake," she says. According to her, the trend is pushing some youths to compete with their friends to garner more 'likes'. "If a friend's picture gets more 'likes' students feel compelled to go on an overdrive to shoot and upload more selfies," she notes.

Take the case of Ashmita Dasgupta. "I make it a point to score quality 'likes,' unlike Anwesha [her classmate]. I don't go on adding random friends to maximise the 'likes'," she says.

As an associate dean at Praxis B-school, Calcutta, Charanpreet Singh has a ringside view of student behaviour and activities. He says, "These kids do have a large network of friends but the relationships are very superficial. The so-called 'likes' don't come from the heart and mean nothing." He's also observes that those students who don't have many real world friends are more active on social networking sites. "They vie for appreciation out of emotional insecurity."

Some argue that this trend of clicking and uploading selfies has been fuelled by the celebrity culture. Says Aroona Broota, a former professor of psychology in Delhi University, "Some teenagers are inspired by celebs who frequently click selfies to promote themselves. The kids fail to understand that for the celebrities it's a shrewd way of marketing themselves or advertising a product." Also, for some, clicking selfies has become an escape route from the daily drudgery and frustrations that one face in real life such as scoring low marks in exams, having no job or other personal problems.

But not all psychiatrists or psychologists feel that the trend is scary. Zena Deb, a Calcutta-based clinical psychologist, finds nothing wrong with students clicking selfies unless their obsession leads them to taking risks such as shooting from the top of a building or a cliff.

Deb, a mother of an 18-year-old girl says, "Most do this to seek attention and get some validation from peers. It doesn't matter if one is ugly or pretty — you can seek a certificate for your self-worth and you get it so easily on a social network." For a teenager such 'peer review' is of utmost importance and it must not be confused with narcissism.

Ali Khwaja, founder of counselling centre Banjara Academy, Bangalore, too feels narcissism is too strong a word to describe the trend. "With a strong medium at their disposal they want to spread the message that they want to be different, creative and adventurous. They hope to expand their contacts and create an identity," he says.

Nishant Shah, co-founder of the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, feels the act of taking selfies is a networking phenomena. He says, "These are meant for creating interesting routes of connectivity with a photographic object that goes beyond individualistic relationships. It forms social and cultural capital for youths."

Rohini Lakshané, a researcher at the CIS, believes we are living in times where users of social media, especially "digital natives" find it rewarding to constantly promote themselves in their chosen ways and forms through these channels. She says, "The selfie often circumvents the artistic pursuit of making a self portrait. Instead it tries to make a spectacle or testimony that the selfie-taker was indeed present at a certain place, at a certain time, in a certain attire or mood, and (perhaps) in the company of certain people." According to her, selfie-takers enjoy control over how the photos turn out to be, how they look in the photo, and the time and social network in which such a photo is published — all of which are 'advantages' over having someone else take their photos or being shot candidly. She adds, "While I would consider the act of taking several selfies self-indulgent, I am not sure if it qualifies as narcissistic."

They have the tools of self-expression which their parents didn't have, says Kaustuv Sengupta, a youth trend analyst and an associate professor at NIFT, Bangalore. "This is a more expressive generation which wants to become more visible," he says. As a panel member of a youth survey — called Millennial Paradox — conducted by Titan Industries last year, he found that despite the unprecedented levels of self-obsession and independence, India's millennnials (21-35 year old) do not operate in isolation — they have a strong desire to share and belong to a community. "Sharing has become the principle form of validation....everything requires endorsement — whether that takes the form of a 'friend' a 'like' or even a 'retweet", concludes the survey, describing the new trend as "collective individualism".

For the current generation of digital natives, endorsements in the virtual world matter more than the feedback they get from the real world, says Dr Subhrangshu Aditya, a student counsellor at Jadavpur University. "The real world — parents, guardians and other authorities — doesn't approve of the 'Kiss of Protest' movement against moral policing, but it is appreciated by their virtual friends," he observes.

Nishant Shah of CIS points out that social media are a potent tool for today's youngsters. These can be used as a political weapon when they identify crises in their immediate environment. And all the recent movements across the world — anti-corruption or the post-gangrape protests in India, occupy Wall Street in the US or Shahbag protests — have originated in the digital world. More power to the social media, we say.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-telegraph-november-27-2014-know-thy-selfie