We are anonymous, we are legion

An all-nighter for hackers

praskrishna — 2012-08-06T10:59:09Z

Tech event management firm HasGeek is back with its Hacknight for hackers and developers willing to burn the proverbial midnight oil writing some competitive code.

An all-nighter for hackers

Tech event management firm HasGeek is back with its Hacknight for hackers and developers willing to burn the proverbial midnight oil writing some competitive code.

The Hacknight will be held between July 14 and 15, from 2 p.m. to 8 a.m. at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), in Bangalore, and simultaneously in Pune, at AmiWorks.

The Data Hacknight was open to geeks, enthusiasts, designers, mathematicians and statisticians to work with different datasets on projects ranging from discovering unknown patterns in data to representing data in various visual forms. This event was being held in the run-up to a larger conference on big data, analytics and applications called The Fifth Elephant.

The Hacknight was also open to individuals who want to work with tools such as R, Pig, Excel or even Hadoop to discover the possibilities and challenges of working with data, a release from HasGeek stated.

To register for the Hacknight, visit http://beta.hacknight.in/fifthelephant/bangalore2012

Yahoo sets up Grid Computing Lab

Yahoo India’s Research and Development wing and the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras announced the launch of a Grid Computing Lab set up by the Internet major on the institute campus.

This cluster of high-end servers at the lab would allow researchers to access Web-scale data and conduct research on big data and cloud computing systems, a release from Yahoo stated. The lab would focus on this emerging field and encourage more researchers to take up research in the field, as well as process and analyse huge volumes of structured and unstructured data which, to date, has been limited due to significant cost barriers in getting large computing systems operational.

D. Janakiram, Department of Computer Science, IIT-Madras, said in a release: “This opens up a new arena of exciting opportunities for our students. We are hopeful such partnerships will allow students to conduct truly breakthrough work on cloud computing and data storage systems, ultimately leading to Web innovations coming to the marketplace.”

World Class Award for iGate

iGATE, an integrated technology and operations company, announced that it has won the ‘World Class Award’ under the ‘large service organisations’ category at the Global Performance Excellence Awards (GPEA).

The awards were administered by the Asia Pacific Quality Organisation, a non-profit group, a release from iGate stated. Ravi Mani, senior vice-president, Organisational Excellence Group, iGATE, said the award was a testimony to the persistent effort the teams have put in to achieve the high-quality standards and processes at iGATE.

Cloud and growth: a survey

Over the last two years, the public cloud market in India has rapidly evolved with focus on software and payments as a service, a survey by Zinnov, a consulting firm, has found.

A study titled ‘Public Cloud Opportunity in India’ found that the overall Indian market for cloud (both public and private) grew steadily in 2011. The Software as a Service (SaaS) market, largely dominated by email, collaboration tools and enterprise resource products grew by 46 per cent, a release on the survey stated.

The public cloud market was expected to grow 55 per cent in the near future and become a default choice for new IT investments, especially in the small and medium businesses segment, the study observed.

The article was published in the Hindu on July 11, 2012

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/all-night-for-hackers

An 'app'ening world

praskrishna — 2016-10-05T00:24:19Z

A ‘forward’ has been doing the rounds on WhatsApp about the privacy concerns relating to that instant messaging app; it’s asking for permission to share user data with Facebook.

The article by Chetana Divya Vasudev was published in Deccan Herald on October 4, 2016. Rohini was quoted.

In the WhatsApp notification, asking users to agree to the terms and conditions again, the option to share these user details to help improve ads on Facebook is already selected. Those who are uncomfortable parting with this information have to uncheck it before clicking on the ‘I agree’ button.

“Agreeing to this would mean Facebook can see who you’re chatting with and what you’re talking about,” says tech expert Chinmayi S K. “So if you’re talking about cat adoption, the ads displayed on the side could be relevant to that.”

When it comes to other smartphone apps, she cites Zomato as an example. “It has been asking for user history — previous orders and other such details — to make recommendations,” she says. “This comes with the app update. Tinder, too, is asking for your location using wifi, which is more accurate than the GPRS location.”
It’s alright to agree to these permissions, she says, so long as you’re aware of what you’re signing up for and how that data is going to be used.

If you have qualms about agreeing to this, there are usually alternatives you can find, adds Rohini Lakshane, program officer, Centre for Internet and Society. “If not, it’s usually a trade-off: you have to see how much you want the app,” she points out.

There are, however, other apps that might be duplicates asking for access to your device or files, cautions Chinmayi.

“If a cooking app, a simple one that gives you recipes, asks for your call logs or other files, for example,” she says.

A discerning user, interjects Rohini, will check for permission to access files or functions that are not strictly necessary for the features the app supports. “I don’t want to name anything but some e-commerce and travel apps ask to access your browsing history and the other apps or networks you’re connect to. It could be to serve you contextual ads or content, like Zomato, or to sell it to someone. You never know,” she says. However, some devices or versions of the Android OS let you control what permissions you enable, she informs.

Aeronautical engineer Pavan Raj P V says he takes care not to compromise on his safety, whenever possible. “But there are a few apps that I have on my phone no matter what — Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Instagram. Most of them auto-update and require no extra permissions.”

However, he has noticed that LinkedIn asks for access to Gmail contacts that you could accidentally accept “if you’re logging in mechanically”.

Varsha C V, communications specialist at Karnataka State Highways Improvement Project, says, “Last month, my husband asked me to download a Google app for free calls that required all sorts of permissions, such as access to your phone logs. When Skype offers the same features without asking for all this, why should anyone use this app?”

She believes privacy in India is not taken as seriously as it should be. “You should keep in mind that if you’re giving them access to your contacts, you’re also compromising on others’ privacy,” she points out.

Lokanand, a sound engineer, admits to not paying attention to what he’s giving apps access to. “I’m no expert but if you ask me, you download apps because they are useful. So I don’t really bother about what I’m saying yes to.”

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/deccan-herald-chetana-divya-vasudev-october-4-2016-an-appening-world

Amutha Arunachalam - Stand Shielded of Digital Rights (Delhi, May 05, 4 pm)

sumandro — 2017-05-03T13:30:32Z

We are proud to announce that Amutha Arunachalam will be the speaker at the May #FirstFriday event at the CIS Delhi office. Amutha is Principal Technical Officer in the Council Of Scientific and Industrial Research. The talk will be on digital signatures, traceability of time-stamps, and setting up an Indian Standard (Digital) Time. If you are joining us, please RSVP at the soonest as we have only limited space in our office.

Amutha Arunachalam

Principal Technical Officer, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research

Amutha Arunachalam entered the Indian Government service as an Intelligence Officer in Ministry of Home Affairs in 1988 after working at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Fibre Optic communication Laboratory. She later moved to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in the field of Information Technology. She managed the IT infrastructure of the CSIR lab (Central Road Research Institute) till 2006 and moved to CSIR Head Quarters and contributed in the ICT refurbishment drive, mainly in the IT with a major contribution in establishing DATA Centre, implementing network security, linking CSIR HQ to the National Knowledge Network facility extended by National Information Centre(NIC) before joining UIDAI.

In UIDAI (National Identity Project) she managed the Data Center operations that includes critical CIDR (Central Identification Repository) and was responsible for setting up Infrastructure to roll out Disaster recovery centre, Aadhaar Enrolment Service, Benchmarking of UIDAI Enrolment , Authentication Applications and setting up of Backend infrastructure of the Authentication Service for Roll out to citizens. After the five year Deputation at UIDAI (Feb 2016), she is currently posted in the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research working in the Area of Policy in Cyber Security for CSIR, Enhancing Research with collaborative, networking and Building unified CSIR Ecosystem with Enterprise platform.

RSVP

Location

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/firstfridayatcis-amutha-arunachalam-stand-shielded-of-digital-rights-may-05

Amnesty International calls for review of 66A of IT act

praskrishna — 2012-11-30T06:19:45Z

The review seeks to bring the Act in line with international human rights law standards on freedom of expression.

This article by Nirmalya Behera was published in the Business Standard on November 28, 2012.

Joining in the row over arrest of two girls in Maharastra for Facebook comments, the human rights group, Amnesty International, has called for review of the Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

In a letter to Kapil Sibal, Union minister for Communications and Information Technology, the London based human right watchdog has asked for reviewing the section and bringing it in line with international human rights law standards on freedom of expression.

The human rights group and the Centre for Internet and Society believe that Section 66A, which was amended in 2008, is not in line with the constitution of India and internationally accepted standards on freedom of expression. They termed the section as imprecise and over board.

Amnesty has also called for laying down clear and comprehensive explanations of the restrictions on free speech either in the IT act or in the rules in order to prevent the abuse of the provision by various state law enforcement officials and frame the explanations after consulting it with the public.

“The Internet should be a force for political freedom, not repression. People have the right to seek and receive information and to express their peaceful beliefs without fear, or interference. But under Section 66A, even a peaceful posting could lead to a prison sentence of up to three years”, it said in its letter.

It may be noted that two girls- Shaheen Dhada and her friend Renu Srinivasan were arrested on November 19, after Dhada had lamented in a Facebook post about the shutdown in Mumbai due to Bal Thackeray's funeral and were later released on bail.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/business-standard-november-28-2012-nirmalya-behera-amnesty-international-calls-for-review-of-66a-of-it-act

Amid Unrest in the Valley, Students See a Dark Wall

Aakash Hassan — 2017-12-21T14:07:46Z

Strap: Frequent, prolonged restrictions on internet have kept many from using the learning resource.

Srinagar, J&K: On November 18, Srinagar lost 3G and 4G connectivity after a militant and a sub-inspector of the Jammu & Kashmir police force were killed, and one militant caught alive in a brief encounter on the outskirts of the city, near Zakoora crossing. District authorities said data connectivity was snapped to “maintain law and order”.

Students in Srinagar’s SPS Library. Picture Courtesy: Aakash Hassan

But to Jasif Ayoub, an aspiring chartered accountant, it seemed like an obstruction to his exam preparations. Not being able to access lectures and texts online, Ayoub was perturbed. He had moved from Anantnag in south Kashmir, to Srinagar, only to have an easy access to the vast pool of information on the world wide web. “My hometown witnesses internet shutdowns very frequently. That is why I moved to live with relatives in Srinagar to prepare for my exams. But the internet speed here too is getting worse by the day,” says Ayoub.

The internet is usually the first administrative casualty when any law & order situation arises in the Kashmir Valley, which has been restive and agitated over the last two decades. Despite the frequency of shutdowns, the state still does not issue a prior warning, or offer emergency connectivity measures. Residents know the pattern now: the mobile internet and SMS are the first to go down, and then broadband and other lease-line service providers follow.

J&K tops the list of Indian states that have witnessed most number of internet shutdowns, with 27 being the count from 2012 to 2017, according to internetshutdowns.in, run by Software Freedom Law Centre. There has been a sharp rise in the curbs on internet imposed this year, with over 30 shutdowns until November 22. Government authorities who issue and implement these bans say it is the only way to undercut the strength of social media in organising movements and resistance. The prime example is Burhan Wani, the 21-year-old Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander who had used his Facebook account to popularise and justify militant resistance. Wani’s death saw protests erupting across the Valley, which made the state snap internet services for about six months on prepaid mobile networks. For four months, there was no internet access on postpaid mobile networks too. These have been the longest intervals of ban. However, day-long, hour-long and even week-long periods of non-connectivity are alarmingly common.

The incessant disruption of internet services prevents students from accessing online education resources. Class IX student Haiba Jaan in Srinagar depends on lectures from Khan Academy, an online coaching centre, to clarify a lot of concepts. A resident of Hyderpora in Srinagar, Haiba points to the i-Pad in her hand. “This is the best way of learning," she says. "I was not satisfied with my teachers in school or tuition classes. I found studying on the internet quite useful. But, the problem with that is the regular internet shutdowns." Her parents got a postpaid broadband connection the previous year to help Haiba. "But even that gives up many times during total internet shutdowns," says Haiba.

In May this year, the government suspended the use of 22 social media and messaging platforms in Kashmir for a month. Skype was one of the messaging services banned. This put Mehraj Din through great trouble. Shortlisted for a summer programme at Istanbul, Turkey, this scholar of Islamic Studies at Kashmir University, had to appear for the final interview via Skype. "The ban could have ended all my chances to get selected had the organisers not agreed to an audio interview considering the ground situation here," says Mehraj, who is currently compiling his dissertation for the university. "I have a deadline to meet, but repeated shutdowns have affected my work," he says. "This a punishment from the State."

Full libraries, half studies

When home and mobile internet connections are snapped, the state government's e-learning initiative in public libraries provides some respite. Mehrosha Rasool wants to secure an MBBS seat through the NEET competitive exam. She visits the SPS library in Srinagar religiously to access the study material that has been downloaded and made available on computers. The 17-year-old resident of Nishat in Srinagar says libraries are useful since one never knows how long the internet services at home will stay stable. Irshad Ahmad, another student utilising the facilities at SPS library, says he moved to Srinagar from Pattan town of north Kashmir because "this facility of accessing education material is not available at the library in my tehsil."

Most prominent libraries in Srinagar have computers and tablets for students’ access, "But the rooms often become overcrowded as hundreds of students have registered at the libraries for internet facilities," says Mehrosha.

Schools in the Valley, meanwhile, rely on traditional means in the absence of the e-learning systems. Javaid Ahmad Wani, a political science teacher from south Kashmir’s Anantnag, believes that with little time in the year to even complete the basic syllabus thanks to frequent and sudden school closures during periods of unrest, supplementary e-learning is a distant possibility. Even when teachers and students do have access to these resources to stay updated, internet shutdowns make them unreliable. Therefore, teachers and schools stick to conventional means. Javaid admits that he has himself lost opportunities to an internet shutdown. “I could not submit the form for the main exam of the J&K public service last year because there was no Internet,” he says.

Curbs pinch civil service aspirants

Many among the civil service aspirants are dependent on the internet for preparations. Anees Malik, a resident of Shopian, is preparing for the civil service exams. "I cannot afford coaching, so I rely on the internet," he says, especially for mock exams and previous question papers. "In such a situation, losing connectivity almost every other week is the worst thing to happen.”

Sakib Wani, a Kupwara resident who is currently studying chemistry in Uttarakhand, notices a marked indifference in Kashmir to using online resources. "Those applying for scholarships and pursuing higher education may be using it but not to the extent that students in other states of India do it,” Sakib says. He believes that the repeated internet ban could be a possible reason for students to not opt for online educational resources. With colleges and schools shut for weeks during conflict periods, the internet could have been a great way to continue education formally and personally, but the repeated shutdowns have closed that door of opportunity too.

Aakash Hassan is a Srinagar-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters. He has reported on conflict, environment, health and other issues for different publications across India.

Shutdown stories are the output of a collaboration between 101 Reporters and CIS with support from Facebook.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/amid-unrest-in-the-valley-students-see-a-dark-wall

Amazon launches Machine Learning-based platform for healthcare space

Admin — 2018-12-03T00:23:06Z

Amazon’s Comprehend Medical platform uses a new HIPAA-eligible machine learning service to process unstructured medical text and information such as dosages, symptoms and signs, and patient diagnosis.

The article by Kul Bhushan was published in the Hindustan Times on November 28, 2018.

With an objective to push deeper into the health space, Amazon has introduced a new Machine Learning (ML) software to analyse medical records for better treatments of patients and reduce overall expenditure.

Unveiled at the company’s re:Invent cloud conference in Las Vegas, Amazon’s Comprehend Medical platform uses a new “HIPAA-eligible machine learning service that allows developers to process unstructured medical text and identify information such as patient diagnosis, treatments, dosages, symptoms and signs, and more.”

“Comprehend Medical helps health care providers, insurers, researchers, and clinical trial investigators as well as health care IT, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies to improve clinical decision support, streamline revenue cycle and clinical trials management, and better address data privacy and protected health information (PHI) requirements,” explains the company on its website.

Amazon aims to mitigate the time spent on manually analysing medical data of a patient. The company hopes the software will ultimately empower users to make a more informed decision about their health and even things like scheduling care visits.

“Unlocking this information from medical language makes a variety of common medical use cases easier and cost-effective, including: clinical decision support (e.g., getting a historical snapshot of a patient’s medical history), revenue cycle management (e.g., simplifying the time-intensive manual process of data entry), clinical trial management (e.g., by identifying and recruiting patients with certain attributes into clinical trials), building population health platforms, and helping address (PHI) requirements (e.g., for privacy and security assurance.),” the company added.

Amazon also pointed out that some of the medical institutes such as Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Roche Diagnostics have already implemented the software.

Amazon’s expansion into the healthcare space comes after it acquired health-focused startup PillPack for $1 billion earlier this year. Apart from Amazon, other technology companies like Apple and Microsoft are investing into the healthcare space.

Apple is already offering HealthKit and CareKit platforms to develop apps focused on health. The company earlier this year launched Apple Watch Series 4 with ECG support. Microsoft, however, has deeper footprints in the health segment. The company is building a bunch of Artificial Intelligence-based tools for healthcare.

For instance, Microsoft’s Project InnerEye uses machine learning technology to build tools for automatic, quantitative analysis of three-dimensional radiological images.

According to various reports, Artificial Intelligence is going to make a big impact in the healthcare industry. An Accenture report in 2017 predicted that the AI apps can create $150 billion in annual savings for the United States alone.

Back in India, the adoption of AI in healthcare is growing. According to a report by the Centre for Internet and Society India, “the use of AI in healthcare in India is increasing with new startups and large ICT companies offering AI solutions for healthcare challenges in the country.”

Bengalure-based startup mfine has developed an AI-based healthcare platform which learns medical standards and protocols and diagnosis and treatment methods to further help the doctors with necessary data and analysis. The company earlier this year raised $4.2 million in funding.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hindustan-times-november-28-2018-kul-bhushan-amazon-launches-machine-learning-based-platform-for-healthcare-space

Amazon and Walmart are about to take a big hit in India

Admin — 2019-02-01T15:03:56Z

India is the world’s biggest emerging digital economy, and Silicon Valley’s top companies have invested huge sums to cash in on it. Now new regulations are threatening their business.

The blog post was published in Q13 Fox on January 31, 2019. Gurshabad Grover was quoted.

E-commerce restrictions due to go into effect Friday will prevent global retailers such as Amazon and Walmart from using their deep pockets and massive scale to drive down prices in India.

And proposed legal changes would require social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to monitor and take down content at the request of Indian authorities, which critics say could be misused for censorship.

The new rules highlight the risk global tech giants are running in a country they see as their next growth frontier.

Amazon and Walmart push back

The new e-commerce rules, announced in late December, look to curb practices like steep discounts that have helped Amazon dominate the US market and already make huge inroads in India.

The rules state that foreign online retailers can no longer strike deals with companies to offer products that are not available elsewhere. They also prevent these platforms from selling products distributed by companies they have invested in.

That would strike at the heart of Amazon’s business in India — the US company has snapped up stakes in several local suppliers.

Amazon and India’s biggest online retailer, Walmart-owned Flipkart, had been pushing India to delay the introduction of the new rules, but the government said in a statement Thursday that it had decided “after due consideration” not to do so.

Amazon had written to the Indian government asking for a four-month extension to comply with the new rules, a company spokesperson said.

“With over [400,000] sellers and hundreds of thousands of transactions happening daily on the Amazon India Marketplace we need adequate time to understand the details of the policy,” the spokesperson added.

Flipkart had asked the government for a six-month extension, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.

The company reportedly warned of “significant customer disruption” if the new policy is implemented this week. Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said in a letter to the Indian government that the new rules could “have undesirable impacts on the continued growth of e-commerce in India,” according to Reuters.

The rules will affect the Bangalore-based company’s sales of products like smartphones, many of which it offers exclusively to its customers.

Flipkart declined to comment.

The changes follow intensive lobbying by India’s small businesses against Amazon and Walmart’s outsized influence in the country. (Together they have more than 70% of the Indian online shopping market.) The Confederation of All India Traders, which says it represents more than 70 million local retailers, warned the government against granting an extension.

“If any deferment or extension is given, the small traders both offline and online will be compelled to resort to a national campaign against any such move … which may also have political repercussions,” the group said in a statement earlier this week, a thinly-veiled warning to the government in an election year.

The trade body expressed “deep satisfaction” at the government’s decision not to extend the deadline.

India’s WhatsApp problem

India’s effort to further regulate its internet isn’t restricted to retail.

In late December, two days before the e-commerce restrictions were unveiled, India’s technology ministry published a host of proposed changes to laws governing online content.

The changes state that “intermediaries” including internet providers and platforms like Facebook and Twitter must remove “unlawful” material within 24 hours at the request of Indian authorities. That covers content that goes against India’s sovereignty, national security or foreign relations as well as “public order, decency or morality,” the new rules state.

Experts say the broad phrasing leaves the rules open to misuse and could be used to suppress free speech. It could also lead to self censorship by tech companies to avoid government scrutiny.

“It can lead to en masse takedown of content,” said Gurshabad Grover, a policy officer at the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society, a think tank. “Intermediaries are often happy to take down perfectly legal content just to avoid liability.”

Twitter said in a statement that it would continue to lobby the Indian government on the proposed regulations before they are passed into law.

“Our hope is that after this robust public consultation process any changes to the [rules] in India strike a careful balance that protects important values such as freedom of expression,” a Twitter spokesperson told CNN Business.

Google and Facebook declined to comment.

The Asia Internet Coalition, an industry group that counts all three companies as its members, also urged the Indian government to reconsider the rule changes.

“In addition to interfering with the fundamental rights of freedom of speech and expression, and right to privacy as guaranteed under the constitution, the [proposed regulations] impose burdensome obligations on the intermediaries,” the group said in a letter to India’s technology ministry.

The regulations appear to be driven by India’s growing battle with fake news and misinformation, with viral rumors on Facebook’s mobile messaging service WhatsApp blamed for more than a dozen lynchings last year.

The Indian government specifically called out the mob violence in its statement announcing the regulations, citing the “misuse of social media by criminals and anti-national elements” as a key factor.

The rules also state that platforms must enable the tracing of individual posts and messages at the government’s request, a requirement that WhatsApp has previously rejected as a non-starter.

India is WhatsApp’s biggest market, with more than 200 million users.

Why India matters

India has opened itself up to foreign investment in recent years, particularly in its fast-growing tech and retail industries, and companies from around the world have rushed in.

India’s internet is a particularly tempting prize. About 500 million people are already online, with nearly 900 million more yet to be connected.

Amazon has pledged at least $5 billion dollars to growing its business in the country, while Walmart spent $16 billion to buy Flipkart last year.

Facebook and Google have also identified India as their next big market, rolling out several features and services in the country before taking it to the rest of the world.

But the changing legal environment presents a huge challenge, and Big Tech is battling to keep the promise alive.

“An uncertain, constantly changing regulatory environment is not good for any business,” Mishi Choudhary, legal director at the New York-based advocacy group Software Freedom Law Center, told CNN.

“India must decide where it sees itself in the global landscape,” Choudhary added. “It can either be a democracy that will let the best company win and provide an open, free and secure internet to its citizens or turn the way our neighbors across the Himalayas [China] have. It can’t have it both ways.”

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/q-13-fox-january-31-2019-amazon-and-walmart-are-about-to-take-a-big-hit-in-india

Almost every social network has a porn problem—so why is India banning only TikTok?

Ananya Bhattacharya — 2019-04-28T04:46:36Z

TikTok is in some serious trouble in India. Though it isn’t the only one battling a rising tide of porn, violence, and fake news, the country’s courts have singled out the Chinese video-sharing app for a ban.

The article by Ananya Bhattacharya was published in Quartz India. Shweta Mohandas was quoted.

Incumbents such as Twitter, WhatsApp, and Facebook have been fighting the same problems as TikTok has, but they haven’t yet faced such extreme measures. Several experts have called the Madras high court ban on the world’s most popular video app a “kneejerk reaction” that is “outsized.”

“While it is important to place appropriate curbs on porn and trolling, this decision sounds extreme since there are myriad ways to spread the two vices,” Anindya Ghose, the Heinz Riehl professor of business at New York University’s Stern School, told Quartz.

So why is TikTok bearing the brunt?

Singled out?

Unlike TikTok, most other social media and video/photo sharing apps are largely private and controlled in nature, which means a post can only be seen by a limited network of a user. “The issue with TikTok is it encourages interactivity over videos,” said Prasanto Roy, a New Delhi-based tech policy consultant. “Facebook and Instagram start out with smaller circles or friends groups, while TikTok can get to a larger audience quickly—including allowing video interaction with strangers.”

Given that TikTok is much younger to most others in the segment, the app lacks certain safeguards to ensure users’ safety. For instance, there are no checks & balances on the app to moderate user-generated content, experts told Quartz.

“Other social media (platforms) pro-actively filter out content that violate their community guidelines,” Shweta Mohandas, policy officer at the Centre for Internet and Society of India (CIS), told Quartz. “The fact that TikTok’s community guidelines’ reporting mechanism is based on user reports could be a reason why the porn problem has become more prevalent.”

Although some cases slip through the gaps, Facebook and Google are proactively blocking search terms related to child porn. Facebook and Instagram are also using sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) tools to detect revenge porn. Vernacular-language social network Sharechat also has algorithms that flag illicit content. “YouTube gives you policies and they remove your video or puts a strike against your account, but there’s no such rule or guideline on TikTok,” Indian YouTuber and TikTok-user Kulbushan Kundalwal said in a videoreacting to the ban.

It has been trying to strengthen its systems lately.

The app, which lets users create and post 15-second-long videos, has set up a team of content moderators who speak a number of regional languages. It has also hosted awareness drives featuring celebrities. However, it relies mostly on user reports.

Clearly, these measures are not enough and millions of its Indian users—almost 40% of the app’s 500 million user base—remain exposed to risks.

In the US, too, TikTok was berated based on similar concerns. It recently settled with the Federal Trade Commission, paying $5.7 million (Rs40 crore), the largest civil penalty ever collected in a child privacy violation case in the US.

Will this ban help?

Taking the app down can slam the brakes on its meteoric rise, but won’t kill it. Banning one app won’t change user behaviour, experts said.

For starters, users who have it installed can continue using it. And though it’s not directly available for download from the app store, there are ways to get it. In fact, getting on the app is easy: Any existing user can share the app with others through platforms like ShareIt.

TikTok is not a unique proposition.

There are also several third-party app stores, other than those of Google and Apple—apkpure, androidapkbox, and uptodown, among others—where TikTok is still available.

In any case, it is not the only source of dangerous content online. “TikTok is not a unique proposition,” Gurugram-based market research firm techARC said in a note. The ban has already begun to boost similar apps.

For instance, since April 16, around the time when news of a likely ban on TikTok in India began floating, video-sharing app Like has been trending as the third most popular in India on analytics site App Annie’s charts, techARC found.

“There is a need to have a holistic approach to getting rid of such digital menace that cannot be absolved by technology or legal recourse alone,” techARC founder and chief analyst Faisal Kawoosa said.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ananya-bhattacharya-quartz-india-april-19-2019-india-bans-tiktok-over-porn-but-not-facebook-twitter-instagram

Allow admins to add users to online group chats only after permission: SFLC.in

Admin — 2018-06-26T02:03:19Z

SFLC.in -- a donor supported legal services organisation -- has written an open letter to messaging service providers like WhatsApp, Facebook and others, urging them to modify their platforms to ensure that users are not added to group chats without their permission.

The article was published in the Times of India on June 1, 2018.

In its letter, Software Freedom Law Centre, India (SFLC.in) said any user with administrator rights can currently add another person to the group without the latter's permission.

In the absence of a mechanism to prevent themselves from being added to groups that they would not like to participate in, users have no option but to manually exit the groups.

"This is a troubling state of affairs because users may be forcefully exposed to a range of subjectively undesirable content that they would never have signed up for otherwise, which can be particularly damaging, especially in situations where malicious actors attempt to intimidate, disparage, harass or harm individuals in any way," the letter said.

The letter has also been co-signed by Digital Empowerment Foundation, Centre for Internet and Society and a few others.

Emails sent to Facebook, Tencent and others seeking their comments did not elicit any response.

SFLC.in argued that the current format is an issue for many, including those belonging to minority and vulnerable groups.

"While blocking malicious actors can usually help mitigate the damage to an extent, on online messaging services like yours, they are able to easily circumvent blocks by creating groups and adding their targets to these groups," it said.

The problem is only made worse when personal information like phone numbers, user IDs and photographs are shared with a large number of users, which could open the doors to even greater abuse, it added.

SFLC.in argued that there are no adequate safeguards to prevent infringement of user rights and therefore, these platforms should take immediate steps to address this issue.

"...implement measures to make it so that being added to group conversations without permission is no longer a possibility. Not only will this greatly help in limiting abusive uses of your services, but it will also make users less wary of using the services, making the Internet a safer space for us all," it added.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/times-of-india-june-1-2018-allow-admins-to-add-users-to-online-group-chats-only-after-permission-sflc-in

All India Privacy Symposium

Natasha Vaz — 2012-03-01T06:16:53Z

Are we citizens or subjects? Experts gather in Delhi for public symposium on privacy, transparency, e-governance and national security in India.

Following 18 months of research by Privacy India, the Centre for Internet and Society and the Society in Action Group, with support from London-based Privacy International, the groups today held an All India Privacy Symposium at the India International Centre in New Delhi. Speakers included Supreme Court Advocate Menaka Guruswamy, Microsoft Director of Corporate Affairs Deepak Maheshwari, social researcher and activist Usha Ramanathan, journalist Saikat Datta and former Chief of RAW Hormis Thorakan.

A few themes recurred across all five panels (Privacy and Transparency, Privacy and E-Governance Initiatives, Privacy and National Security, Privacy and Banking, and Privacy and Health). Perhaps the most prominent was the repeated allegation that the Indian government' technological illiteracy is putting its citizens at risk. One panelist described how an RTI request had recently revealed that the government had no idea how many of its own computers had been hacked or how much data had been stolen – even though this information has been in the public domain since the Wikileaks diplomatic cable releases.

The increased use of public-private partnerships and outsourcing was also a major cause for concern. Public money is being funneled into privately-held commercial enterprises – which, unlike public bodies, are not subject to RTI requests – and spent on e-governance initiatives like UID. Social researcher Anant Maringati spoke of a "hybrid world" in which government projects were fulfilled by completely unaccountable private actors. Advocate Malavika Jayaram remarked that, while private companies tend to have far greater technological expertise than government officials, they are ultimately motivated by profit rather than public benefit; we should therefore ask ourselves whether they can really be trusted with our information.

Government surveillance for the purposes of crime prevention also came under scrutiny, when Saikat Datta described how he himself had been put under illegal surveillance by an unauthorized intelligence agency. He warned of the dangers of excessive wiretapping, a practice that currently generates such a “mountain” of information that anything with real intelligence value tends to be ignored until it is too late, as happened with the Mumbai bombings in 2008. It is clear that the Indian government’s surveillance and interception programmes far exceed what is necessary for legitimate law enforcement.

Overall, panelists at the conference painted a vivid picture of India as a state that has made a habit of invading the privacy of individuals on a massive scale in the name of public benefit and law enforcement. Yet there is a clear sense that the benefits to society are not outweighing the costs to the individual. As Usha Ramanathan commented: “The question is, do we think of ourselves as citizens – or as subjects?”

See the webcast of the event here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/all-india-privacy-symposium

All India Privacy Symposium

praskrishna — 2012-02-27T11:08:32Z

Privacy India in partnership with the International Development Research Centre, Canada, Society in Action Group, Gurgaon, Privacy International, UK and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative is organizing the All India Privacy Symposium at the India International Centre, New Delhi on Saturday, February 4, 2012.

Since June 2010, Privacy India has been engaging in discussions with policy makers, the public and sectoral experts about privacy in India. The discussions have ranged from topics of identity and privacy, to minority rights and privacy, and consumer privacy. The findings of our research show that privacy was a neglected area of study for India in the past, however, this is changing. Advancements in technology, the introduction of e-governance initiatives like the National Fibre Optic Network, the introduction of new legislations, and debates surrounding national security, have brought privacy debates to the forefront in India. Although currently sectoral legislation deals with privacy issues, e.g., the Telegraph Act or RBI guidelines for banking, India has just begun to consider a horizontal legislation that deals comprehensively with privacy across all contexts. This conference is an opportunity to look forward to what could be the future scope of privacy in India.

Privacy India was set up in collaboration with the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore and Society in Action Group, Gurgaon, under the auspices of an international organization ‘Privacy International’. Privacy International is a non-profit group that provides assistance to civil society groups, governments, international and regional bodies, the media and the public in a number of countries. For more info, visit its website.

This is a public meeting. For participation in the event, get in touch with Elonnai (elonnai@cis-india.org)

Symposium Advisors

Sunil Abraham, Centre for Internet &Society (www.cis-india.org)
Rajan Gandhi, Society in Action Group
Phet Sayo, IDRC (www.idrc.org)
Gus Hosein, Privacy International (www.privacyinternational.org)
Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Centre for Law and Policy Research, Bangalore (www.clpr.org.in)
Vickram Crishna, Privacy International (www.privacyinternational.org)

Agenda

09:30- 10:00	Registration
10:00- 10:15	Welcome & Introduction to Privacy India Elonnai Hickok (Policy Advocate, Privacy India)
10:15- 10:30	Tea Break
10:30- 11:30	Panel I: Privacy and Transparency Moderator: Sunil Abraham (Executive Director, Centre for Internet & Society) Panelists: Prashant Bhushan (Senior Advocate, New Delhi), Simon Davies (Director General, Privacy International, UK), Ponnurangam K (Assistant Prof, IIIT New Delhi), Chitra Ahanthem (Journalist, Imphal), Aruna Roy (Social & Political Activist), Deepak Maheshwari (Director Corporate Affairs, Microsoft) Poster:Srishti Goyal (Law Student)
11:30- 12:30	Panel II: Privacy and E-Governance Initiatives Moderator: Sudhir Krishnaswamy (Professor, Azim Premji University) Panelists: Anant Maringanti (Independent Social Researcher), Usha Ramanathan (Advocate&Social Activist), Ram Sewak Sharma (Director General, UIDAI), Gus Hosein (Executive Director, Privacy International, UK), R K Singh (Union Home Secretary, New Delhi), Apar Gupta (Advocate, Supreme Court of India) Poster: Adrija Das (Law Student)
12:30- 13:30	Lunch
13:30- 14:30	Panel III: Privacy and National Security Moderator: Justice A P Shah (Former Chief Justice, Delhi High Court)* Panelists: Menaka Guruswamy (Advocate, Supreme Court, New Delhi), Amol Sharma (Journalist, Wall Street Journal)*, Saikat Datta (Journalist, DNA), Eric King (Human Rights and Technology Advisor, Privacy International, UK), Prasanth Sugathan (Legal Counsel, Software Freedom Law Center) and Oxblood Ruffin (Cult of the Dead Cow Security and Publishing Collective) Poster: Suchithra Menon (Law Student)
14:30- 15:30	Panel IV: Privacy and Banking Moderator: Prashant Iyengar (Associate Professor, Jindal Law University) Panelists: M R Umarji (Chief Legal Advisor, IBA), N A Vijayashankar (Cyber Law Expert), Sucheta Dalal (Managing Editor, MoneyLife Magazine)*, Malavika Jayaram (Advocate, Bangalore) Poster: Malavika Chandu (Law Student)
15:30- 15:45	Tea Break
15:45- 16:45	Panel V: Privacy and Health Moderator: Ashok Row Kavi (Journalist & LGBT Activist) Panelists: K K Abraham (President, Indian Network for People with HIV), Shri Sayan Chatterjee (Secretary, National Aids Control Organization), Dr V M Katoch (Secretary, Department of Health Research), Dr B S Bedi (Advisor, CDAC & Media Lab Asia) Poster: Danish Sheikh (Alternative Law Forum)
16:45- 17:00	The Way Forward Elonnai Hickok (Policy Advocate, Privacy India)

Bios of Speakers

Usha Ramanathan

Usha Ramanathan is an internationally recognized expert on the jurisprudence of law, poverty and rights. She writes and speaks on leading issues like the Bhopal gas leak tragedy, mass displacement, civil liberties, criminal law, environment and the judicial process. She is involved in the UID project and has written and debated extensively on it. She is a member of Amnesty International's Advisory Panel on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and has been called upon by the World Health Organisation as a expert on mental health on various occasions. Her writings can be found at http://www.ielrc.org/.

NA.Vijayashankar

NA.Vijayashankar, more popularly known as Naavi, is a Techno Legal Information Security Consultant based in Bangalore, India. Naavi is a pioneer in the field of Cyber Law in India. He is the author of the first book (1999) and first E-Book (2003) on Cyber Laws in India. He has also authored a book titled “Cyber Laws, Corporate Mantra for the Digital Era”, “Cyber Laws Demystified” and “Cyber Laws for Engineers” as well as a book on Cyber Crimes in Kannada.

Naavi is the founder of www.cyberlawcollege.com which is the pioneering virtual educational institution in India dedicated to Cyber Law Education. Cyber Law College presently conducts offline and virtual courses on Cyber Laws. It has conducted several courses in association with law colleges in Karnataka such as KLE Law College, Bangalore, JSS Law College, Mysore, SDM law college Mangalore and KLE Law College Hubli.

Naavi is also the founder of www.naavi.org the premier Cyber Law Portal in India. Naavi has been engaged in the training of Police in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and conducts several courses in Cyber Laws for different audiences. He has been a guest faculty in a number of institutions including NPA, IDRBT, DTRI, ISACA, NADT, LBS National Academy, Judicial Academies, NALSAR, etc., as well as several law, engineering and management institutions.

Naavi has over three decades of senior Corporate executive experience behind him. He has been an ex-Banker and Consultant to several Companies in IT Services. He has conducted hundreds of training sessions to professionals of various disciplines such as bankers, lawyers, chartered accountants, engineers, software professionals, police and judicial officers through workshops and in-house training programmes in cyber laws, cyber crimes, information security and related areas.

Chitra Ahanthem

Chitra Ahanthem is a features writer with Imphal Free Press, published in Imphal, Manipur. She is also a freelance writer and researcher on issues around HIV/AIDS, child rights, conflict and gender.

Baljit Singh Bedi

Baljit Singh Bedi did his B.Tech and M.Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. After serving for five years in the Centre for Applied Research in Electronics (CARE) IIT, Delhi he joined the Department of Information Technology (DIT), Ministry of Communication & IT (MCIT), Government of India. The major responsibilities and contributions over the years cover conceptualizing, evolving and implementation of a number of major schemes/programmes and projects in the field of electronics and IT applications with primary role in healthcare. He was instrumental in starting an integrated programme in promoting the area of Electronics, IT and Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Standards in Healthcare in India. As the head of Medical Electronics & Telemedicine division, he was looking after the activity of promotion of e-health & tele–health technology and R&D in medical electronics and launched a number of schemes in India. He was part of the National Task Force Telemedicine in India set up by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoH&FW), Government of India and headed the Group on Standards. He was a Member of National Knowledge Commission’s Working Group on India-Health Information Network Development (I-HIND) and is part of the Advisory Group for follow-up implementation program under the consideration of MoH&FW. He is actively involved in policy, development and deployment programmes of IT in Health initiatives of DIT, MoH&FW, and Media Lab Asia. He is a member of the National Committee set up by MoH&FW for EMR Standardization and Heading its Task Group on Interoperability. He is also International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Expert for e-Health Standardization. He is Executive Member of Indian Association of Medical Informatics (IAMI) and President, Telemedicine Society of India (TSI). At present, he is an Adviser to the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), Scientific Society of MCIT, Government of India.

Deepak Maheshwari

Deepak Maheshwari is Director – Corporate Affairs with Microsoft in India and responsible for interactions with the policymakers & regulators as well as with industry associations & the civil society organizations. An active participant and a keen observer of the interplay between technological innovation and socio-economic development, he has been closely associated with development & evolution of Information & Communication Technology policy, law & regulation for more than a decade and is often invited as a speaker and a contributor of articles & opinions in the media.

He has been active in several trade associations and served as committee chair & co-chair. He served for two consecutive terms as the elected secretary in the ISP Association of India and co-founded National Internet eXchange of India (NIXI) as well as the ITU-APT Foundation of India. He is also a member on the academic board of the IIM Ahmedabad- IDEA Telecom Centre of Excellence.

At times mistaken as a lawyer, he was actually awarded degree in engineering by one of India’s leading technical institute IT-BHU. His professional experience of more than 2 decades spans functional responsibilities across sales, marketing, operations and last but not the least, corporate affairs.

*Participants to be confirmed

Download the poster here
Download the agenda here (PDF, 755 KB)

VIDEOS

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/privacy-symposium

Alexa’s recording leak in US ‘echoes’ privacy issues here

Admin — 2018-05-30T00:49:26Z

Market analyst Sanjay Mehta (name changed) has been keeping his Amazon Echo smart speaker mostly unplugged since reports surfaced last week of the device’s voice assistant, Alexa, inadvertently recording and sending out conversations of a family in the US.

The article by Mugdha Variyar was published in the Economic Times on May 29, 2018. Sunil Abraham was quoted.

Digital rights activist Nikhil Pahwa keeps his Google Home smart speaker occasionally plugged out, citing the propensity of the device’s voice assistant to assume it is being queried even when it is not. In the Portland case involving Echo, Alexa had misinterpreted a family’s conversation to be a request to record and send the conversation to a person in the family’s contacts list.

In India, as internet consumers become comfortable using AI-powered voice assistants to play music, set tasks and seek information, they are also waking up to the fragility of data privacy, especially after the infamous Facebook-Cambridge Analytica episode. Indian laws, though, are yet to catch up with technology such as these, say privacy experts.

Globally too, governments are grappling with framing policy around data and privacy. That said, the European Union’s tough privacy laws on how companies can handle user data, introduced last week, are forcing companies to seek consent from customers globally to use their data.

According to Singapore-based market research firm Canalys, 108,000 units of Amazon Echo devices were shipped to sales channels in India in the first quarter of this year. As for Google Home, which was launched here in April, 25,000 devices have been shipped so far.

“It is always the company’s fault when such incidents (Alexa’s recording leak) happen. But if it does happen in India, it will also be the government’s fault since there is a big vacuum when it comes to protecting privacy in the digital age,” said Sunil Abraham, executive director of Centre for Internet and Society.

Abraham said a recording device in homes could open up the possibility of hacking or wiretapping. He, however, added that the Amazon incident would not necessarily create any panic. Amazon did not respond to specific queries about what steps it was taking to ensure such incidents do not occur again.

Google said it provides a Home user control through its activity control feature, ability to delete voice-recording history and control permissions to personal data on Gmail, as well as the option to mute the device.

Abraham cited the principles of data minimisation, that is, bare minimum collection of data, and minimal data retention policies with the user, as the main policy requirements, especially to prevent incidents such as the Alexa leak. “We are hopeful that the Srikrishna Committee will include this in the data privacy law,” he added.

While there needs to be a strong law, there also needs to be a strong citizen advocacy, where users take a company to court for privacy breach. Alexa users should also be sending queries to Amazon about what steps they are taking for privacy protection.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/economic-times-may-29-mugdha-variyar-alexas-recording-leak-in-us-echoes-privacy-issues-here

Airtel defends Airtel Zero, calls it toll-free service

praskrishna — 2015-05-09T09:19:05Z

Releasing an official statement, Airtel said its vision is to have every Indian on the Internet while appmakers will decide how to pay for data.

With the net neutrality debate raging in the online world, Airtel's Airtel Zero platform has been in the eye of storm. Internet activists, celebrities and social media users have expressed their distrust of the platform and are campaigning for an open Internet. On Saturday, Airtel sought to play down the concerns with a statement from CEO Gopal Vittalon which was circulated to customers and also shared on the company's official Facebook page.

Stating that the company's vision is to have every Indian on the Internet, Mr. Vittal's compares Airtel Zero with a toll-free service. "We are simply taking the concept of toll-free voice to the world of data. As a result, it is for the application developers and their customers to decide how data charges will be paid for." Mr. Vittal assures all customers that Airtel Zero will be a paltform that is open to all application developers, content providers and Internet sites on an equal basis.

Airtel Zero offers a platform for application developers and others to pay to feature their products and sites. However, this has raised the issue of big companies being able to pay a higher price to be featured on the platform while fledgling companies might be at a disadvantage. This, according to many pro-net neutrality activists, violates the very essence of open Internet.

Read the full article published in the Hindu on April 20, 2015. Pranesh Prakash was quoted.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-april-20-2015-airtel-defends-airtel-zero-calls-it-toll-free-service

AI: Full Spectrum Regulatory Challenge Launch Workshop [Reference Files]

pranav — 2020-08-04T06:08:48Z

These are the files released at the AI Full Spectrum Regulatory Challenge Launch Event, organised by CIS, and CCG-NLUD on September 27 2019. At the event, Sunil Abraham discussed the draft policy brief linked below, which is an output of the Regulatory Practices Lab at CIS.

The Event poster can be found here.

The Infographic in the Policy brief can be found here.

The working draft that was released at the workshop can be found here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/ai-full-spectrum-regulatory-challenge-launch-workshop-reference-files

AI Opera- AI as a total work of art

Admin — 2019-10-14T14:30:56Z

On October 11, 2019, Shweta Mohandas and Mira were invited as panelists for the 'AI Opera- AI as a total work of art' event organized by Goethe as part of the India Week Hamburg 2019 held in Bangalore. CIS was an event partner.

The panel had to present different perspectives and possibilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The discussion was facilitated by German artist, performer and filmmaker Christoph Faulhaber. For more info, click here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ai-opera-ai-as-a-total-work-of-art