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Podcast on 'Abortion rights and privacy' with PI

Admin — 2018-12-25T01:09:47Z

Ambika Tandon recorded a podcast with Privacy International on abortion rights, bodily autonomy, and privacy in the Indian and Argentinian context, which was released on December 6, 2018.

The participants in the podcast are Eva Blum-Dumontet from Privacy International, Eduardo Ferreyra from Asociacion pos los Derechos Civiles, and Ambika herself. Listen to the podcast here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/podcast-on-abortion-rights-and-privacy-with-pi

PMO’s no to smart cards, insists on Aadhaar

praskrishna — 2016-04-20T02:19:18Z

The government has decided to stop issuing new smart cards to beneficiaries of government schemes as Aadhaar is now backed by a law.

The article by Somesh Jha was published in the Hindu on April 10, 2016. Sunil Abraham was quoted.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has issued strict instructions to the Information Technology Ministry to ensure that States and the Central governmentstop issuing smart cards for new programmes for beneficiaries, and to rely on the Aadhaar-based Direct Benefit Transfer platform instead.

The move will impact ministries such as Labour, Social Justice and Health, which are in the process or have already rolled out smart cards.

The government had said earlier that over 100 crore people, constituting 93 per cent of the adult population, had a unique identification (UID) number under the Aadhaar platform.

“The undersigned is directed to request the department to examine the need for state and central government departments to issue separate smart cards in the light of the near universal coverage of Aadhaar and the delivery of the most public welfare benefits through Aadhaar enabled platforms,” according to a directive issued by Gulzar N, Director, PMO, to Aruna Sharma, Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology.

“The undersigned is also directed to request the department to prepare policy on the delivery of various public services using Aadhaar, Jan Dhan Yojana and existing platforms without the issuance of new smart cards.”

Last month, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawar Chand Gehlot had announced that all differently abled persons would soon get a unique identity card to avail welfare schemes. .

State governments had also planned to use smart card technology for welfare schemes. For instance, Odisha was mulling smart cards for construction workers in the State.

The PMO sent a separate communiqué to Labour Secretary Shankar Aggarwal in the context of a proposal to issue 40 crore smart cards to informal sector workers, called the Unorganised Workers’ Identification Number (U-WIN). The UWIN cards were to be used by these workers to access benefits under schemes such as Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana , Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana , Atal Pension Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana.

The PMO rejected the proposal noting that Aadhaar would act as a “universal unique identifier for each citizen.”

“Adding a UWIN number would not only duplicate work, but also introduce further problems in linking up with other databases which have already been linked with Aadhaar,” said the missive reviewed by The Hindu.

However, experts are sceptical of the government’s move.

“Smart cards are always better than biometrics. If that was not the case, the global financial infrastructure today will be working on biometrics and not on smart cards,” said Sunil Abraham, executive director of The Centre for Internet and Society.

“Why are these banks working on smart cards? Smart cards work using cryptography, which is more fool-proof than biometrics. Biometrics allow for remote, covert and non-consensual identification,” Mr. Abraham said.

Smart card vendors, however, said the move may not impact their market. “The demand for smart cards is massive in all the other segments such as for use in debit and credit cards or driving licenses and vehicle registration numbers,” said Deven Mehta, managing director of the Mumbai-based Smart Card IT Solutions.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-april-10-2016-somesh-jha-pmo-no-to-smart-cards-insists-aadhaar

PMA Policy and COAI Recommendations

dipankar — 2014-07-02T06:45:22Z

Introduction

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on the 10th of February, 2012 released a notification [1] in the Official Gazette outlining the Preferential Market Access [2] Policy for Domestically Manufactured Electronic Goods 2012. The Policy is applicable to procurement of telecom products by Government Ministries/Departments and to such electronics that had been deemed to having security concerns, thus making the policy applicable to private bodies in the latter half. The Notification reasoned that preferential access was to be given to domestically manufactured electronic goods predominantly for security reasons. Each Ministry or Department was to notify the products that had security implications, with reasons, after which the notified agencies would be required to procure the same from domestic manufacturers. This policy was also meant to be applicable to even procurement of electronic goods by Government Ministries/Agencies for Governmental purposes except Defence. Each Ministry would be required to notify its own percentage of such procurement, though it could not be less than 30%, and also had to specify the Value Addition that had to be made to a particular product to qualify it as a domestically manufactured product, with the policy again specifying the minimum standards. The policy was also meant for procurement of electronic hardware as a service from Managed Service Providers (MSPs).

The procurement was to be done as according to the policies of the each procuring agency. The tender was to be apportioned according to the procurement percentage notified and the preference part was to be allotted to the domestic manufacturer at the lowest bid price. If there were no bidders who were domestic manufacturers or if the tender was not severable, then it was to be awarded to the Foreign Manufacturer and the percentage adjusted as against other electronic procurement for that period.

Telecom equipment that qualifies as domestically manufactured telecom products for preferential market access include: encryption and UTM platforms, Core/Edge/Enterprise routers, Managed leased line network equipment, Ethernet Switches, IP based Soft Switches, Media gateways, Wireless/Wireline PABXs, CPE, 2G/3G Modems, Leased-line Modems, Set Top Boxes, SDH/Carrier Ethernet/Packet Optical Transport Eqiupments, DWDN systems, GPON equipments, Digital Cross connects, small size 2G/3G GSM based Base Station Systems, LTE based broadband wireless access systems, Wi-Fi based broadband wireless access systems, microwave radio systems, software defined radio cognitive radio systems, repeaters, IBS, and distributed antenna system, satellite based systems, copper access systems, network management systems, security and surveillance communication systems (video and sensors based), optical fiber cable.

The Policy also mentioned the creation of a self-certification system to declare domestic value addition to the vendor. The checks would be done by the laboratories accredited by the Department of Information Technology. The policy was to be in force for a period of 10 years and any dispute concerning the nature of product was to be referred to the Department of Information Technology.

International and Domestic Response to the Policy

There was a large scale opposition, usually from international sectors, towards the mooting of this policy. Besides business houses, even organizations like those of the United States Trades Representatives criticized the policy as being harmful to the global market and in violation of the World Trade Organization Guidelines.[3] Criticism also poured in from domestic bodies in terms of recommendations towards modification of the policy largely on three grounds: (i) the high domestic value addition requirement and the method of calculation of the same, (ii) the lack of a link between manufacturing and security and (iii) application of the policy to the private sector.

The Cellular Operations Association of India (COAI) in a letter dated March 15, 2012 to the Secretary of the Department Technology and Chairman of the Telecom Commission expressed its views on the telecom manufacturing in the country.[4]The COAI stated that such a development had to be done realistically and holistically so that the whole eco-system was developed as a comprehensive whole. In that regard it also forwarded a study that had been commissioned by COAI and conducted by M/s. Booz and Company titled “Telecom Manufacturing Policy – Developing an Actionable Roadmap”. The report was a comprehensive study of the telecom industry and outlined the challenges and opportunities that lay on its development trajectory. It also talked about Government involvement in the development process. The Report while citing the market share of Indian Telecom Industry which would be around 3% [5] of the Global Market highlighted the fact that no country could be self-sufficient in technology. It further talked about the development of local clusters in order to cut costs and encourage manufacturing, while ensuring that the PMA Policy was consistent with the WTO Guidelines. It further recommended opening up of foreign investments and making capital available to ensure growth of innovation. Finally it highlighted the lack of a connection between manufacturing and security and instead stressed upon proper certification, checks and development of a comprehensive CIIP framework across all sensitive networks for security purposes.

In a further letter to the Joint Secretary of the Department of Information and Technology dated April 25, 2012 the COAI expressed some reservations concerning the draft guidelines that had been published along with the notification.[6] While stressing upon the fact that a higher value addition would be impossible with the lack of basic manufacturing capabilities for the development of technological units, it also highlighted the need to redefine Bill of Materials which had been left ambiguous and subject to exploitation. It further highlighted the fact that allowing every Ministry to make its own specifications would lead to inconsistent definitions and an administrative challenge and hence such matters should be handled by a Central Body. Furthermore it opined that the calculation of BOMs and the Value Additions should be done using the concept of substantial transformation as has been given in the Booz Study. Furthermore, while discouraging the use of disincentives, it stated that one individual Ministry should be in charge of specifying such incentives to avoid confusion and for the sake of ease of business.

In another letter to a Member of the Department of Telecommunications dated July 12, 2012 the COAI stressed upon the futility of having high value additions as the same was impossible under the present scenario.[7] There was a lack of manufacturing sector which had to be comprehensively developed backed by fiscal incentives and comprehensive policies. In spite of that, it stressed that no country could become self-reliant and that such policies, like the PMA, were reminiscent of the “license and permit raj” era. It further said that such policies should be consistent with WTO Guidelines and should not give undue preference to domestic manufacturers to the detriment of other manufacturers. Countering the security aspect, it said that the same had been addressed by the DoT License Amendment of May 31, 2011 whereby all equipments on the network would have to comply with the “Safe to Connect” standard, and stressed upon the lack of any link between manufacturing and security. Furthermore for calculation of Value Addition it suggested an alternative to the method proposed by the Government as the same would lead to disclosures of sensitive commercial information which were contained in the BOMs. The COAI said that the three stages as laid out in the Substantial Transformation (as mentioned in the Booz Study) should be used for calculating the VA. It made several proposals to develop the telecom manufacturing industry in India including provision of fiscal incentives, development of telecom clusters and comprehensive policies which led to harmonization with laws and creation of SEZs among other such benefits.

In October 2012 the Government released a draft notification notifying products due to security consideration in furtherance of the PMA Policy.[8] The document outlined the minimum PMA and VA specification for a range of products. It also stated several security reasons for pursuing such a policy and stated that India had to be completely self-reliant for its active telecom products. It also contained data on the predicted growth of the telecom market in India. The COAI thereafter released a document commenting upon the draft notification of the Government.[9]

Besides highlighting the fact that the COAI still had not received a response to its former comments, it again stressed upon the lack of a link between security and manufacturing. It reiterated its point on the impossibility of a complete self-reliance on any nation’s part, and stressed upon the need of involving other stakeholders in the promulgation of such policies. It also made changes to the notified list of equipments, reclassifying it according to technology and only listing equipments which had volumes. Furthermore it also suggested changes towards the calculation of value addition to include materials sourced from local suppliers, in-house assemblage to be considered local material and the calculation to be done for complete order and not for each item in the order. It further recommended a study be conducted and the industry be involved while predicting demands as such were dated and needed revision. The Government thereafter released a revised notification[10] on October 5, 2012 but it did not contain much of the commented changes that the COAI had proposed.

Thereafter in April 2013, the DeitY released draft guidelines[11] for providing preference to domestically manufactured electronic products in Government Procurement in further of the second part of the PMA Policy. The guidelines besides containing definitions to several terms such as BOM also prescribed a minimum of 20% domestic procurement while leaving the specifications onto individual Ministries. It recommended the establishment of a technical committee by the concerned Ministry or Department that would recommend value addition to products. It followed a BOM based calculation of Value Addition while leaving the matter of certification to be dealt by DeitY certified laboratories that are notified for such purposes by the concerned Ministry/Department. DeitY was the nodal ministry for monitoring the implementation of the policy while particular monitoring was left to each Ministry or Department concerned. Among the annexures were indicative lists of generic and telecom products and a format for Self Certification regarding Domestic Value Addition in an Electronic Product.

The COAI thereafter released a revised draft containing its own comments on April 15, 2013.[12] The COAI pointed out faults in the definition of BOM. It highlighted the difficulty in splitting R&D according to countries, and also stressed upon the impractical usage of BOM in calculation of value addition as the same was confidential business information. As it had already suggested earlier, it reiterated the usage of the Substantial Transformation process for the calculation of Value Addition. While removing the lists of equipments mentioned, it further pointed out that the disqualification in the format for self-certification would be a very harsh disincentive and would result in driving away manufacturers. It suggested that there should be incentives for compliance instead.

The COAI along with the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India sent a letter dated January 24, 2013 to the Secretary, DoT containing their inputs on Draft List of Security Sensitive Telecom Products for Preferential Market Access (PMA).[13] It again stressed upon the fact that security and manufacturing were not related and that the security aspect had been dealt by the “Safe to Connect” requirement mandated by the DoT License Amendment. It talked of the impossibility of arriving at VA figures until the same is defined to internationally accepted norms. Further it opined that if the Government had security concerns it should consider VA at a network level in the configurations as would be deployed in the network or its segments rather at element or subsystem levels as the latter would leave too many calculations open and the procurement entities will find it very difficult to ensure if they meet the PMA requirement or not. It further stressed upon the need to comply with WTO Guidelines while stressing upon the need to pay heed to certification standards than pursue the unavailable link between manufacturing and security through a PMA Policy. Finally it suggested a grouping of telecom products for the policy based on technology rather than individual products.

Pursuant to a Round Table Conference Organized by the Department of Information and Technology, AUSPI and COAI sent another letter dated April 15, 2013 to the Secretary, Department of Information and Technology.[14] It reiterated several points that both the AUSPI and COAI had been suggesting to the Government on the Telecom Manufacturing Policy. It cited the examples of other manufacturing nations to reiterate the fact that no country could be completely self-reliant in manufacturing electronics and such positions would only lead to creation of an environment that would not be conducive to global business. It further stressed upon the need to change the manner of calculation of VA while highlighting the fact that every Department should notify its list of products having security implications and the list of telecom equipment should be deleted from the draft guidelines being issued by DeitY to ensure better implementation.

A major change came in on July 8, 2013 when the Prime Minister’s Office made a press release withdrawing the PMA policy for review and withholding all the notifications that had been issued in that regard.[15] It said that he revised proposal will incorporate a detailed provision for project / product / sector specific security standards, alternative modes of security certification, and a roadmap for buildup of domestic testing capacity. It further noted that the revised proposal on PMA in the private sector for security related products will not have domestic manufacturing requirements, percentage based or otherwise and that the revised proposal will incorporate a mechanism for a centralised clearing house mechanism for all notifications under the PMA Policy.

The COAI thereafter on November 7, 2013 sent a letter to the DoT containing feedback on the list of items slated for Government procurement.[16] It noted that there were 23 products on which PMA was applicable. It pointed out that there were no local manufacturers for many of the products notified. It also asked the Government to take steps to ensure that fiscal incentives were given to encourage manufacturing sector which was beset by several costs such as landing costs which acted as impediments to its development. It stressed upon the tiered development of the industry needed to ensure that a holistic and comprehensive growth is attained which would result in manufacturing of local products. It requested that the Government "focus on right enablers (incentives, ecosystem, infrastructure, taxation) as the outcome materializes once all of these converge."

The COAI sent a further letter dated November 13, 2013 to the DoT concerning the investment required in the telecom manufacturing industry.[17] It noted the projected required investment of 152bn USD in the telecom sector and that the Government had projected that 92% of the investment would have to come from the Private Sector. COAI, while stressing upon the need of the Government and the Private Industry to work in tandem with each other, suggested that the Government devise methods to attract investments in the telecom sectors from international telecom players and that the Telecom Equipment Manufacturing Council meet to review and revise methods for attracting such investments.

Pursuant to the PMO directive, DeitY released a revised PMA Policy on the 23rd of December, 2014.[18] While there have been a few major changes, not all of recommendations by various bodies have been adhered to.[19] The major changes in the revised policy included the exemption of the private sector from the policy and the removal of PMA Policy to equipments notified for security reasons. The manner of calculation of the domestic value addition has not been changed though there has been a reduction in the percentage of value addition needed to qualify a product as domestic product. Another addition has been of a two-tiered implementation mechanism for the Policy. Tier-I includes a National Planning and Monitoring Council for Electronic Products which would design a 10-year roadmap for the implementation of the policy including notification of the products and subsequent procurement. Under Tier-II, the Ministries and Departments will be issuing notifications specifying products and the technical qualifications of the same, after approval by the Council. The former notifications under the 2012 Policy, including the notification of 23 telecom products by Department of Telecom,[20] are still valid until revised further.[21]

[1]. No. 8(78)/2010-IPHW. Available at http://www.dot.gov.in/sites/default/files/5-10-12.PDF (accessed 03 June, 2014).

[2]. Preferential Market Access

[3]. See The PMA Debate, DataQuest at http://www.dqindia.com/dataquest/feature/191001/the-pma-debate/page/1 (accessed June 2014).

[4]. The letter is available at http://www.coai.com/Uploads/MediaTypes/Documents/letter-to-dit-on-pma-notification.pdf (accessed June, 2014).

[5]. Around $17bn.

[6]. The letter is available at http://www.coai.com/Uploads/MediaTypes/Documents/letter-to-dit-on-pma-notification.pdf (accessed June, 2014).

[7]. The letter is available at http://www.coai.com/Uploads/MediaTypes/Documents/coai-to-dot-on-enhancing-domestic-manufacturing-of-telecom-equipment-bas.pdf (accessed June, 2014).

[8]. The notification no. 18-07/2010-IP can be found at http://www.coai.com/Uploads/MediaTypes/Documents/DoT-draft-notification-on-Policy-for-preference-to-domestically-manufactured-telecom-products-in-procurement-October-2012.pdf (accessed June, 2014).

[9]. The commented COAI draft can be found at http://www.coai.com/Uploads/MediaTypes/Documents/Annexure-1-Comments-on-draft-notification-by-DoT.pdf (accessed June, 2014).

[10]. Available at http://www.coai.com/Uploads/MediaTypes/Documents/dots-notification-on-telecom-equipment-oct-5,-2012.pdf (accessed June, 2014).

[11]. The draft guidelines can be found at http://www.coai.com/Uploads/MediaTypes/Documents/pma_draft-govt-procurement-guidelines-april-2013.pdf (accessed June, 2014).

[12]. The COAI commented draft can be found at http://www.coai.com/Uploads/MediaTypes/Documents/pma-draft-security-guidelines-15-april-2013.pdf (accessed June, 2014).

[13]. The letter can be found at http://www.coai.com/Uploads/MediaTypes/Documents/jac-007-to-dot-on-Januarys-list-of-telecom-products-final.pdf (accessed June, 2014).

[14]. The letter can be found at http://www.coai.com/Uploads/MediaTypes/Documents/jac-to-moc-on-pma.pdf (accessed June, 2014).

[15]. The press release can be found at http://www.coai.com/Uploads/MediaTypes/Documents/pmo-on-pma.pdfhttp://www.coai.com/Uploads/MediaTypes/Documents/pmo-on-pma.pdf (accessed June, 2014).

[16]. The letter can be found at http://www.coai.com/Uploads/MediaTypes/Documents/COAI-letter-to-DoT-on-Feedback-on-List-of-Items-for-Govt-Procurement.pdf (accessed June, 2014).

[17]. The letter can be found at http://www.coai.com/Uploads/MediaTypes/Documents/COAI-letter-to-DoT-on-Investments-Required-(TEMC)-Nov%2013-2013.pdf (accessed June, 2014).

[18]. The Notification No. 33(3)/2013-IPHW can be found at http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/Notification_Preference_DMEPs_Govt_%20Proc_23_12_2013.pdf (accessed June, 2014).

[19]. For more information, see http://electronicsb2b.com/policy-corner/revised-preferential-market-access-policy/# (accessed June, 2014).

[20]. The notification has been mentioned and discussed above.

[21]. A list of notifications dealing with electronic products except telecom products can be found on the website of DeitY at http://deity.gov.in/esdm/pma (accessed June, 2014).

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/pma-policy-and-coai-recommendations

PM’s app also susceptible

Admin — 2018-03-27T01:23:36Z

Even the Narendra Modi app of PM Modi is susceptible to data theft as a 22-year old Indian hacker established, claiming that privacy of more than 70 lakh users on it is at stake.

This was published by Free Press Journal on March 25, 2018

Still worse is that anybody downloading the app may not know that all data on his mobile automatically goes to CleverTap without his or her consent to let the firm populate it alike British firm Cambridge Analytica that helped the US President Donald Trump in the last election with the vast data stolen from Facebook.

Congress social media chief Divya Spandana/ Ramya on Saturday retweeted a tweet by one Pranesh Prakash to know whether Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad talking of summoning Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will also summon the PM for privacy violation and data theft.

Once you download the Narendra Modi app, all your data like your phone numbers, emails, name, location and interests as also all on your phone list, WhatsApp list and email is captured and then populated to know your interests and send you mails and messages accordingly, Divya explained.

Hacker Javed Khatri, who was able to crack the app late last year says he is able to access private data of any user and that is how he “successfully managed to extract the personal phone numbers and email ids of ministers like Smriti Irani.”

“Not only that, I can make any user on the platform follow any other user on the platform. This is just the summary of this huge security loophole which I want to report. The privacy of more than seven million users is at stake if this gets ignored.” Javed said, stressing that he did not want to cause any harm but wanted to demonstrate how poor the security of the app is that he could easily hack it.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/free-press-journal-march-25-2018-pm-app-also-susceptible

Plug data leak before imposing Aadhaar

praskrishna — 2017-05-17T02:10:37Z

As the Central government continues to expand the scope and boundaries of the applicability of Aadhaar, the unique identification number, even before the Supreme Court’s verdict on its constitutional validity, reports suggesting that millions of Aadhaar numbers may have been leaked deliberately or inadvertently are a matter of grave concern.

The article was published in the Deccan Herald on May 11, 2017.

The Centre for Internet and Society, a Bengaluru-based organisation, has claimed that close to 135 million Aadhaar numbers and 100 million bank account numbers have been exposed by government portals dealing with pension, social welfare and employment guarantee schemes. The report says that with Aadhaar being used or planned to be used for authenticating and authorising several transactions, the financial risks of the disclosure of such data are greatly exacerbated. Virtually confirming that some ‘over-enthusiastic’ government agencies have been making the Aadhaar data public, Aruna Sundararajan, secretary, Union Electronics and Information Technology Ministry, has said that the Centre is in the process of ‘educating officials’ about the sanctity of the material collected, besides drafting amendments to the Information Technology Act to ensure data protection and secrecy. That’s indeed a late realisation, and hopefully, not a case of locking the stables once the horses have bolted.

The Supreme Court is also rightly concerned about the invasion of a citizen’s body in obtaining fingerprints and iris impressions for Aadhaar and the violation of an individual’s privacy. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi raised several eyebrows by arguing that “citizens don’t have an absolute right over their own bodies” and there was nothing illegal about obtaining biometric details. He may be legally right, but as the court pointed out, it is the duty of the state to maintain the liberty and dignity of all individuals. As almost 98% of the population has already been covered by Aadhaar, the question of privacy is now more academic, though making Aadhaar mandatory for the filing of income tax along with PAN card is not. As the government is unable to come to grips with millions of benami transactions and largescale evasion of income tax in the country, if the linking of Aadhaar is going to bring down such cases, it needs to be welcomed.

However, Aadhaar is not a magic bullet that has a solution for every problem. The government shoulddrop the idea of making it mandatory for social welfare programmes such as children availing midday mealsin schools, supply of nutrition under ICDS programme and provision of scholarship for the disabled. The government certainly has a responsibility to prevent misuse of the schemes, while making sure that welfare measures are not denied to the needy on technical grounds.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/deccan-herald-may-11-2017-plug-data-leak-before-imposing-aadhaar

Placements at NUJS: Class of 2017 Scores 100%

praskrishna — 2017-06-12T01:23:07Z

The Campus Recruitment Committee of the Class of 2017, NUJS is proud to confirm that NUJS has once again topped the placement tally among the premier national law schools, in terms of number of jobs, for the year 2016-17 with the graduating class having secured offers for all its 78 members who partook in the recruitment process.

The blog post by Simran Sahni was published in Livelaw on June 10, 2017.

The number of students hired by the domestic law firms on Day Zero with a tally totaling 57, inclusive of the 24 accepted pre-placement offers (PPOs).

The ‘Big 7’ firms contributed to 53 of these jobs and ICICI Bank recruited 4. New recruiters including Indus Partners and Singh & Associates hired from campus this year, picking three students each. Three students bagged offers from international law firms: Herbert Smith Freehills, Linklaters, and Allen & Overy respectively.

The salaries remain the same as last year with the average foreign firm package ranging from INR 38 lakhs to 44 lakhs for traineeships and the average domestic firm packages ranging from INR 8 lakhs to 18 lakhs. The firm with the highest domestic package was AZB and Partners, Mumbai.

Additionally, more than six students this year have decided to pursue higher education. Students have received admission offers in LLM from Harvard Law School, Cambridge Faculty of Law, NYU Faculty of Law, London School of Economics and Graduate Institute Geneva respectively. Charting new courses, while one student opting for a master’s in management has been offered admission at the renowned London Business School, another joined as a policy officer at the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore. Interestingly, even the topper of the class opted out of placements this year and set a new record by being the third in the line of scholars from NUJS to secure the prestigious Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University. Similarly, students have also decided to take up the meritorious one year Young India Fellowship program at Ashoka University.

With the current placement figures, NUJS beats all market trends to secure the highest number of job offers among premier law schools. The Class of 2017 also marginally trumps the record of the Class of 2016 in terms of total number of ‘Big 7’ jobs, even with a large chunk of the batch opting out of campus recruitment and pursing litigation, higher education, civil and judicial services and roles in think tanks and other non-profit organization's - the results of which shall be released by us as and when they come.

This entire feat would not have been possible without the support of the respected Vice Chancellor, Prof. P. Ishwara Bhat, CRC team and faculty advisor Ms. Vaneeta Patnaik, and all the faculty members at NUJS.

NUJS has built an exceedingly steady placement record for itself over the years. The placement figures for the Class of 2017 of NUJS are now live on the website here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livelaw-june-10-2017-simran-sahni-placements-at-nujs

Place for a safety net

praskrishna — 2016-07-13T02:45:56Z

Vinupriya took her life last week, humiliated by the morphed images of her naked body posted on a social media site. Experts warn that the spike in Internet traffic brings with it an increase in online sexual crimes. Measures must be taken urgently to save lives, they tell T.V. Jayan.

The article was published in the Telegraph on July 10, 2016.

Sangeeta (not her name) was 25 and working for a private company in Mumbai when she suddenly told her family that she was going to quit her job and stay at home. Her parents were flummoxed, but questioning and coaxing yielded no answers. As the days rolled on, the management graduate slipped into depression. Her worried family took her to a counsellor. And it was only then that she came out with her story.

Soon after she joined the company, Sangeeta got romantically involved with her boss. By the time she learnt he was married, the involvement had taken a physical turn. And when she tried to put an end to it, the man, who had recorded their intimate moments, used the video clips to blackmail her for sexual favours. After Sangeeta's confession and a police complaint, the blackmailing boss was nabbed and put behind bars.

Vinupriya, an undergraduate student from Salem, Tamil Nadu, was not so lucky. She found that her morphed images had been uploaded on Facebook. She committed suicide last week after her parents refused to believe her story, and the police failed to act swiftly.

Cyber experts are alarmed by the increase in online crimes against women in India. According to them, what is more worrying is that though the risks are catastrophic, the issues are not being addressed at a larger level.

"Vinupriya's case is particularly frightening. I suspect this would be the first of many such tragedies. They might even result in honour killings, as such crimes can destroy the reputation of families," says American cyber lawyer Parry Aftab, executive director of the voluntary organisation, Wired Safety, which she founded 20 years ago, and which deals extensively with cyber stalking and other crimes.

Earlier this week, a man was arrested in Delhi for sending obscene messages to more than 1,500 women in the National Capital Region. According to the police, the miscreant would randomly dial any number and if the caller turned out to be a woman, he would save the number and later check out her WhatsApp profile picture. He would then send obscene clips to the woman. One news report said some of the marriages were in trouble because husbands had seen the messages and suspected that their wives were in a relationship with the man sending those explicit messages.

Aftab has been studying the dangers of online stalking for a while. There are no figures on this in India, but a top United Nations official, stationed in New Delhi and dealing with trafficking, told her that about 500 rape and sexual assault cases were recorded and shared over WhatsApp in India this year.

She referred to a study conducted in the US that said one in three girls and boys engaged in sexting. Children involved in sexting contemplated suicide three times more than others of the same age, she said.

According to her, Wired Safety volunteers come across five cases of sextortion and sexting every day from Asian countries, including India, and act upon them by red-flagging social media organisations where such images are posted.

Pavan Duggal, a cyber lawyer based in Delhi, feels that social media service providers are not doing enough to stop online sexual abuse. "They are hiding behind a 2015 Supreme Court judgment, which said content can be removed only on judicial orders or in response to government notifications," he says.

The verdict he refers to was delivered in a case filed by a student called Shreya Singhal. In 2012, two girls were arrested over their Facebook post questioning the Mumbai shutdown for Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray's funeral. The incident made an impression on Singhal, a student of astrophysics at the University of Bristol, who was in India at the time.

Upon research she discovered that Section 66(A) of India's IT Act was subjective and any seemingly offensive social media post could land anyone in jail. Singhal filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court protesting that the section violated the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression, and in 2015, the apex court ruled in her favour.

This judgment, however, emboldened cyber miscreants. "All the cyber bullies and cyber stalkers now have a misplaced feeling that nothing can happen to them," says Duggal. He points out that while the delivery of justice takes time, the harassment happens 24x7.

"Who do the victims turn to for help? There are provisions in the 2011 IT rules that clearly say that social medial service providers should have rules and regulations in place to deal with objectionable content, but they do not act," he holds.

Aftab, however, believes that some efforts are in place. She cites the example of Microsoft's PhotoDNA technology, which is used by many social media and online search firms, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, to prevent child pornography on the Internet. PhotoDNA works by creating a number of mini hashes on a single image and combining them to have a full hash. If anything is changed, even a pixel, then the hash signature will not match.

But she holds that on a larger scale, it is difficult to technologically deal with revenge porn, sextortion (using a sexual or provocative image to blackmail people for sexual favours) and sexting (sharing sexually provocative images of people, especially women) with the intention of damaging reputation.

Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society, hints at a lack of initiative on the part of the social media organisations. "When it comes to enforcing intellectual property, organisations like Facebook do an excellent job of keeping their platform free of copyright infringement," he says. "So, clearly these companies can police activities on their platform when it affects their bottom-line."

And while this debate continues, more and more Indians join the online experience, thereby increasing the chances of more such cases. Aftab, who plans to set up a voluntary organisation relating to cyber safety in India, says it is best to focus on proactive measures in the interim.

Last month, she addressed 1,200 teenage girls from a Bangalore college. "One of the first questions posed to me was from a young girl who said she was currently being blackmailed by someone who threatened to morph her pictures into sexually explicit images and send them to her family and others. Morphed image issue seems to be a lot more serious in India than in the West."

The problem, she stresses, is that such incidents can lead to self-harm. To counter this, the affected person needs to inform his or her family and enlist their support. Together, they should approach social media organisations to ensure that the objectionable content is removed in time. To prevent the offenders from doing further harm, they then need to take the help of law enforcement agencies.

"The government for its part must amplify the voices of women and hold these Internet corporations accountable for an information escrow. There should be an independent mechanism to monitor whether Internet platforms are taking complaints from women seriously," Abraham says. Only then can a young girl like Vinupriya pluck up the courage to fight online abuse.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-telegraph-july-10-2016-place-for-a-safety-net

Pitroda seeks to put govt information in public domain

praskrishna — 2012-09-27T05:13:05Z

In the first-ever Indian government press conference on Twitter, Sam Pitroda, adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on public information infrastructure and innovations, championed the cause of putting government information in the public domain to usher in openness and empowerment.

Surabhi Agarwal's article was published in LiveMint on September 25, 2012. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

“In India, we have the Right to Information (Act) but the information is locked up in files,” he said in a video that was uploaded on YouTube before the conference started. Pitroda said the government has various plans to build robust information infrastructure on a scale that has never been done before.

“I firmly believe that information is the fourth pillar of democracy along with (the) legislature, executive and judiciary,” he tweeted as opening remarks during the press conference titled “Democratization of information”.

	Even though Pitroda largely reiterated the government’s already announced plans in the space of digitization, the move to hold a press conference over Twitter has been largely construed as as a sign that the administration, criticised for attempting to rein in social media, is trying to come to terms with it. Sunil Abraham, executive director of Bangalore-based research organization Centre for Internet and Society, said too much shouldn’t be read into Pitroda holding a press conference on Twitter. One government bureaucrat available on Twitter for a fixed period doesn’t make up for the non-existence of the government on social media, he said. “They (government) should be available all the time.”

Even though Pitroda largely reiterated the government’s already announced plans in the space of digitization, the move to hold a press conference over Twitter has been largely construed as as a sign that the administration, criticised for attempting to rein in social media, is trying to come to terms with it.

Sunil Abraham, executive director of Bangalore-based research organization Centre for Internet and Society, said too much shouldn’t be read into Pitroda holding a press conference on Twitter. One government bureaucrat available on Twitter for a fixed period doesn’t make up for the non-existence of the government on social media, he said. “They (government) should be available all the time.”

The department of electronics and information technology recently issued guidelines for government agencies on improved engagement with citizens through social media. Tuesday’s press conference may spark a trend of more such engagements on social media platforms by government agencies.

Pitroda said that the public information infrastructure (PII) will include a national knowledge network that will connect 1,500 nodes for universities, colleges, research labs and libraries along with connecting 250,000 panchayats in the country through fibre optics. The information network will be operational in the next two year, Pitroda said in the YouTube video.

The government’s open data platform (http://www.data.gov.in), the beta site for which was launched some time ago, will provide access to government data and documents, he said.

Even though the government’s battles with the Internet continue over issues of regulation, which have often been construed as censorship, an increasing number of political leaders and agencies have been using the route to get their message across.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has sought to engage with people through video chat on Google+ Hangout. West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee has been using Facebook to make public her views on recent economic and political developments.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has also been communicating over Twitter in the recent past. The authorities have sought to block accounts that style themselves as belonging to the Prime Minister. Account holders have said that some of these are satirical in nature.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/www-livemint-september-25-2012-surabhi-agarwal-pitroda-seeks-to-put-govt-information-in-public-domain

Picking ‘Wholes’ - Thinking in Systems Workshop

saumyaa — 2019-06-05T14:35:35Z

A System's Thinking masterclass was conducted by Dinesh Korjan on 27th and 28th May in the CIS Delhi office.

It was organised as part of the Digital Identity project to explore the use of system’s thinking approach in a digital identity system, and addressing questions of policy choices and uses, while creating such a system. The workshop was attended by Amber Sinha, Ambika Tandon, Anubha Sinha, Pooja Saxena, Radhika Radhakrishnan, Saumyaa Naidu, Shruti Trikanad, Shyam Ponappa, Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Sunil Abraham, Swati Gautam, and Yesha Paul.

Dinesh Korjan is a proponent of the strategic use of design for the larger good. He is a product designer and co-founder of Studio Korjan in Ahmedabad. He complements his practice with active engagement in academics and teaches at many leading design schools including NID, Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Gandhinagar, Srishti School of Art Design & Technology, Bangalore, and CEPT University, Ahmedabad.

The masterclass was aimed at learning to address complex problems using systems thinking approach. It involved experiential and collaborative learning through discussions, and doing and making activities. The workshop began with identifying different actors, processes, institutions, and other entities involved in a complex problem. The method of role-playing was introduced to learn to detail out and map the problem. Concepts such as synergy/ emergence, relationships, and flows were introduced through examples and case studies. These concepts were applied while mapping complex problems to find insights such as patterns, purposes, feedback loops, and finally a leverage. The workshop also introduced the idea of ephemeralization. Participants were prompted to find solutions that require least input but have greatest impact.

For further reading click here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/picking-2018wholes2019-thinking-in-systems-workshop

PIB plans a fact-checking unit to counter fake news

Smriti Kak Ramachandran — 2019-07-05T02:31:49Z

The article by Smriti Kak Ramachandran was published in the Hindustan Times on July 3, 2019. Sunil Abraham was quoted.

The Press Information Bureau (PIB), the government’s nodal agency for dissemination of information, has decided to set up of a fact checking unit to identify and counter any fake news about the government and its policies circulating on social media platforms.

According to a senior functionary aware of the development, the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB), under which PIB is a unit has approved a plan to counter fake news in real-time. No deadline has been set so far for the project to take off, but it is expected to pick pace over the coming weeks. Details of how the tracking will be done, and the kind of accounts that will be tracked, weren’t immediately available.

The fact check unit will have officials from the PIB as well as employees hired on contract to monitor platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to flag news that is fake and has the potential for creating social unrest.

“We will monitor and detect anything related to the government that is blatantly wrong, and put out correct information to ensure that people do not fall for wrong news,” the functionary quoted above said on condition of anonymity. He added that the possibility of penal action against those accounts found circulating fake news has not been discussed.

“We had a training session with a Hyderabad-based organisation, which does work in fact checking and putting out data that is meant for the public. Their experts helped us brainstorm on how to proceed with it,” the official said.

Countering fake news has been high on the government’s agenda; in 2016; the MIB suggested expanding its analytics wing to monitor social media and set up an early warning system for possible flashpoints that the government may be unprepared for. The social media analytics wing of the ministry, which is now defunct, scrutinized posts on social media platforms to generate reports for the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Security Advisor’ s Office and various intelligence bureaus, aside from ministries including home affairs, external affairs and defence.

In 2018, the ministry constituted a committee to frame rules to regulate news portals and media websites. During the recently concluded Lok Sabha election, the election commission also worked with social media platforms to identify and pull down posts that were fake and could lead to vitiating the elections.
As per EC’s data, 650 posts were taken down by Facebook for voter misinformation, hate speech, violation of the model code of conduct and public morality and decency. Similarly, Twitter took down 220 posts, Sharechat 31, Google 5 and Whatsapp, three.

Commenting on the government’s move to set up the fact check unit, Sunil Abraham, of the Centre for Internet and Society, a research organisation said, “It is a good move; but what the government also needs to do is to have a policy in place which makes it necessary for social media companies to pay for the negative externalities being circulated. If they make a certain amount in revenue from advertising then on a similar scale they need to fund the fact checking ecosystem.”
On Monday Congress leader Digvijay Singh also demanded a policy to check fake news. Speaking during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Singh said fake news is more dangerous than terrorism.

He said fake news and unparliamentary language used on social media platforms trigger communal riots and create societal divide. “Many people (tweeting fake news) are followed by big people,” he said without naming anyone.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/pibplans-a-fact-checking-unit-to-counter-fake-news

Phishing Attacks on the Rise

praskrishna — 2011-12-13T16:15:52Z

It is very difficult to spot a fake website from the real one these days...with all the new technologies to clearly deceive the eyes. However, there are some ways to make the real from the fake ones with the help of two visual cues. Sunil Abraham was on News 9 on December 2, 2011 speaking about two visual cues to distinguish between the fake and the real websites.

Speaking to Nolan Pinto, Sunil said that in the URL instead of "http" you will find an "https" and the second there will be a digital certificate that precedes the url which will give details about the authenticity of this particular website. The locket, the bottom of the browser is just a repetition of the same visual cue which is a difference between http and https, if there is encrypted traffic between you and the website then you are using a protocol called https and you can tell that https exists in the URL and there is also a lock at the bottom of the browser. If there is no encryption then "https" will be missing and also the lock icon will appear open.

The news was broadcasted on News 9. Watch the recorded video below:

VIDEO

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/phishing-attacks-on-rise

Perumal Murugan and the Law on Obscenity

Japreet Grewal — 2016-08-09T13:01:03Z

On July 5, 2016, the Madras High Court saved Perumal Murugan’s novel, Mathorubhagan from oblivion when it dismissed the claims against Murugan on the grounds of obscenity, spreading disharmony between communities, blasphemy, and defamation and upheld his freedom of expression in S. Tamilselvan & Perumal Murugan versus Government of Tamil Nadu. This judgment has received wide appreciation for its support for freedom of expression. What made it applause-worthy? Do we have reservations with the view of the High Court?

Murugan’s book is about a married couple, Kali and Ponna, who fail to have a child despite decades of their marriage. They succumb to social and familial pressures to allow Ponna (the wife) to participate in a sexual orgy (unrestrained sexual encounter involving many people) at a religious festival (the Vaikasi Car Festival) that takes place in Arthanareeswarar Temple, for begetting a child. The local community claimed that in the book, Murugan denigrated the Arthanareeswarar Temple, the deity, Lord Arthanareeswarar, festivities relating to Vaikasi Car Festival and the women of the Kongu Vellala Gounder community. Some sections of the community believed that the facts in the story were not true and found that the sexual mores associated with the community in the book were offensive.

The Court was required to evaluate, whether the novel was obscene (Section 292 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC)), offensive to the community (Section 153A of IPC) and the religion (Section 295 of IPC); and whether the State had the responsibility to protect the writer from mob violence on account of his controversial book. The Court held that the book was neither offensive nor did it hurt community or religious sentiments. The Court also held that the State had a positive obligation to protect Murugan against the mob. It would be useful to look at the analysis of the Court in drawing these conclusions and see if we completely agree with it.

The Court relied on the standard for determining obscenity in Aveek Sarkar v. State of West Bengal wherein, it was held that what is lascivious/appealing to the prurient interest/depraved or corrupt has to be tested using the contemporary ‘community standards. The Court was of the view that the novel was not offensive by the current mores (para 150 and 151). The Court further relied on MF Hussain v. Rajkumar Pandey, (also decided by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul) wherein it was held, that while evaluating obscenity in a work, “the judge has to place himself in the position of the author in order to appreciate what the author really wishes to convey and thereafter, placing himself in the position of the reader in every age group in whose hand the book is likely to fall, arrive at a dispassionate conclusion.”It is necessary to mention here that the community standards test has been criticised by scholars, worldwide, as it is difficult to divorce subjective morality of an individual and ascertain what those standards are. This indeterminacy interferes with the ability of judges to apply these standards. There is established scholarship that says that judges cannot divorce themselves from their subjectivities while evaluating obscenity in work of art or literature and may often reinforce the moral norms of the majority in the society thus crushing the moral standards of the minority. In India, we have a mixed bag of judgments that address the issue of obscenity. Seeing the difficulty in application of the community standards test, it is noteworthy that the ultimate fate of a book, painting or a film is dependent on the morality of an individual judge. In fact, the Court had asked a pertinent question in the judgment, “Would it be desirable for the Courts to intervene or should it be left to the readers to learn for themselves what they think and feel of the issue in question?” (para 136) However, it eventually reinforced these standards by applying the existing precedents on obscenity. The Court added thatunder Section 292, it was required to first prove whether the novel was obscene at all and only if it was found to be obscene it should be tested within the parameters of exceptionsit would fall under. The Court found that the novel was not obscene. There was no need to evaluate its social character to save it from a ban. While drawing this conclusion, the Court stated that, “sex, per se, was not treated as undesirable, but was an integral part right from the existence of civilization” (para 149) and that “in our society, we seem to be more bogged down by conservative Victorian philosophy rather than draw inspiration from our own literature and scriptures.”The Court also said, “there are different kinds of books available on the shelves of book stores to be read by different age groups from different strata. If you do not like a book, simply close it.”(para 148) While this reflects a progressive view of the judges on sexual morality, we have reservations on court’s reliance on ancient literature to justify why sex and its depiction in art or literature is not obscene.
We appreciate the observations that the Court has made while determining whether the novel hurt community or religious sentiments. The Court has acknowledged the declining tolerance level of the society (para 154) and stated that “any contra view or social thinking is met at times with threats or violent behaviour” (para 142).
The Court addressed the issue of harassment of writers and artists at the hands of a mob and held that there should “be a presumption in favour of free speech and expression as envisaged under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India” and emphasized the need for the State to protect those who suffer from hostility of several sections of a society as a consequence of holding a different view (para 175).Citing MF Hussain v. Rajkumar Pandey, the Court said “freedom of speech has no meaning if there is no freedom after speech.”The Court has identified the problematic sphere of mob violence and how it affects freedom of expression. However, we do not agree with what the Court held subsequently.

Reproducing an extract of the judgment here, “There is bound to be a presumption in favour of free speech and expression as envisaged under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India unless a court of law finds it otherwise as falling within the domain of a reasonable restriction under Article 19(2) of the Constitution of India.” (para 184) The words, “unless a court of law finds it otherwise as falling within the domain of a reasonable restriction under Article 19(2) of the Constitution of India.” indicate that the judiciary has the power to determine whether a certain type of speech could be restricted under Article 19 (2) of the Constitution of India. This understanding is incorrect. The language of Article 19 (2) makes it clear that speech could only be restricted by ‘law’ and judiciary cannot assume the authority to restrict speech. It has the authority to decide the applicability and the constitutionality of the law that restricts speech. The relevant part of Article 19 (2) is reproduced below for reference. “(2) Nothing in sub clause (a) of clause ( 1 ) shall affect the operation of any existing law, or prevent the State from making any law, in so far as such law imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right….” The Court further acknowledged that “the State and the police authorities would not be the best ones to judge such literary and cultural issues, which are best left to the wisdom of the specialists in the field and thereafter, if need be, the Courts” (para 181). The Court thus issued directions to the Government to constitute an expert body to deal with situations arising from such conflicts of views so that an independent opinion is forthcoming, keeping in mind the law evolved by the judiciary(para 181). There are concerns with this mandate of the Court; firstly, constituting an expert body to resolve conflict of views will not serve any purpose unless there are guidelines to evaluate work. It is difficult to dissociate subjectivity and ascertain objective standards for evaluating offensiveness of literary or artistic work. Secondly, reliance on expert opinion and then courts completely disregards existing law. Under Section 95 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,1973, the Government has the power to declare forfeiture of works which, it considers in violation of section 153A or section 153B or section 292 or section 293 or section 295A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. The power to evaluate a piece of writing or other work has already been given to the government. The Court has created a parallel mechanism for evaluation by giving directions to constitute an expert panel. In the event this mechanism fails to resolve the conflict, it is suggested that courts would then be approached to address the matter. This is in complete disregard of the powers of the Government under Section 95.

In the Murugan judgment, the Court has attempted to provide a narrow interpretation of what is considered obscene, emphasized the need for the society to be more tolerant and for State to protect those members of the society who, on account of their views, suffer at the hands of an intolerant society. It is for these reasons, the judgment is, undoubtedly a sound precedent for protection of speech in India. However, it is concerning to see that in drawing these conclusions, the Court has reinforced vague legal standards of obscenity and in that regard, it remains yet another addition to the mixed bag of judgments.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/perumal-murugan-and-the-law-on-obscenity

Personal Data, Public Profile

nishant — 2012-02-14T06:19:52Z

Whether we like it or not, we live in a world that is rapidly being Googlised, writes Nishant Shah in an article published by the Financial Express on February 13, 2012.

Apart from its core functions like search and email, we consume Google services and products around the clock and around the click—YouTube, Calendar, Docs, Google+, Google Reader, Google Analytics et al. On March 1, 2012, our increasingly co-dependent relationship with Google will reach a new stage of commitment as Google consolidates its privacy policies for the entire Google universe. If you are logged into your Google account, all your information across Google’s different platforms will be clubbed together to form a comprehensive profile of what you do online.

Google has suggested this will personalise your interactions with Google platforms. The videos you watch on YouTube might influence your search results; the links that you click on will affect the advertisements displayed to you; the mails that you read will establish proximity with your friends on Google+ ... A comprehensive profile of who you are, what you do, what you like, what you share and what you hide will be created. Google has shown unmatched commitment to transparency on user data retention, storage and usage over the years. However, a centralised profile on users rings a few alarm bells for me. There are three use-cases that immediately crop up with apocalyptic implications.

Death of anonymity: One of the biggest strengths of the internet, as a space for both political dissent and freedom of expression, is that it has allowed people to talk through their avatars without putting themselves in conditions of bodily harm. So, it was good to have a scenario where my activities on YouTube did not get mapped onto my more identifiable profile on Google+ and did not get correlated with my personal interactions on Gmail. Mapping all the actions of a user who might want a more distributed identity might lead to precarious conditions for users living in critical times.

Negotiation with governments: While Google claims that it is committed to protecting the safety of its users, we know that it is eventually subject to the rules of the countries that it operates in. In the past, say in skirmishes with China, we have seen that despite its powerful status, it is not exempt from the demands of different governments. Given the current state of negotiations around censorship that are ongoing in India, it is a little scary to think how users’ data can be abused by authoritative government officials. A multi-tiered, distributed system offers users safety which a consolidated one doesn’t.

Inter-platform repercussions: If something I do on a platform gets flagged as objectionable, does it mean that all my rights to Google World get revoked?

Hidden data collection: One of the things that a lot of people don’t realise is that Google, in its attempts at enriching our user experience, collects more data than you disclose. So, apart from the personal data that you have more control over, there is a range of other data—pages you visit, the time you spend there, links you click on, comments that you write, information you share, etc—which form a part of Google’s algorithms for you. Consolidation of this data through services like Ad Sense and Double Click might also expose you to third party advertisers who might abuse this information that is about you but not under your control.

Google’s consolidation of its privacy policies across platforms signal a new wave of information management on the web, where the earlier free-form distributed information practice is getting mapped on to the physical bodies of the users. While it might lead to better web services, it also means that we need to be more aware of our information practices and start preparing for a web that is going to demand more accountability from its users than ever before.

The author is a digital humanities scholar and Director-Research at the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society.

The original article was published in the Financial Express

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/personal-data-public-profile

Personal Data Protection Bill must examine data collection practices that emerged during pandemic

Shweta Mohandas and Anamika Kundu — 2022-03-30T15:15:21Z

The PDP bill is speculated to be introduced during the winter session of the parliament soon. The PDP Bill in its current form provides wide-ranging exemptions which allow government agencies to process citizen’s data in order to fulfil its responsibilities. The bill could ensure that employers have some responsibility towards the data they collect from the employees.

The article by Shweta Mohandas and Anamika Kundu was originally published by news nine on November 29, 2021.

The Personal Data Protection Bill (PDP) is speculated to be introduced during the winter session of the parliament soon, and the report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) has already been adopted by the committee on Monday. The Report of the JPC comes after almost two years of deliberation and secrecy over how the final version of the Personal Data Protection Bill will be. Since the publication of the 2019 version of the PDP Bill, the Covid 19 pandemic and the public safety measures have opened the way for a number of new organisations and reasons to collect personal data that was non-existent in 2019. Hence along with changes that have been suggested by multiple civil society organisations, the dissent notes submitted by the members of the JPC, the new version of the PDP Bill must also look at how data processing has changed over the span of two years.

Concerns with the bill

At the outset there are certain parts of the PDP Bill which need to be revised in order to uphold the spirit of privacy and individual autonomy laid out in the Puttaswamy judgement. The two sections that need to be in line with the privacy judgement are the ones that allow for non consensual processing of data by the government, and by employers. The PDP Bill in its current form provides wide-ranging exemptions which allow government agencies to process citizen's data in order to fulfil its responsibilities.

In the 2018 version of bill, drafted by the Justice Srikrishna Committee exemptions granted to the State with regard to processing of data was subject to a four pronged test which required the processing to be (i) authorised by law; (ii) in accordance with the procedure laid down by the law; (iii) necessary; and (iv) proportionate to the interests being achieved. This four pronged test was in line with the principles laid down by the Supreme Court in the Puttaswamy judgement. The 2019 version of the PDP Bill has diluted this principle by merely retaining the 'necessity principle' and removing the other requirements which is not in consonance with the test laid down by the Supreme Court in Puttaswamy.

Section 35 was also widely discussed in the panel meetings where members had argued the removal of 'public order' as a ground for exemption. The panel also insisted for 'judicial or parliamentary oversight' to grant such exemptions. The final report did not accept these suggestions stating a need to balance national security, liberty and privacy of an individual. There ought to be prior judicial review of the written order exempting the governmental agency from any provisions of the bill. Allowing the government to claim an exemption if it is satisfied to be "necessary or expedient" can be misused.

Another clause which gives the data principal a wide berth is with respect to employee data Section 13 of the current version of the bill provides the employer with a leeway into processing employee data (other than sensitive personal data) without consent based on two grounds: when consent is not appropriate, or when obtaining consent would involve disproportionate effort on the part of the employer.

The personal data so collected can only be collected for recruitment, termination, attendance, provision of any service or benefit, and assessing performance. This covers almost all of the activities that require data of the employee. Although the 2019 version of the bill excludes non-consensual collection of sensitive personal data (a provision that was missing in the 2018 version of the bill), there is still a lot of scope to improve this provision and provide employees further right to their data. At the outset the bill does not define employee and employer, which could result in confusion as there is no one definition of these terms across Indian Labour Laws.

Additionally, the bill distinguishes between employee and consumer, where the consumer of the same company or service has a greater right to their data than an employee. In the sense that the consumer as a data principal has the option to use any other product or service and also has the right to withdraw consent at any time, in the case of an employee the consequence of refusing consent or withdrawing consent would be being terminated from the employment. It is understood that there is a requirement for employee data to be collected, and that consent does not work the same way as it does in the case of a consumer.

The bill could ensure that employers have some responsibility towards the data they collect from the employees, such as ensuring that they are only used for the purpose for which they were collected, the employee knows how long their data will be retained, and know if the data is being processed by third parties. It is also worth mentioning that the Indian government is India's largest employer spanning a variety of agencies and public enterprises.

Concerns highlighted by JPC Members

Going back to the few members of the JPC who have moved dissent notes, specifically with regard to governmental exemptions. Jairam Ramesh filed a dissent note, to which many other opposition members followed suit. While Jairam Ramesh praised the JPC's functioning, he disagreed with certain aspects of the Report. According to him, the 2019 bill is designed in a manner where the right to privacy is given importance only in cases of private activities. He raised concerns regarding the unbridled powers given to the government to exempt itself from any of the provisions.

The amendment suggested by him would require parliamentary approval before exemption would take place. He also added that Section 12 of the bill which provided certain scenarios where consent was not needed for processing of personal data should have been made 'less sweeping'. Similarly, Gaurav Gogoi's note stated that the exemptions would create a surveillance state and similarly criticised Section 12 and 35 of the bill. He also mentioned that there ought to be parliamentary oversight for the exemptions provided in the bill.

On the same issue, Congress leader Manish Tiwari noted that the bill creates 'parallel universes' - one for the private sector which needs to be compliant and the other for the State which can exempt itself. He has opposed the entire bill stating there exists an "inherent design flaw". He has raised specific objections to 37 clauses and stated that any blanket exemptions to the state goes against the Puttaswamy Judgement.

In their joint dissent note, Derek O'Brien and Mahua Mitra have said that there is a lack of adequate safeguards to protect the data principals' privacy and the lack of time and opportunity for stakeholder consultations. They have also pointed out that the independence of the DPA will cease to exist with the present provision of allowing the government powers to choose members and the chairman. Amar Patnaik is to object to the lack of inclusion of state level authorities in the bill. Without such bodies, he says, there would be federal override.

Conclusion

While a number of issues were highlighted by civil society, the members of the JPC, and the media, the new version of the bill should also need to take into account the shifts that have taken place in view of the pandemic. The new version of the data protection bill should take into consideration the changes and new data collection practices that have emerged during the pandemic, be comprehensive and leave very little provisions to be decided later by the Rules.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/news-nine-shweta-mohandas-and-anamika-kundu-personal-data-protection-bill-must-examine-data-collection-practices-that-emerged-during-pandemic

Perché l'India ha tagliato internet al Kashmir

Raffaele Angius — 2019-08-22T01:31:46Z

Lo stato di isolamento imposto a più di 12,5 milioni di persone rischia di causare importanti disagi al Paese, nel quale è diventato praticamente impossibile comunicare con l’esterno. Problemi per ospedali e farmacie

The article by Raffaele Angius was published in WIRED.IT on August 19, 2019. Gurshabad Grover was quoted.

Dopo dodici giorni di blocco totale delle telecomunicazioni, l’India ha concesso il parziale ripristino delle linee telefoniche del Kashmir. Il 5 agosto il governo centrale di Nuova Delhi aveva sospeso lo statuto speciale di cui gode la regione, schierando decine di migliaia di soldati, arrestando diversi rappresentanti politici e sospendendone le linee telefoniche e iltraffico internet.

La decisione, presa unilateralmente dal primo ministro indiano Narendra Modi, mira a rimuovere i privilegi sanciti dalla costituzione del Kashmir, che settant’anni fa crearono le basi per l’unione dei due Paesi. Principale obiettivo di Nuova Delhi è l’abrogazione della legge che vieta l’acquisto di proprietà immobiliari ai cittadini non kashmiri, che secondo Modi impedirebbe la piena integrazione dell’area – l’unica a maggioranza musulmana – con l’India.

Blackout nelle comunicazioni

Ma lo stato di isolamento imposto a più di 12,5 milioni di persone rischia di causare importanti disagi al Paese confinante con il Pakistan, nel quale è diventato praticamente impossibile comunicare con l’esterno e in cui le infrastrutture critiche che fanno affidamento a Internet vivono profondi disagi. Come nel caso di ospedali e farmacie, che utilizzano la rete per ordinare nuovi medicinali.

“Le reti per le telecomunicazioni sono infrastrutture critiche e stavolta [il loro blocco] ha avuto un impatto decisivo sul funzionamento del Kashmir”, ha spiegato a Wired Gurshabad Grover, funzionario del Center for Internet and Society di Bangalore: “Alcuni report indicano che le linee di comunicazione non sono accessibili neanche per ospedali e cliniche: il risultato è che il personale si sta arrangiando per soddisfare le esigenze sanitarie”.

“Il governo indiano ha un record di sospensione delle telecomunicazioni e dei servizi internet nel Kashmir: secondo i dati rilevati dallo strumento di monitoraggio della rete del Software Freedom Law Center, questa è la sessantesima volta che succede solamente quest’anno”, ha spiegato Grover via mail.

Ma stavolta l’operazione di isolamento dell’area è stata più incisiva, con un blocco totale “di internet, reti mobili, linee terrestri, posta e televisione via cavo”, giustificate con l’esigenza di contenere la diffusione di informazioni false e gli episodi di violenza, come hanno spiegato gli stessi rappresentanti del governo. “Ma impedire ai giornalisti di fare il proprio lavoro, al contrario, favorisce la diffusione di notizie false -, ha obiettato Grover -. Inoltre, numerosi studi mostrano come lo spegnimento dei canali di comunicazione renda il coordinamento delle proteste pacifiche molto più difficili, con il rischio di portare a episodi di violenza”.

Dopo che per quasi due settimane anche le forze dell’ordine hanno dovuto utilizzare i telefoni satellitari per comunicare, parte delle linee telefoniche del Kashmir sono state ripristinate. Una ragione potrebbe essere che proprio il blackout informativo ha creato ulteriori allarmismi, avendo di fatto impedito a milioni di persone di comunicare con i propri familiari. “Ora i social network sono pieni di post allarmati provenienti da cittadini kashmiri che vivono in altri posti”, osserva Grover. Ma le contromisure non si sono fatte attendere, con la richiesta a Twitter da parte del governo indiano di rimuovere decine di account che scrivono della crisi, tra cui quelli di giornalisti e attivisti.

La crisi

Apparentemente lontana dal suo epilogo, l’ennesima crisi del Kashmir è approdata sul tavolo del Consiglio di sicurezza delle Nazioni Unite il 16 agosto, per la prima volta dal 1971. In una riunione a porte chiuse, come riporta la Cnn, sono intervenuti anche i diplomatici di Pakistan – il Paese musulmano direttamente confinante con la regione e che da anni sostiene segretamente i gruppi paramilitari dell’area – e Cina, che hanno chiesto all’India di garantire una risoluzione del conflitto. Così come negli ultimi settant’anni, gli emissari di Nuova Delhi hanno replicato che il Kashmir è una questione domestica che non riguarda la diplomazia internazionale. E per assicurarsi che la situazione rimanga tale, sembra che l’unica strategia sia quella di sottoporre a isolamento più di dodici milioni di persone.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/raffaele-angius-august-19-2019-india-kashmir-internet