Centre for Internet and Society

J&K Music 1

praskrishna — 2017-12-21T15:51:03Z

J&K Music 1

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praskrishna — 2011-12-21T11:28:38Z

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ITU Tutorial on Audiovisual Media Accessibility

praskrishna — 2012-06-18T10:58:29Z

At the invitation of CIS, in cooperation with the ITU-APT Foundation of India, ITU is organising a two-day Tutorial on Audio Visual Media Accessibility from March 14 to 15, 2012 at the India International Centre, New Delhi, India. The Tutorial will be preceded by the fourth meeting of the Focus Group on Audio Visual Media Accessibility (FG AVA) on March 13, 2012. This meeting will take place at the same venue and will also be hosted by CIS, in cooperation with the ITU-APT Foundation of India.

Cross-posted from the International Telecommunication Union website. Register online for the event here.

Watch the event Live

Background

Several tools will be used in the two-day tutorial, namely ITU publications relating to the field. To name two amongst the most recent ones, Accessibility to Broadcasting Services for Persons with Disabilities and Making Television Accessible" Report, G3ict-ITU, November 2011.

Objectives

The programme of the ITU Tutorial on Audiovisual Media Accessibility will provide an in-depth insight of topics and measures to improve the accessibility of AV media: Captioning (pre-prepared and live), Audio/Video Description and spoken captions, visual signing and sign language, emergency access services. These topics will reference examples from digital broadcast television and mobile telephony media. Participants will gain a better understanding of:

How to Get started - strategies for establishing and expanding new accessibility services (how it can be done, what it costs, what business models exist to ensure the viability of accessibility services);
How standards can help developing countries plan and implement the transition from analogue to digital TV (what issues need to be addressed to optimize the Digital Dividend; making sure that various groups of vulnerable viewers are not disenfranchised by the digital switchover);
Human resource development for improved usability and accessibility (closely tied to work being done by the Audiovisual Media Accessibility Focus Group’s Working Parties).

Audience

Regulators and legislators working on measures to improve digital media’s compliance with international accessibility conventions and directives; Accessibility service advocates from organizations representing persons with disabilities; Media executives from public service and commercial TV channels seeking compliance with media accessibility regulation; Pay-TV operators; Consumer electronics manufacturers; Consumer electronics wholesalers and retailers examining the business implications of demographic changes and media regulation.

Tutors

The tutors are leading experts in the field from industry and either participated in the writing of the handbook or contribute to the work of the ITU-T Focus Group on Audiovisual Media Accessibility.

Draft Programme

FG AVA Tutorial Programme - 14-15 March 2012

Day 1 - Wednesday 14 March 2012
Morning
Master of Ceremony:
Mr Sunil Abraham, Executive Director of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS)

Welcome addresses:
Mr Ravi Shanker
Administrator
Administrator Universal Service Obligation Fund

Dr. Govind
CEO
National Internet Exchange of India

Ms. Swaran Lata
Director and Head of Department
(TDIL Programme)
Department of Information and Technology

Mr. R. N. Jha
Deputy Director General (International Relations)
Department of Telecommunications

Ms. Archana Gulati
Financial Advisor,
National Disaster Management Authority

Tutorial Programme
Wednesday 14 March 2012
Introduction to seminar - Peter Olaf LOOMS
Tutors, objectives, activities, resources.

The rationale of accessible media – who needs them? - Peter Olaf LOOMS

Who needs accessible media?
What is the nature of the media accessibility challenge in India?
Can we quantify and prioritise the challenge?

2. Introduction to media and accessibility – what are the strategies? Peter Olaf LOOMS

What can be done to improve TV accessibility?
How can an understanding of the value chain and the stakeholders help optimise media accessibility?
What can we do to make media other than TV accessible?

Afternoon

3. Making television accessible – what is in scope and out of scope? Peter Olaf LOOMS

What does the term “media” mean?
What can we do to improve TV usability?
How can we improve accessibility by offering access services?

Thursday 15 March 2012

4. Access services – the options (subtitling, audio description, visual signing, audio subtitles and speaking interfaces) Takebumi ITAGAKI and Peter Olaf LOOMS

Workflows - what does producing access services entail?
Bandwidth requirements – what does it take to encode and deliver media and access services to their intended users?
Costs – what resources are needed and what do they cost?

5. Accessibility and business models

What is a business model?
Are there business models for accessible television receivers?
What are the common business models for television access services?
Legislation, regulation and standards – how do we turn vision into reality?

Afternoon

6. Putting it all together – from vision to reality

How can we plan and execute the introduction of access services for a specific media platform
Evaluating our work over the two-day period

Formal closing of the seminar

Learning Resources

"Making Television Accessible" joint ITU and G3ict Report (in English).

Accessibility to Broadcasting Services for Persons with Disabilities ITU-R Report
Podcasts (integrated slides and audio) in English from the Danish Technical University and the IT University of Copenhagen on Agile Project Management and on Accessible Media issues.
Case work (handouts) on USB sticks.

Learning Activities

Lectures

Pair Work

Case work in groups

See the agenda on ITU website

Related Information

Documentation and Registration

General Information

Host: Centre for Internet and Society, New Delhi, India in cooperation with the ITU-APT Foundation of India

Organized by: ITU

Date: 14-15 March 2012

Venue: India International Centre,
Seminar hall no. 1, 2 and 3 main building
#40, Lodi Road, Max Mueller Marg,
Connaught Place, New Delhi, Delhi 110001.
E-mail : cbo.iic@nic.in;
Website: www.iicdelhi.nic.in
Map from airport to IIC: http://maps.google.co.in/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Practical Information (including hotel accommodation, transportation, visa and health requirements) (coming soon)

Host country contact persons:
Sunil Abraham (Executive Director)
mail: sunil@cis-india.org

Nirmita Narasimhan (Programme Manager)
mail: nirmita@cis-india.org

Ajoy Kumar (Administrator)
mail: ajoy@cis-india.org

Office details:
Centre for Internet and Society
194, 2nd C Cross,
Domlur 2nd stage,
Bengaluru: 560071
Tel: +91 80 25350955, +91 80 40926283
website: www.cis-india.org

Convening Letter, Registration and Programme

Convening Letter

On-line registration

Draft Programme (coming soon)

Organized by:

Hosted by:

VIDEO

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/itu-tutorial-delhi

ITU Tutorial on Audiovisual Media Accessibility

praskrishna — 2012-07-03T08:53:04Z

The fourth meeting of the ITU-T Focus Group on Audio Visual Media Accessibility (FG AVA) took place at the India International Centre, New Delhi on March 13, 2012. The meeting was held in furtherance to an invitation of the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS), in cooperation with the ITU-APT Foundation of India. A two-day tutorial on Audio-Visual Media Accessibility followed the meeting on March 14 and 15, 2012 at the same venue. A total of 20 people participated in this event.

Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, CIS was the Master of Ceremony on Day 1, March 14, 2012. Mr. Ravi Shanker, Administrator, Universal Service Obligation Fund, Dr. Govind, CEO, National Internet Exchange of India, Ms. Swaran Lata, Director and Head of Department, TDIL Programme, DIT, Mr. R.N. Jha, Deputy Director General (International Relations), Department of Telecommunications and Ms. Archana Gulati, Financial Advisor, National Disaster Management Authority gave the welcome addresses. FG AVA chairman, Mr Peter Olaf Looms (European Broadcasting Union and Denmark) chaired the meeting assisted by the Working Groups coordinators.

The event provided an in-depth insight of topics and measures to improve the accessibility of AV media: Captioning (pre-prepared and live), Audio/Video Description and spoken captions, visual signing and sign language, emergency access services with examples referred from digital broadcast television and mobile telephony media. The participants gained a better understanding of:

How to Get started – that is, the strategies for establishing and expanding new accessibility services (how it can be done, what it costs, what business models exist to ensure the viability of accessibility services);
How standards can help developing countries plan and implement the transition from analogue to digital TV (what issues need to be addressed to optimize the Digital Dividend; making sure that various groups of vulnerable viewers are not disenfranchised by the digital switchover);
Human resource development for improved usability and accessibility (closely tied to work being done by the Audiovisual Media Accessibility Focus Group’s Working Parties).

Regulators and legislators working on measures to improve digital media’s compliance with international accessibility conventions and directives; accessibility service advocates from organizations representing persons with disabilities; media executives from public service and commercial TV channels seeking compliance with media accessibility regulation; consumer electronics manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers examining the business implications of demographic changes and media regulation participated in the meeting.

Peter Olaf Looms, Chairman, ITU-T, FG AVA made a presentation on Introduction to the Tutorials covering topics like what does this tutorial cover, what will I be able to do, focus on action, target groups, the rational of accessible media who needs them, what can be done to improve television accessibility, etc.

Dr. Takebumi Itagaki made a presentation on Producing and delivering access services – the options covering topics like the current situation in EU, chain of power / funding public broadcasting in EU, analogue to digital switchover, activity 9 TV standards and regulation, etc.

Mr. AK Bhatnagar, Engineer-in-Chief, Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) also participated in this event.

Click for the meeting report on ITU website.
Click for the agenda of the meeting on ITU website.
Download the list of participants here

VIDEOS

VIDEOS

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/itu-tutorial-event-report

ITU Participants List

praskrishna — 2012-05-11T10:57:38Z

The list of participants who attended the ITU event in Delhi.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/itu-participant-list.xls

ITU – NTA Workshop on Making ICT and mobile phones accessible for persons with disabilities in Nepal

praskrishna — 2012-11-07T12:19:04Z

The International Telecommunication Union is organizing this event on November 9, 2012 in Nepal. Nirmita Narasimhan is participating as a speaker in the session "Introduction: ICT and telecom accessibility, good practices in policy and industry initiatives".

This was published by the ITU on November 7, 2012.

09:00	Welcome and Inauguration Master of Ceremony (MC) welcomes all
	MC requests chief guest (Hon. Minister or Secretary) to inaugurate the Diyo (Oil lamp / Light)
09:15	Opening Remarks Sameer Sharma, Senior Adviser, ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
09:25	Keynote Address MoIC Secretary / Joint Secretary
09:40	Announcements Master of Ceremony thanks the Members at the Dais and walks over ot the schedule
09:40-10:00	Photo Session - Coffee Break
10:00	Making ICT Accessible for Persons with Disabilities: ITU Initiatives Sameer Sharma, Senior Adviser, ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
10:30	Introduction: ICT and telecom accessibility, good practices in policy and industry initiatives Nirmita Narasimhan, ITU Expert, Accessibility
11:00	Formulating policy and project implementation for persons with disabilities Archana Gulati, ITU Expert, Universal Service Policy
11:30	Perspective, initiatives, plans and challenges in making Telecom Services accessible to Persons with Disabilities NDCL / Ncell
12:15	Policy initiatives, ground realities and way forward for making telecom services accessible to Persons with Disabilities NTA
12:30	Panel Discussion Telecom Operators, MoIC officials
13:30	Closing Remarks MoIC / NTA / ITU
13:45-14:30	Lunch break

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/itu-int-itu-d-asp-cms-events-2012-nepal-itu-nta-workshop-on-making-ict-and-mobile-phones-accessible-for-persons-with-disabilities-in-nepal

itu

praskrishna — 2012-12-06T12:53:30Z

itu

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ITU

praskrishna — 2013-01-07T06:40:29Z

ITU

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It’s mainstream vs social

praskrishna — 2012-04-30T04:23:27Z

Mainstream and social media share an increasingly uneasy relationship. Mahima Kaul, a Guest Columnist with the Sunday Guardian wrote this article. Sunil Abraham is quoted in this.

The Abhishek Manu Singhvi CD scandal brought into focus the increasingly confrontational relationship between social media and mainstream media. When a court order kept the mainstream from broadcasting the CD, social media took centrestage in spreading it online and keeping a buzz about the scandal for days. Many termed it as a "victory" for social media. Others slammed social media users as "eternal voyeurs" and wondered why they seemed to be above the court order. In return, blogs went as far as to title a post, "Why the Indian MSM (mainstream media) Wants Social Media Dead".

A quick recap: after the CD leak, Singhvi moved court to stop certain media organisations from telecasting it. The Delhi High Court gave an ex parte order that "the defendants (media house), their agents ... are restrained from publishing, broadcasting and disseminating or distributing in any form or any manner..." However, people caught hold of the video and kept linking it on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. It went viral. Singhvi resigned from all political posts and settled the matter out of court. In his statement of resignation, Singhvi's bitterness at the role of social media was apparent: "in either event it raises no public interest issue... contumacious internet violation of a flagrant kind." I will save you a Google search: contumacious means to be wilfully disobedient to authority.

There are questions to be asked. Who was the 13 April court order aimed at? Is Singhvi's proposition that an internet violation took place true?

The order was explicitly binding on only specific organisations (Aaj Tak, India Today Group and Headlines Today). The rest of the mainstream media showed remarkable restraint. In the case of the video being linked on social media, it was users' prerogative, as they were not covered under that order even though Singhvi's statement suggests otherwise. However, there is another angle to consider. Social media users would have broken the law only if the video content itself was objectionable. "If the video is judged to be 'obscene', then under s.67 of the Information Technology Act, 'causing [obscenity] to be transmitted', is also a crime," says Sunil Abraham of the Center for Internet and Society. So, the question is, was this video obscene? While my journalistic integrity did not extend to watching the video, I've been told it has neither nudity nor explicit sexual activity, and cannot be considered obscene. Therefore, it appears that social media has functioned well within its rights.

What remains, then, is the view that social media "should" be restrained. How? A court order could stop users from linking the video online, but it would only be applicable in India. Also, there are already provisions in the IT Amendment Act 2008, which allows for "offensive" material to be removed by the intermediary, or site blockage by the government. Twitter has already announced national policies of censorship, although this incident would probably not qualify for such a drastic action. Sunil Abraham adds that the court could also give a "John Doe order" against prospective offenders that enables the IP owner to serve notice and take action at the same time against anyone who is found to be guilty. However, this step is to be taken with caution. In criticising the existing order on the Singhvi case, Arun Jaitley wrote in an editorial that "a pre-publication injunction (should) ... be exercised with great caution specially in a case of libel and slander," because in this case it was yet to be proven that the CD was indeed fabricated.

It seems there is offline outrage about online outrage. However, for mainstream media to call for restraint on social media based on their own actions seems to be hypocritical in this particular instance, because they did so only because of a court order. One need to look at stories ranging from the Mumbai attacks to the Arushi Talwar murder case to understand the invasive nature of mainstream media in India. What is more worrying is that the mainstream media is equating itself with social media in some ways, wondering why it needs to have editorial checks if citizens can gossip away on Twitter. In return, social media is counting its victories against the mainstream in a manner that suggests that the two consider each other competitors. Although most conversation on social media would not exist without mainstream news sources, ultimately their function in society is not the same. The media is considered the fourth pillar of democracy, while social media is considered an "unofficial" channel. If either is found indulging in illegal or harmful activities, they can and must be checked. But, in the end, it serves freedom of speech to keep the two functioning in context, not in confrontation.

Read the original published in the Sunday Guardian on April 30, 2012.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/mainstream-vs-social

It's That Eavesdrop Endemic

praskrishna — 2016-07-30T15:45:31Z

Whatsapp Says It’s Snoop-Proof Now, But There’s Always A Way In

The article by Arindam Mukherjee was published in Outlook on July 25, 2016. Pranesh Prakash was quoted.

Lock and Key

WhatsApp says it has end-to-end encryption, so no one, not even WhatsApp, can snoop into calls.

Experts say any encryption can be broken by security agencies. Android phones can also get infected by malware.

For years, a Delhi power-broker used to call from nondescript landline numbers, changing them ever so often. Of late, he has started using WhatsApp calls for ‘sensitive’ conversations. He’s not alone. WhatsApp has revealed that over 100 million voice calls are being made on the social network every day. That’s over 1,100 calls a second! India is one of the biggest user bases of WhatsApp. And many Indian users are making the app their main engine for voice calls.

One reason for this shift is that WhatsApp calls are seen to be essentially free (though they indeed have data charges). But for a lot of people, the chief allure lies in the touted fact that WhatsApp calling is far more secure than mobile calling. In April, the app introduced end-to-end encryption for its messages and voice calls.

Consequent to this, Sudhir Yadav, a Gurgaon-based software engineer filed a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking a ban on WhatsApp on the grounds that its calls are so safe that it could be misused by ‘terrorists’. Last month, a court in Brazil issued orders to block WhatsApp for 72 hours after it failed to provide the authorities access to encrypted data.

Are WhatsApp calls really impenetrable? WhatsApp believes so and says that the encryption key is held by the two persons at the two ends of the message or call and no one, not even the company, can snoop in. “The calls are end-to-end encrypted so WhatsApp and third parties can’t listen to them,” a WhatsApp spokesperson told Outlook. This is precisely Yadav’s concern. “Because the encryption is end to end, the government can’t break it and WhatsApp cannot provide the decryption key,” he says.

However, experts do not buy this argument. They believe everything on the Internet is vulnerable. “Anything that uses a phone number is vulnerable,” says Kiran Jonnalagadda, founder of technology platform HasGeek. “Anyone can impersonate the phone number by getting a duplicate SIM and get access to a phone. There are also bugs in the system which security agencies use.”

WhatsApp uses a person’s phone number to open an account and authenticate a user. So, if the government or a security agency wants to get access to a WhatsApp call, it would be very easy. “Telecom companies cannot access these calls as they are encrypted before they reach the network. But the government can. It just has to replicate a SIM to access any number and its messages or voice calls,” says Aravind R.S., a volunteer for Save the Internet campaign and founder of community chat app Belong,

There are other modes of attack as well. It is a given that Android phones, which form the majority of mobile phones used in India today, are most vulnerable to malware attacks. So, even if the app itself is secure, the device is not and if the device is attacked, just about everything in it can be tapped into. For instance, there’s the ‘man in the middle’ mode of attack, where a third person gets into a call and mirrors the messages to both the sides and relays the messages or calls to a different server. There is also the SS7 signalling protocol that can help hackers get into networks and calls. These attacks can make even a WhatsApp encryption vulnerable.

Security agencies and hackers routinely implant viruses into the phones of people they are monitoring. Once a phone is “infected”, everything is accessible. And Android phones are extremely prone to attacks from malware. “It's not perfectly secure, especially if there is any virus in an Android phone, which is what security agencies work with. They have many more ways to get into a phone. There is no defence against that,” says Aravind,

Experts believe it is possible that US intelligence agencies like the FBI and the NSA may have access to or are capable of breaking into even the WhatsApp encryption. This is proven by the recent incident where the FBI, after being refused by Apple to open up an iPhone used by a terrorist, broke into the phone by itself.

“If you are on the NSA list, there is nothing you can do to protect yourself,” says Pranesh Prakash, policy director with the Centre for Internet and Society. “They will find a way to get into your phone. In WhatsApp, many things like photographs and videos are not encrypted; these can get access to a person’s account.”

In India, the debate on access to encrypted phones has been on since the government engaged with Blackberry a few years ago. “There is no law governing an Over The Top (OTT) service like WhatsApp. If the government orders decryption of a call and WhatsApp cannot comply, it will become illegal,” says cyber lawyer Asheeta Regidi. The government’s seeming comfort level with all this legal ambiguity is yet another indicator that all is not what is seems with WhatsApp. As for callers, they would do well to speak discreetly on any network.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/outlook-july-25-2016-arindam-mukherjee-its-that-eavesdrop-endemic

IT Leaders, Lawyers Welcome SC Ruling on 66A of the IT Act

praskrishna — 2015-03-26T15:58:19Z

The Supreme Court of India has delivered a landmark judgment in scrapping section 66A of the Information Technology Act, which prescribed 'punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service, etc.' and had been branded as grossly 'unconstitutional' by various lawyers and legal advisors.

The blog past was published by Cio.in on March 25, 2015. Pranesh Prakash is quoted.

Here's what 66A of the IT (Amendment) Act, 2008 stated: Any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device,(a) any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character;(b) any information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, or ill will, persistently by making use of such computer resource or a communication device, or (c) any electronic mail or electronic mail message for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to mislead the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine.

As per the study conducted by the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, intermediaries over-comply and tend to take down even legitimate information when they receive a takedown notice. There were also several arrests made as a result. The most recent among which was when a class XI student from Bareilly was arrested for sharing an “objectionable” post on Facebook against senior Samajwadi party leader and state Urban Development Minister, Azam Khan.

The ruling by the Supreme Court has not only been welcomed by Shreya Singhal, the young law student who was among the first to challenge it in the Supreme Court, but also lawyers, legal advisors as well as IT leaders.

Pranesh Prakash, a Policy Director with the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, and a graduate of the National Law School tweeted: While the case is about 'Internet' censorship, the SC judgment is against ALL censorship. That's important. #66A

According to Pavan Duggal, advocate, Supreme Court of India, Section 66A symbolized the tyranny of ambiguous vague terms over the purity of legitimate free speech.

"It represented a tool for suppressing bonafide free speech, which was extensively misused. Sec 66A was a foe more than your friend. In scrapping Sec 66A, Supreme Court has done a great service to the cause of free speech of vibrant digital Indians. Digital free speech in India owes a great deal to the SC ruling," said Duggal.

Various Indian IT leaders also expressed their satisfaction towards the apex court's ruling, and called it a balanced judgment.

Anjani Kumar, CIO, Safexpress says, the ruling is by and large, a favorable one. “Previously, people who were writing against the establishment were being harassed. However, with this ruling, the apex court has protected the constitutional right of freedom of speech,” he said.

There will be freedom of speech and everyone will be able to express their views openly on social media platforms. It will help maintain an equilibrium over a period of time,” said T.G Dhandapani, group CIO, TVS Motors.

While the general sentiment was fairly positive. Manas Mati, executive director and technology head, Walt Disney said, “I think the Section should not have been scrapped. Every person needs to be responsible and accountable for what they post on social media.”

Accountable or not, the judgment clearly indicates that's there won't be any arrests on the subjective interpretation of vague expressions such as “grossly offensive” and “menacing character” etc. under section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

“However, the ruling is a very balanced one, with the court stating that the government has the right to remove objectionable content, but not arrest the person. The negative can be that some people go overboard on social media and they need to be checked," Kumar said.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/cio-in-march-25-2015-it-leaders%2C-lawyers-welcome-sc-ruling-on-66a-of-the-it-act

IT Inc oppose Sibal’s ‘great’ firewall proposal

praskrishna — 2011-12-07T05:36:34Z

Information Technology and social media experts have questioned telecom and IT minister Kapil Sibal’s directive to social media and search engine firms to remove "disparaging, inflammatory or defamatory" user generated content from India and are doubting the cogency of such an exercise.

"It is virtually impossible to monitor all incoming content. Yes, internet service providers — both mobile and landline — could install equipment to find and filter certain phrases, but this would prove expensive," said Mahesh Murthy, founder and CEO of Pinstorm, an internet marketing company with a global presence.

Websites such as Facebook and Youtube already have mechanisms in place to report objectionable photographs and content. If some particularly inflammatory content does manage to seep through such filters, a complaint to one of the Cyber Crime Cells would get it offline, Murthy said. "What Mr Sibal is trying to do is build a great firewall of India, but at what cost? It is clear he has no grasp of technology," he added.

Such a "firewall" would not just curb freedom of speech, but could also reduce internet speeds, said Sampath Iyengar, social engineering officer with Neo Social7 Media Solutions, a social media company based in Mumbai. "This is a very complicated process, and quite unnecessary. We would need a lot of infrastructure similar to what China has," he said.

Nishant Shah, head of research at the Centre for Society and Internet, Bangalore, said keyword-based filtering is not the solution. "You wouldn’t want to end up with a situation where you are denied access to, say, the website of the University of Sussex because the address contains the word ‘sex’," he said. "So what we are really talking about is 10 million people sitting down and manually weeding through material, no less. Obviously, Kapil Sibal has not thought this through." India has over 100 million Internet users and about 30 million of them are on Facebook. Even by a conservative estimate, Facebook would need to scan through 90 million updates from India every day, Shah said. A Facebook representative, declined to talk to the media.

In the US, a similar move, in the form of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), has been vehemently opposed by the public on the grounds that it would clamp down on the free Web. The Act, if passed, would allow service providers to block websites suspected to be hosting or enabling the sharing of copyrighted content. In the first half of this year, India asked Google to remove 358 items — up from 282 in the second half of 2010 — that it found objectionable. In almost 300 of these cases, government criticism and defamation were cited as the reasons for removal.

The article by V Shoba was originally published in the Indian Express on December 7, 2011. Nishant Shah was quoted in this article. Read it here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/it-inc-oppose-sibals-firewall-proposal

IT companies in Bengaluru on high alert over WannaCry ransomware

praskrishna — 2017-05-19T09:05:46Z

In the wake of the ransomware attack triggered by WannaCry virus, IT firms in Bengaluru are racing against time to updating their security systems. At some firms, employees have been asked to stay away from work for a few hours, while many other companies have declared holiday for a day or two for their employees.

The article by Kiran Parashar K M & Shruthi H M was published in the New Indian Express on May 17, 2017. Pranesh Prakash was quoted.

Sources said IT teams in many firms are working overtime to ensure such attacks do not harm their systems. Employees have been communicated to be aware of unsolicited emails and were asked to stay away from work at a few places where the security systems update was in progress.

A network engineer of a secondary source software firm, who provides security solutions, said, “We were asked to work on weekend and monitor the servers. The monitoring process is likely to continue. Some of the outsourcing companies have declared holiday as network engineers are flooded with work.”
“Recent developments have affected work at IT firms but there is no report of any company getting affected,” a techie said.

Wipro Ltd officials told Express: “Wipro has not seen any impact. However, we remain vigilant and have strengthened security controls at all layers to detect and mitigate any such threat.”

Companies providing financial technology are struggling to ensure that all ATMs are running on updated software. “We are in touch with the original equipment manufacturers for the patches that may be required to be rolled out on the ATMs running on Windows XP and Windows 7, to make them additionally secure,” said Radha Rama Dorai (Country Head - ATM & Allied Services), FIS, a financial technology provider.
“Fortunately ATMs in India have not been affected by WannaCry ransomware,” said Dorai.

Sudesh Shetty, Partner, Forensics, KPMG in India, said: “Banks need to apply the patch which Windows has released for outdated operating systems. Organisations need to make use of it.”

WannaCry under reported

The Indian Cyber Army sources said that there has been under reporting of such incidents as many individuals use pirated version of the Windows software. Also, people have no idea whom to report if they fall prey to WannaCry.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/new-indian-express-kiran-parashar-km-and-shruthi-hm-it-companies-in-bengaluru-on-high-alert-over-wannacry-ransomware

IT Act if enforced will leave internet use in India no freer than in China

praskrishna — 2011-05-18T02:28:38Z

The Centre for Internet & Societies (CIS), a Bangalore-based NGO, recently filed an RTI query with the Department of Information Technology (DIT), asking for a list of websites blocked by the Indian government under the IT Act. The department handed them a list of 11 websites. It was just one department’s list, but this was the first time such a list was being made public. This news written by R Krishna was published by the Daily News & Analysis on May 15, 2011.

"The information given was not comprehensive. For instance, we still don’t know who ordered these blocks," says Sunil Abraham, executive director, CIS, "We will file another RTI application to get those details out."

As of now, Indians enjoy considerably free access to information online, and the right to freedom of expression is protected by the Constitution. But you run into a veil of secrecy when trying to find out what sort of information is being blocked online, who is doing it, and for what reason. The list of 11 revealed by the DIT is only representative — no one can even guess the real number because, well, there is no way of knowing when a website gets blocked.

What is more disturbing is that the government has formulated a set of rules that can block content considered "disparaging", "harassing", or "blasphemous", besides a whole range of other labels that are vague and hence open to interpretation. The rules put the onus of removing such material on intermediaries such as ISPs (internet service providers) and websites that host the content — within 36 hours of a complaint being filed. And just about anyone can request that the content be taken down — all they have to do is write a letter or an email with an electronic signature. There is no provision for the intermediary to challenge the complainant’s assessment of the content in question.

Users will be afraid

In other words, censorship will now be a free-for-all exercise. Protests, such as the one we saw during the Jan Lokpal agitation, can be nipped in the bud since anyone, including politicians, can claim that they are being "harassed". Information revealed by websites like WikiLeaks can be blocked because they may "threaten friendly relations with foreign states".

There is a sense of shock among the handful of netizens who are aware of these rules and the potential for their misuse. "What are we, Saudi Arabia? We don’t expect this from India. This is something very serious," Pushkar Raj, general secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, has been quoted as saying. MediaNama, a website reporting on the media industry, points out, "Who defines 'blasphemous'?... India doesn’t even have a blasphemy law, so who interprets what is blasphemous or not?" Media watchdog The Hoot’s Geeta Seshu says, "This is chilling. Websites will be wary of putting up content. How can one appeal? How can one have a free discussion on anything at all online?"

Vishal Anand, product manager at Burrp, an online startup that hosts user-generated reviews of restaurants, is worried about the impact it will have on the discussions happening on the website. "I hope the ecosystem is not impacted. Users may be more afraid to respond, and businesses will be afraid about the content they host."

Guilty until proven innocent

The fundamental issue is that the onus is on the carrier or host to prove that the content is inoffensive, if any objection is raised. "The regulation is placing the burden on the intermediary so that there is no need to go to court (to get content blocked). This is going to lead to a lot of private intervention. You will have to go to court to get the content back up online, rather than the other way around," says Delhi-based lawyer Apar Gupta.

In fact, intermediary liability is a contentious topic globally, and this is not the first time it has caused a controversy in India. Back in 2004, Ebay India’s CEO Avinash Bajaj was arrested because a user tried to sell a pornographic CD on its website. This set off a furious debate on the issue, with the government finally agreeing to amend the IT Act. Gupta notes on his blog, "Even after the IT Act was amended, the government failed to make any rules… In the absence of rules, intermediaries continued to be dragged to court and to the police station. This includes a recent incident where an FIR was registered against Facebook."

Checks and balances exist

These developments lend credence to a recent report on internet freedom released by US-based NGO Freedom House, which ranks India 14th out of the 37 countries surveyed. Stating that the internet in India is only "partly free", the report notes, “Pressure on private intermediaries to remove certain information in compliance with administrative censorship orders has increased since late 2009, with the implementation of the amended IT Act. The revised law grants (the government) the authority to block internet material that is perceived to endanger public order or national security… and assigns up to seven years' imprisonment for representatives of a wide range of private service providers… if they fail to comply with government blocking requests." What is even more troubling is that the current rules weren’t even in place when this report was being prepared.

The new rules could worsen India’s internet freedom rankings. Responding to DNA, Sarah Cook, Asia research analyst and assistant editor, Freedom House, said, “We would have concerns over some of the rules and how they came about. This includes broad and vaguely worded censorship criteria, apparent initiation of the regulations "quietly" without significant consultation with key stakeholders, and absence of an appeals process for those who might disagree with censorship decisions."

Legal experts in India too are puzzled by the new restrictions when there are already reasonable restrictions on freedom of expression that the Constitution defines.

"There are anti-defamation provisions in the law. Then why include 'disparaging' in the new rules? Why is impersonating being made illegal? For example, on online dating websites for gays, users may not feel comfortable revealing their identities straightaway. And if somebody is impersonating to commit fraud, there are laws that already exist that deal with it. Instead of incorporating existing offences, the scope of what may be considered illegal is being broadened," says CIS’s Abraham.

The new rules are so broad-based that anyone can claim they are offended and demand that content be taken down, even out of business rivalry.

For example, Zone-H.org, run by Italy-based Roberto Preatoni, was one of the 11 websitesblocked by the Department of Information Technology. This was done after the Delhi High Court passed an ex-parte interim order (where the other party is not present) in the E2 Labs versus Zone-H case to block the website.

"This seems unnecessary since it is some kind of private business battle between E2 Labs and Zone H. Where was the need for the Indian government to get involved?" asks Abraham.

Bangalore-based cyber law expert N Vijayashankar agrees. "Websites are being blocked using interim orders. There is no national interest involved in some of these cases. Plus, there is no need to block the entire website, just a particular page could be blocked."

In fact, one of the webpages blocked was an opinion piece Vijayashankar had written about the Zone-H case on BloggerNews.net. "I had no intimation that the webpage was being blocked," says Vijayashankar, who got to know about the blockage only after CIS published the DIT’s response.

Learn from the world

Globally, excessive regulation of online discussions, particularly those related to political and social issues, can kill the open exchange of information. "In many countries, we saw that new laws, prosecutions, or proactive government censorship contributed to greater self-censorship among users. This is particularly pernicious when it affects discussions that relate to public interest or that affect people's well-being — such as an Indonesian housewife facing high fines for circulating critical comments about a local hospital, the Chinese authorities censoring content on torture in police custody, or the Korean government prosecuting a blogger who posted pessimistic predictions about the country’s economy," says Cook.

Cook acknowledges that balancing the right to freedom of expression against security threats, hate speech or child pornography is quite difficult — even for nations that rank high in their study. But there are a few best practices that India could learn from. "Examples of good practices would include no criminal defamation provisions (though criminal penalties for inciting violence would be appropriate), immunity for online content providers from being held liable for the information posted by their users (there is such a law in the United States), and multi-stakeholder consultations prior to the passing of regulations related to the internet/digital media."

The new rules India has come up with fly in the face of such best practices. Authorities and netizens alike should be on the guard, lest we go the China way.

Read the original story published by DNA here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/it-act-internet-use

IT Accessibility for People with Disabilities Policy and Guidelines

praskrishna — 2017-05-19T15:25:49Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/files/policy-and-guidelines.pdf