Centre for Internet and Society

India won't censor social media: Telecom Minister

praskrishna — 2012-03-01T07:15:29Z

India does not intend to censor online social networks such as Facebook, a minister said Tuesday, but he demanded that they obey the same rules governing the press and other media. The article by AFP was published in the Tribune on February 14, 2012.

“I never wanted to censor social media and no government wants to do so. But like the print and electronic media, they have to obey the laws of the country.” He held a number of meetings with leading Internet companies late last year in which he asked about the possibility of checking content before it is posted online by users.

The minister was said to have shown Internet executives examples of obscene images found on the Internet that risked offending Muslims or defaming politicians, including the boss of the ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi. “The media reported I had said I wanted to pre-screen the content on social media. I have never even heard the word pre-screen,” he told the summit.

Since these meetings, 19 Internet firms including Google, Yahoo! and Facebook have been targeted in criminal and civil cases lodged in lower courts, holding them responsible for content posted by users of their platforms. The government has given its sanction for the firms to be tried for serious crimes such as fomenting religious hatred and spreading social discord — offences that could land company directors in prison.

“All I want is that they (social media) should follow the laws of the land. Social media must not consider itself to be above that,” Sibal said. But Internet privacy groups say social media sites may not have the resources to screen obscene material that violates local laws posted on the Internet. Local laws prohibit the sale or distribution of obscene material as well as those that can hurt religious sentiments in overwhelmingly-Hindu India.

“It is just not humanly possible to pre-censor content and Sibal knows that very well,” said Rajan Gandhi, founder of a New Delhi-based advocacy group Society in Action. Pranesh Prakash of the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society said he was “glad Sibal does not believe in censorship and that companies operating in India should follow local laws.” “But on the other hand he has asked them to evolve new guidelines and actively monitor user content which is not legally sanctioned. This makes him look two-faced,” Prakash added.

Google and Facebook said earlier this month they had removed the allegedly offensive content used as evidence in the court cases.

The groups have appealed to the Delhi High Court asking for the cases against them to be quashed on the basis they cannot be held responsible for their clients’ actions. The comments of a judge hearing the case raised further fears that freedom of expression online could be restricted. “You must have a stringent check. Otherwise, like in China, we may pass orders banning all such websites,” the judge said at the January hearing. Facebook is banned in China and Google moved its operations out of the country in 2010 in protest at censorship laws there.

The debate about social networks mirrors a larger national dialogue about freedom of speech in the world’s biggest democracy following recent protests by religious groups. Indian-origin writer Salman Rushdie was prevented from speaking at a literature festival in Jaipur last month after Muslim groups protested against his presence over his allegedly blasphemous 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses.” A group led by author and journalist Nilanjana Roy organised public readings of banned literary works on Monday to protest against what it said were recent curbs on intellectual freedom.

The initiative, called “Flashreads for free speech”, was widely advertised on social networks including Twitter and Facebook.

Originally published by AFP and reproduced in the Tribune.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/india-wont-censor-social-media

India WhatsApp Privacy Fight May Affect Multinationals

praskrishna — 2017-02-02T02:28:23Z

The Indian Supreme Court’s review of Facebook Inc.'s and WhatsApp Inc.'s data security practices may lack teeth but also presages a desire for a stronger privacy regime and oversight of multinationals, internet and privacy specialists told Bloomberg BNA.

The article by Nayanima Basu was published by Bloomberg BNA on February 1, 2017. Pranesh Prakash was quoted.

WhatsApp revised its privacy policy in August 2016 to share data with owner Facebook and allow targeted ads and messages from businesses, laying the groundwork for the free messaging service to monetize such data. But a public interest complaint, akin to a class action in the U.S., filed by two Indian students and regulatory inquiries have resulted in India’s top court asking Facebook and WhatsApp about their data protection practices.

The court’s move Jan. 17 to seek the information may make multinational companies jittery, Rahul Khullar, former secretary of commerce for India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, told Bloomberg BNA. Although stronger data privacy enforcement is needed, all the high court has done is aggravate Facebook and other large multinationals, he said.

Facebook is the second largest media company in the world with a $367 billion market capitalization, Bloomberg data show. It acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for approximately $18 billion, data show. Facebook didn’t immediately respond to Bloomberg BNA’s e-mail request for comments.

Khullar, who is also the former chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, said multinationals need to be more careful in sharing their data because of the “distinction between digital non-commercial data and digitally sensitive data,” he said. A strong national data privacy law would resolve some of these issues, he said.

An U.S. official based at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, speaking on background, told Bloomberg BNA that any maneuver that restricts the free flow of data may harm the operations of U.S.-based multinationals and similar companies.

Clarity, Stronger Laws Needed

Some internet and privacy specialists say that Facebook and WhatsApp failed to provide effective data protection under Indian law.

Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the nonprofit digital technologies advocate Centre for Internet and Society, told Bloomberg BNA that Facebook and WhatsApp are in violation of Section 43A of the Information Technology Act that lays out “reasonable security practices and procedures.”

Indian citizens are reaching out to the courts for data protection enforcement because lawmakers have “failed to do so,” he said. That highlights the need for robust data protection laws in India and, he said, hopefully “goads the government and Parliament into enacting a privacy and data protection law.”

In lieu of further legislative action, companies may be able to resolve some issues by establishing clearer privacy policies, Niraj Gunde, a Mumbai-based attorney and consumer advocate, told Bloomberg BNA. Most software agreements have a clandestine clause that allows companies to access user data, but those agreements should also state how the data will be used, stored and eventually disposed of, he said.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/bloomberg-bna-february-1-2017-nayanima-basu-india-whatsapp-privacy-fight-may-affect-multinationals

India Weighing Looser Web Rules

praskrishna — 2011-05-31T12:23:22Z

Indian authorities are considering revisions to new Internet regulations after criticism from free-speech advocates and companies like Google Inc. that fear they could be exposed to liability under the regime. This article by Amol Sharma was published in the Wall Street Journal on May 30, 2011.

The rules, which took effect in April, require Internet companies to remove objectionable content from their sites, including anything "grossly harmful" or "harassing," within 36 hours of being notified by authorities. Executives could thereafter face penalties, including stiff fines or even jail time, say lawyers who have reviewed the regulations.

The rules may soon be revised to add greater liability protections for Internet companies, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal said in an interview.

Mr. Sibal said it is fair for the government to ask Internet companies to put in place codes of conduct that restrain users from posting certain material online, as the regulations do. But he said it is "relatively unfair" to expect Internet companies—which are referred to in the rules as "intermediaries"—to be responsible for third-party content. "To make the intermediary liable for the user violating that code would, I think, not serve the larger interests of the market," Mr. Sibal said.The backlash after the rules were enacted has been growing. Civil-liberties groups are expressing fears the rules are too open to interpretation and could be used by the government to restrict free speech on the Web. The regulations represent an effort by India to get a grip on the Web without the kind of direct censorship or website-blocking practiced in countries like Iran, China and Saudi Arabia.

He said ministry officials are trying to "apply our minds and see if the regime can be made more rational."

In its defense earlier this month, India's ministry said the restrictions rightly require that Internet companies observe due diligence in order to enjoy exemption from liability for content posted by third parties. "These due diligence practices are the best practices followed internationally by well-known mega corporations operating on the Internet," the statement said.

Google was among the companies and nonprofit organizations that offered feedback on the rules before they went into effect. The Web giant unsuccessfully sought changes to limit its potential liability for third-party content and to scale back a list of banned material that it said was "too prescriptive."

The rules also require removal of content that is "ethnically objectionable," "disparaging," or that "harm[s] minors in any way."

On Monday, a Google India spokeswoman referred to a previously issued statement on the matter. "If Internet platforms are held liable for third party content, it would lead to self-censorship and reduce the free flow of information. The regulatory framework should ideally help protect Internet platforms and people's abilities to access information," the statement said. Google has faced requests in many countries to take down content including social-networking profiles and YouTube videos that foreign governments or users find objectionable.

India is one of the world's largest Internet markets, with a user base estimated at more than 80 million. That represents only a slice of its 1.2 billion-strong population, leaving room for growth.

Mr. Sibal, who wasn't the telecom minister when the act was passed, is trying various efforts to boost Web usage. He plans to bring 500,000 villages online within a few years by laying a massive fiber-optic backbone and using wireless devices to let Web traffic travel the "last mile" to rural households.

He said the government has to be careful not to get in the way of Internet companies trying to build up the market. "We need to ensure that we don't put conditions which are adverse to the efficient functioning of the intermediaries," he said. Despite his interest in relaxing the new rules, however, Mr. Sibal said Internet companies must "take into account the sensitivities of the countries in which they're operating."

Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore, said his organization and other civil liberties groups are preparing legal challenges to the regulations on constitutional grounds.

He said the groups will broadly argue that the rules have put in place arbitrary and unclear restrictions on speech and have gone beyond the scope of the Information Technology Act of 2008, the law on which they are based.

Mr. Abraham welcomed Mr. Sibal's interest in potentially revising the regulations. "If Kapil Sibal gives this his personal time...there's a good chance the next version would be more robust in terms of constitutionality," he said.

Read the original published by the Wall Street Journal here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/looser-web-rules

India tops list of content restrictions requests, says Facebook

praskrishna — 2015-04-03T17:01:53Z

India has again topped the list of content restriction requests in the second half of 2014 with over 5,800 requests recorded in Facebook's Government Requests Report released on Sunday.

The article by Neha Alawadhi was published in the Economic Times on March 17, 2015. Pranesh Prakash gave his inputs.

"Overall, we continue to see an increase in government requests for data and content restrictions. The amount of content restricted for violating local law increased by 11% over the previous half, to 9,707 pieces of content restricted, up from 8,774," said Monika Bickert, Facebook's head of global policy management, and Chris Sonderby, deputy general counsel, in a statement on the social networking website.

Facebook saw a rise in content restriction requests from countries like Turkey and Russia, while requests from countries like Pakistan came down. The number of content restriction requests from Pakistan came down to 54 in the second half of 2014 from 1,773 in the first half. The number of content restriction requests from India rose to 5,832 from 4,960 in the first half.

India has been the top requestor for content restrictions in the past one and a half years, and the number of these requests and for user account data from the country have consistently been on the rise.

Facebook said that while the number of government requests for user account data remained relatively flat in the six-month period, there was an increase in data requests from "governments such as India, and decline in requests from countries such as the United States and Germany".

India made 5,473 requests for user account data in the six months ending December 2014, second only to the United States, which made 14,274 requests in the same period. About 45% of the requests made by India led to Facebook producing some data, according to the report, while 79% of the requests made by the US were complied with.

"Of course, the figures are alarming... But it would have been better if Facebook had also given us more information on the kind of data that was being asked for. Now we only have consolidated figures. So what kind of data was asked for, that would have been more useful," said counsel for the Software Freedom Law Centre.

India is the second largest market for Facebook, with 112 million users until last year, second only to the United States. According to Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Centre for Internet and Society, "the number of content restriction requests are not only high on an absolute number, but even on a per-user basis".

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/economic-times-march-17-2015-neha-alawadhi-india-tops-list-of-content-restrictions-requests-says-facebook

India Today Conclave Next 2017: Aadhaar was rushed, says MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar

praskrishna — 2017-11-26T06:41:07Z

Talking at the ongoing India Today Conclave Next 2017, MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar said that Aadhaar was rushed and foisted on the country by authorities that fail to first create a proper ecosystem. Chandrashekhar gave his comments at a keynote titled Privacy -- The Fundamental Right for the Digital Citizen.

The article by Priya Pathak was published by India Today on November 8, 2017.

Chandrashekhar, who has been vocal on the issues like data protection, privacy and net neutrality, said that the government should have created a proper ecosystem for Aadhaar by bringing norms and laws around data protection and privacy before asking people to sign up for the unique ID.

The MP talked about India's journey from being a largest unconnected world to becoming the largest connected world. But Chandrashekhar criticised the "flawed" Aadhaar and said that it was a classic example of how a government system would push for technology in governance without addressing key bits of the ecosystem around the citizen and the consumer.

"If that (Aadhaar) wasn't enough, the IT act and section 66A and its language and its vagueness and its potential for misuse was another example of the faults of a bureaucracy or a political system trying to legislate or create solutions in the digital world, " he said.

At the same time, he lauded the recent Supreme Court order that held all Indians had fundamental right to privacy. "The latest finding of Supreme Court of Privacy as fundamental right is a big deal and it will alter number of things going forward," he said. He added that there should be more debate and discussion on data privacy as there is an attempt to characterise data privacy as some of kind of elitist issue in India which it's not.

Privacy, especially for the digital world, currently is one of the most debated topics in India. The country in the past few years has seen a number of instances where a government or a private entity has knowingly or unknowingly compromised the data of its users. Recently a study published by Centre for Internet and Society, a Bengaluru-based organisation, revealed that private data of more 130 million Aadhaar card holders were leaked from four government websites.

The Supreme Court in August this year declared privacy as a fundamental right. A nine-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar has declared that "right to privacy is an intrinsic part of Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21 and entire Part III of the Constitution".

The move has been praised by many including Rajeev Chadrashekhar who has said that it is a big welcome step. "It is clear that Aadhaar and all other legislations existing and proposed will have to meet the test of privacy being a fundamental right," he recently said.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/india-today-priya-pathak-november-8-2017-india-today-conclave-next-2017-aadhaar-was-rushed-says-mp-rajeev-chandrashekhar

India To Let Private Companies Access Citizens’ Biometric Data

praskrishna — 2017-02-27T15:09:16Z

India, home to the world’s largest national biometric registry, plans to begin sharing citizens’ data with the country’s private companies and startups.

The blog post by Joshua Kopstein was published by Vocativ on February 21, 2017. Sunil Abraham was quoted.

The government-backed program, called “India Stack,” will allow the second most populous country on Earth to share nearly all of its 1.3 billion citizens’ fingerprints, iris scans, and more, potentially creating unprecedented security and privacy risks in the name of convenience and digital commerce.

India Stack will open up the country’s troves of biometric data to Indian software developers, health care providers, and any other business interested in using the government’s identification records in their apps and services. The Indian government hopes the move will spur innovation, jumpstarting its effort to create a centralized system of digital commerce where citizens can purchase goods, apply for health insurance, or even qualify for a loan using the biometric sensors on their smartphones.

Opponents, however, warn that the sharing scheme opens a Pandora’s box of security and privacy problems, dramatically increasing the likelihood of data breaches and abuse.

“It’s the worst time for privacy policy in the country,” Sunil Abraham, the executive director of the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society, told the Wall Street Journal. “We are very caught up in technological exuberance. Techno-utopians are ruling the roost.”

The dangers aren’t just hypothetical. In 2015, an unprecedented breach at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management allowed hackers to steal the fingerprints of 5.6 million federal employees. Researchers have found that stolen fingerprints can be used to commit fraud and identity theft, and even replicated and used to unlock smartphones and other personal devices. Worst of all, unlike passwords and social security numbers, biometric identifiers like fingerprints can never be changed, meaning that any breach is virtually guaranteed to have long-term consequences.

The India Stack program is the latest in several recent schemes to push the country toward a fully-digitized and cashless economy. As of December 2016, the Unique Identification Authority of India had registered more than 91% of the population into a centralized system called Aadhaar, which integrates with banks and allows citizens to complete transactions and access government services using their fingerprints. The country has also temporarily withdrawn its higher-denomination bank notes from circulation in an effort to bolster digital payment systems.

“While the efforts of the government are commendable, the efficacy of these programs in the absence of sufficient infrastructure for security raises various concerns,” the Centre For Internet and Society wrote in a paper outlining the privacy risks of India’s digital identity system. “Increased awareness among citizens and stronger security measures by the governments are necessary to combat the cogent threats to data privacy arising out of the increasing rate of cyberattacks.”

India’s program has already gone far beyond other countries’ biometric data collection schemes, which have mostly been limited to passports and border control. But law enforcement officials’ smaller, more piecemeal efforts to collect biometric information have also raised alarm over their potential for abuse. Thanks to the cooperation of 16 state DMVs, one in two Americans currently has their photo registered to a law enforcement face recognition database – regardless of whether they’ve been charged or even suspected of a crime. Local police in several U.S. states have also begun collecting iris scans and DNA swabs from people randomly stopped on the street, in some cases specifically targeting African American children.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/vocativ-joshua-kopstein-india-private-companies-citizens-biometric-data

India threatens action against Twitter for ethnic violence 'rumors'

praskrishna — 2012-08-27T02:52:55Z

India threatened to take action on Thursday against Twitter over content alleged to have inflamed ethnic tensions, as leaked documents revealed the government scrambling to censor online material.

Published in the China Post on August 24, 2012. CIS is quoted.

More than 309 orders have been issued demanding the removal of posts, images and links on websites including Facebook and Twitter as well as Australian news channel ABC, broadcaster Al-Jazeera and London's The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The government has blamed Internet sites for spreading rumors that Muslims would attack students and workers who have migrated from the northeast to live in Bangalore and other southern cities.

Tens of thousands of people fled back to India's remote northeast region last week, fearing an outbreak of violence.

The government has demanded that Twitter and other social network sites remove “inflammatory and harmful” material. It has also banned bulk text messages.

“If Twitter fails to respond to our request, we will take appropriate action,” senior home ministry official R.K. Singh said in the Times of India newspaper. “We have asked the information technology ministry to serve them a notice.”

The paper added that the government had set a deadline of Thursday for Twitter to respond.

The Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) research group published analysis of the blocking orders sent by the Department of Telecommunications to domestic Internet services providers from August 18-21.

The CIS said that of the 309 separate items that the government ordered the providers to be blocked, the most affected sites were Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Blogspot.

Content on websites for ABC, Al-Jazeera, The Times of India, The Daily Telegraph and online Catholic portal www.catholic.org were also targeted by the orders, though details of the contentious material are not known.

Twitter representatives were not available to comment, but both Facebook and Google this week said they were in communication with Indian authorities and already had policies banning content that incited violence.

The government has complained it was not receiving timely cooperation from social network groups over its attempts to ban “hateful” content.

On Thursday it said Twitter had agreed to remove six fake accounts pretending to be postings by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“Officials at Twitter have told us they are reviewing our request ... and they intend to cooperate,” Pankaj Pachauri, the premier's spokesman, told AFP.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/www-china-post-aug-24-2012-india-threatens-action-against-twitter-for-ethnic-violence-rumors

India takes its first serious step toward privacy regulation – but it may be misguided

praskrishna — 2013-04-15T06:39:05Z

The world’s second-most populous nation may be on the cusp of embracing privacy legislation. After several false starts the Indian government appears ready to accept the need for some form of regulation.

This blog post by Simon Davies was published in the Privacy Surgeon on April 9, 2013. The Centre for Internet and Society recently published a draft Citizens privacy bill which is mentioned in this post.

Well, maybe this is a slightly optimistic view. A more accurate portrayal might be “the Indian government appears ready to accept the principle of some form of regulation”.

There is actually no agreed policy position across government on the question of privacy and data protection, but the Planning Commission last year established an Expert Group under the chairmanship of the former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, A.P.Shah. Justice Shah’s subsequent report is being considered and a draft Bill has been created.

Shah’s report provided a convincing body of evidence – both at the domestic and the international level – for the creation of national regulation.

It called for the formation of a regulatory framework and set out nine principles that could form a foundation for the next stage. These principles – reflecting the basis of law in other countries – have been generally accepted by Indian stakeholders as a sound frame of reference for progress.

However although the nine principles are supported, the precise nature of any possible regulation is still very much in flux.

There’s a long way to go before consensus is established on a overall type of regulatory framework. Having said that, India is closer than ever to seeing real legislation – and the international community needs to put its weight behind the activity.

Debate over the merits of data protection and privacy law stretch back beyond a decade but reform was constantly hampered by perceptions that regulation would stifle economic growth.

Some industry lobbies have been as keen as government to ensure that privacy proposals are stillborn.

Even with the nine principles as a bedrock the path to privacy law must overcome two extremely difficult hurdles.

The first of these is that a substantial number of Indian opinion leaders continue to express an instinctive view that there is no cultural history for respect of privacy in India. That is, people don’t want or expect privacy protection and Western notions of privacy are alien to Indian society.

In support of this assertion these critics often cite an analogy about conversation on Indian trains. It is well known that many Indians will disclose their life story to strangers on the Indian rail network, discussing their personal affairs with people they have never before met. This trait is construed as evidence that Indians do not value their privacy.

I spoke last week at an important meeting in New Delhi where this exact point was repeatedly made. The meeting, organised by the Data Security Council of India and ICOMP India was well attended by industry, government, academics and NGOs. Speakers made constant reference to the matter of public disclosure of personal information.

In response, noted commentator Vickram Crishna expressed the view that the train anecdote had no relevance and was a convenient ruse for people who for their own self interest opposed privacy regulation.

“In reality this circumstance is like Vegas”, he said. “What happens on Indian trains, stays on Indian trains. People will talk about their lives because they will never see these passengers again and there is no record of the disclosures.”

“What we are dealing with in the online world is a completely different matter. There is no correlation between the two environments”.

A substantial opinion poll published earlier this year also debunked the myth that Indians don’t care about privacy. Levels of concern expressed by respondents was roughly the same as the level of concern identified in other parts of the world.

A second hurdle facing privacy legislation is the perception - particularly prevalent in the United States – that legislation will be a burden on industry and people do not want yet another cumbersome and costly government structure.

There are perhaps some grounds for considering this perspective, given the vast scale and complexity of India’s economy.

Government intervention does not enjoy a history of consistent success in the marketplace, though in many instances intervention has been the only means to bring industry into compliance with basic safeguards.

I made the point at the meeting that support for a purist model of industry self regulation was simplistic and misguided. Most systems of a similar nature fail unless someone is mandated to ensure compliance, transparency, enforceability and consistency. It’s a question of finding a way to embed accountability in industry self regulation – and this is where legislation and government could help.

Justice Shah’s report reflected this widespread concern by recommending a co-regulatory framework in which a privacy commissioner would oversee industry self regulation. However – as last week’s meeting exemplified – even this compromise solution is not acceptable to many industry players. They oppose the idea of an appointed commissioner and believe that industry self regulation alone will be sufficient.

This is an influential view that cannot be brushed aside. However in a special programme aired on19th April on India’s main parliamentary television network – RSTV – I repeatedly make the point that such a view, if successful, would put Indian industry in danger of winning the battle but losing the war. Europe is unlikely to accept a model of sole industry regulation, and the crucial flow of data between the two regions could be imperiled.

Conscious of all these challenges the influential NGO Centre for Internet and Society has published a draft Citizens privacy bill and has commenced a series of consultation meetings across the country. These initiatives will provide important input for the emerging legislation.

This is an important moment for privacy in India, and one that will require careful thought and sensitive implementation. However no-one in India should be in any doubt that the current unregulated situation is unsustainable in a global environment where nations are expected to protect both their citizens and the safety of data on their systems.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/privacy-surgeon-simon-davies-april-9-2013-india-takes-its-first-serious-step-toward-privacy-regulation

India Still Trying To Turn Optional Aadhaar Identification Number Into A Mandatory National Identity System

praskrishna — 2016-03-24T06:34:21Z

from the sliding-down-the-slippery-slope-to-disaster dept

The blog post was published by Tech Dirt on March 22, 2016. CIS research on Aadhaar was quoted.

Last year, we wrote about India's attempt to turn the use of its Aadhaar system, which assigns a unique 12-digit number to all Indian citizens, into a requirement for accessing government schemes. An article in the Hindustan Times shows that the Indian government is still pushing to turn Aadhaar into a mandatory national identity system. A Bill has just been passed by both houses of the country's parliament, which seeks to give statutory backing to the scheme -- in the teeth of opposition from India's Supreme Court:

There have been orders passed by the Supreme Court that prohibit the government from making Aadhaar mandatory for availing government services whereas this Bill seeks to do precisely that, contrary to the government's argument that Aadhaar is voluntary.

The article notes that in some respects, the new Bill brings improvements over a previous version:

It places stringent restrictions on when and how the UID [Unique Identification] Authority (UIDAI) can share the data, noting that biometric information -- fingerprint and iris scans -- will not be shared with anyone. It seeks prior consent for sharing data with third party. These are very welcome provisions.

But it also contains some huge loopholes:

The government will get sweeping power to access the data collected, ostensibly for "efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of subsidies, benefits and services" as it pleases "in the interests of national security", thus confirming the suspicions that the UID database is a surveillance programme masquerading as a project to aid service delivery.

The fact that an optional national numbering system now seems to be morphing into a way to monitor what people are doing will hardly come as a surprise to Techdirt readers, but this continued slide down the slippery slope is still troubling, as are other aspects of the new legislation. For example, it was introduced as a "Money Bill," which is normally reserved for matters related to taxation, not privacy. That suggests a desire to push it through without real scrutiny. What makes this attempt to give the Aadhaar number a much larger role in Indian society even more dangerous is the possibility that it won't work:

A recent paper in the Economic and Political Weekly by Hans Mathews, a mathematician with the [Centre for Internet and Society], shows the programme would fail to uniquely identify individuals in a country of 1.2 billion.

A mandatory national identity system that can't even uniquely identify people: sounds like a recipe for disaster.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/tech-dirt-march-22-2016-india-still-trying-to-turn-optional-aadhaar-identification-number-into-mandatory-national-identity-system

India slowly gets to grips with ecommerce

praskrishna — 2011-04-04T06:46:27Z

Growth in computer use and Internet penetration will help e-commerce.

Vipul Modi is a busy high court lawyer in India's financial capital Mumbai. Like many people, he uses the Internet to buy rail and airline tickets as well as pay his utility bills. Yet when it comes to buying other products online, the 44-year-old has misgivings, particularly about the security of his bank account details and other personal data.

"Online shopping is not something that we feel comfortable with... because the responsibility of something being misused is on the consumer compared with the United States, where it's on the credit card companies," he told AFP.

"And I'd still not buy some things online because I still like to go and see what it is."

From books to groceries, Internet shopping has become popular in many Western countries for people with disposable income, busy lifestyles and unpredictable working hours.

As Indian society, particularly in big cities such as Mumbai and the capital New Delhi, changes along similar lines on the back of the country's economic expansion, retailers are now looking to follow suit.

Gift shop chain The Bombay Store last month became the latest outlet to launch an online facility, following in the footsteps of major retailers such as Big Bazaar, Pantaloons and shopping portals on websites like www.rediff.com.

"Online shopping in India is on the cusp of taking off," said Deepa Thomas, a senior manager at the online auction site www.ebay.in, which has 2.5 million registered users in nearly 2,500 locations across the country.

"But when it comes to things like product shopping there's still a fairly long way to go."

For a country with 1.1 billion people, India's use of computers and the Internet is still low, despite being a major player in global information technology and outsourcing.

At present only eight percent of Indian households have access to a personal computer, the country's IT and communications minister, Sachin Pilot, said on a visit to Washington in March.

Of India's estimated 60 million Internet users, about six million shop online, with the ecommerce market thought to be worth about 100 billion rupees (2.2 billion dollars) and expanding at about 30 percent a year, Thomas said.

At present, social networking, email and accessing news and sports sites remain the mainstay of computer use for most Indians.

Pilot has predicted an "exponential growth" in computer use and Internet penetration in the coming years, as the government works to extend broadband access into 250,000 out of India's more than 600,000 villages.

Industry analysts such as Nishant Shah, director of research at the Centre for Internet and Society in the southern city of Bangalore, India's IT hub, said that can only help develop ecommerce.

"The countries where Internet shopping has been on the upswing are countries with highly developed broadband infrastructure which allows for quick, easy and secure connections," Shah said in an email interview.

"The lack of strong digital infrastructure means that the Internet is still used by a large majority of people for 'functional' things - jobs, retrieving information, communication, social networking."

Unlike other countries, India's half-a-billion mobile phone subscribers could drive the sector's expansion, he added.

The government is currently auctioning 3G licences, which would enable more users to access data at high-speed, instead of having to rely on slow, dial-up connections at places such as public cyber cafes, making transactions easier.

Thomas said eBay was launching a mobile phone application for buying and selling by the end of June, predicting that "mobile web is going to become a big part of developing the market".

For Asim Dalal, managing director of The Bombay Store, going online makes business sense in the global economy as it expands the company's reach beyond India's borders.

"International visitors comprise approximately 25 percent of our sales," he said in a statement. "Since they mostly are on visit or tour to India, their repeat purchases for gifting or home were restricted."

But if and how quickly Indian consumers will change habits is hard to tell, with a preference for cash transactions and personal contact with suppliers, particularly for food and clothing at bustling markets.

Read the original article in the Independent

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India Should Watch Its Internet Watchmen

praskrishna — 2011-05-06T05:08:05Z

The month after terrorists attacked Mumbai in 2008, India's government initiated legislation enabling it to eavesdrop on electronic communication and block websites on grounds of national security. There was no public debate before the bill in question was introduced, and hardly any debate inside parliament itself before it passed in 2009. In the law, there were no guidelines about the extent to which an individual's right to privacy would be breached. And there was certainly no mention, and therefore, reassurance, that due process would be followed when it came to restricting access to websites. This article by Rahul Bhatia was published in the Wall Street Journal on March 28, 2011.

It's taken about two years for the first signs of misuse to show up. And there may be many more, as the government uses vague discretion instead of firm rules to police India's Internet. Various groups can exploit these discretionary powers to their own ends.

Earlier this month, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the body appointed by the government to protect India's information infrastructure, blocked a text-message provider that sends out advertisements in bulk over mobile phone. It also blocked Typepad.com, a publishing platform used frequently by bloggers. Both restrictions have now been lifted.

Most contentiously, a Delhi court ordered CERT-In to block access to Zone-H.org, an Italian security giant that acts as a repository of hacked websites—that is, it collects screen grabs of sites that are infiltrated, which later proves valuable for studying the cyber crime in question. A representative of this website accused an Indian cyber security firm, E2 Labs, of using Zone-H's logo and images to promote its own cyber security school courses. E2 Labs dragged Zone-H to court in 2009 and, on grounds of defamation, had Zone-H's website blocked. What muddies the waters is that E2 Labs claims to work for the government.

Nobody knows what threat, if any, these websites posed to national security. Users who tried accessing them simply received a one-line message from their service providers that the sites had been blocked due to "instructions from the Department of Telecom." That message later disappeared, replaced by the standard error message: "Page Not Found."

Many bloggers immediately started comparing this case to the situation they found themselves in 2006, when the government banned Blogspot.com right after Mumbai's suburban train system was hit by bomb blasts. The Department of Telecom then did not offer an official reason, leaving people guessing that this was some kind of response to that terrorist attack.

That's happening again. The guidelines under which CERT-In operates say that all information related to website blocking is classified. Moreover, its mandate does not include communicating with the public. Which is why everyone is in the dark. Nobody even knows how widespread the blockade is. There's no hint of the process involved. There's no course for redress for those who own the affected sites.

Inquiries from journalists about the Department of Telecom's method of functioning have gone unanswered. When cornered by the press this month, India's Information Technology minister Kapil Sibal, who oversees this department, passed responsibility to the ministry of home affairs, which manages the nation's internal security.

Perhaps there are legitimate reasons for blocking these websites. India has faced its share of terrorist attacks that have, in the last decade, begun to affect the country's urban centers. Terrorists have gotten more sophisticated. The 2008 Mumbai assault especially put pressure on security personnel to be electronically vigilant, because the terrorists used satellite phones and internet technology to communicate. Since then, the government has ramped up its scrutiny of the Internet, including getting into a high-profile dispute last year with Blackberry-maker Research in Motion. Blogs are fair game, too, seeing as how terrorist groups have been known to use them for recruiting and communication. But if there are good reasons this time for blocking the sites in question, they're unknown and unexplained.

That lack of explanation is cause for alarm. First, there's the impact on businesses. Intermediary guidelines proposed by the Department of Information Technology put the onus on service providers to remove any material that, in addition to endangering national security, "causes inconvenience or annoyance," is "grossly offensive or menacing in nature," or "belongs to another person." These open-ended guidelines mean service providers have to spend a good chunk of their time dealing with government officials to determine, say, what is offensive.

The larger impact is on the rule of law. The clumsiness with which New Delhi has blocked these sites undermines any legitimacy the laws have. Lawyers I've spoken with already say that the guidelines, which are open to wide interpretation, violate the country's constitution.

This legal debacle has implications beyond any immediate security concerns. Despite being a democracy with a vigorous free press, India can't afford to take freedom of speech for granted. The concern here is that a statute intended to protect the country from terrorism may also give new legal cover to people trying to restrict speech for other reasons.

Already, thanks in part to the lack of political support for free speech, varied groups hijack cracks or loopholes in the legal framework to their populist ends. For instance, a colonial-era law against religious insults was used in 2007 to appease Hindu nationalists who wanted the government to punish Muslim painter M.F. Hussain for depicting "Mother India" in the nude. That case suggests that the new ill-considered and badly implemented rules for online policing could be exploited by political or business interests.

India undoubtedly faces a serious terrorism problem. But New Delhi needs to defend itself through laws that don't end up impinging on free speech in damaging, undemocratic ways.

Mr. Bhatia is a writer with Open Magazine in Mumbai.

Read the original story here

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India Sets Strict New Net Neutrality Rules

praskrishna — 2016-02-11T01:53:19Z

In India, advocates of net neutrality have welcomed new rules by the telecom regulator that have blocked efforts by Facebook to offer free but limited access to the web in the country’s fast growing Internet market.

The article by Anjana Pasricha was published in Voice of America on February 9, 2016. Sunil Abraham was quoted.

In a widely awaited ruling, the Telecom Regulator Authority of India (TRAI) said on Monday that “no service provider shall charge differential pricing on the basis of application, platforms or websites or sources." It will impose penalties of $735 a day if the regulations are broken.

Kiran Jonnalagadda, who was among a group of 10 that launched an impassioned campaign called Save the Internet, says they have won a “fabulous” victory against large corporations to ensure equal web access for millions.

“We were up against the most powerful companies in the world, we had no chance of fighting Airtel last year, we had no chance of fighting Facebook. I think the only reason it worked is that we were on the side of facts, the opposition was not,” says Jonnalagadda.

Debate on Airtel

The campaign on net neutrality snowballed into a nationwide public debate after an Indian telecom company, Airtel, launched a marketing platform last April on which it planned to offer customers access with no data charges to certain Internet services and sites.

In recent weeks, the focus turned to “Free Basics”, a service being offered by Facebook on mobile phones to a handful of sites in areas such as communication, healthcare, and education.

Saying it wanted to vastly expand Internet access in poor, rural areas, Facebook had launched a massive advertising campaign in support of the platform. Only about 300 million in the country of 1.2 billion people have access to the net, many just through mobile devices.

But campaigners slammed Free Basics as “poor Internet for poor people” and said it would create a “walled garden” in which Facebook would control the content it offered users. Leading Indian technology entrepreneurs and university professors also called on the government to guard against attempts by Internet giants to turn the country into a “digital colony.”

Many of them have applauded the regulator’s move to strengthen net neutrality.

Ban on differential pricing

However, some are raising questions about the the complete ban on differential pricing announced by the regulator. That includes the Bangalore-based Center for Internet and Society research group, which says India has put in place the most stringent net neutrality regulations across the world. Its executive director, Sunil Abraham, says TRAI cited the examples of the Netherlands and Chile, but the ban on differential pricing in those countries is not as absolute as the one notified in India.

“We think that if proper technological safeguards and other market safeguards are put in place, it would be possible to have both — to have rapid growth in Internet access and reduced harm that emerge[s] from network neutrality violations,” says Abraham.

Indeed, the last word may not have been said on net neutrality in India as big telecom operators are expected to mount legal challenges to the regulator’s ruling in the coming months.

Expressing disappointment with India’s ruling, the Cellular Operators Association of India has called the ban on differential pricing a “welfare reducing measure” that could block an avenue for “less advantaged citizens to move to increased economic growth and prosperity by harnessing the power of the Internet.”

In a statement, Facebook has said “we will continue our efforts to eliminate barriers and give the unconnected an easier path to the Internet.”

But after having tasted victory, the volunteers at Save the Internet, who have grown from about 10 to 100 in the last year, have already set their sights on another aspect of net neutrality besides differential pricing.

“The campaign is not going to retire because this is not the end of it. There is also discrimination on the basis of speed, which the regulator has not taken up yet,” says Jonnalagadda.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/voice-of-america-anjana-pasricha-february-9-2016-india-sets-strict-new-net-neutrality-rules

India sees biggest improvement in Internet freedom, says report

praskrishna — 2014-12-07T11:08:34Z

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

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

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

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

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

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

A low score indicates higher Internet freedom.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Apoorva contributed to this story.

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

India Seeks to Limit Use of Maps and Satellite Images

praskrishna — 2016-05-28T12:38:45Z

Indians are discussing a plan to ban use of maps or satellite images of the country without approval from the government.

The plan’s critics have launched an online campaign called “Save The Map.” They say the proposed ban could affect many new businesses and services that use technology. The Geospatial Information Regulation Bill would require anyone who wants to use, publish or own maps or geospatial data to seek official permission. A special security committee would consider such requests. Indian officials say the proposed law would help protect military bases from enemies and terrorists. They deny it would cause problems for businesses.

But Internet experts say the law would affect anyone who uses mobile phones, laptop computers and online companies, such as ride services. They also fear that the ban would affect computer software programs and Apple or Google Map products. The Center for Internet and Society (CIS) in Bangalore also has criticized the bill. It says the measure would return India to where it was more than 30 years ago -- when businesses were forced to get licenses from government officials before they could begin to operate. Pranesh Prakash works at the center.

“What it does (is) it puts in place a license raj for all use of mapping technologies. That just does not make sense. No other country in the world has this regressive mapping law.” Technology experts from Bangalore launched the “Save The Map” campaign. It is calling on Indians to demand that the government change the planned law. The campaign is hoping to copy a successful campaign called “Save The Internet,” which pressured the government to ensure equal access to the Internet.

Indian officials have sought to calm critics, saying the bill is not final. The government has asked people to give ideas on how it should be changed by June 4. Officials note the country is dealing with an increasing number of security issues, including an attack at an air base in northern India earlier this year. Terrorists based in Pakistan were said to have carried out the attack. Junior Home Minister Kiren Rijiju told a newspaper that the law is needed because India must have ways to “secure its boundary and territory.”

But Prakash notes that the measure would not stop terrorists from using geospatial data from sources outside India. “They need satellite imagery and they need maps, period. Now this law doesn’t actually prevent such maps from being created, it doesn’t actually prevent satellite images of India being captured. What it does is prevent Indians from doing so. So it actually won’t prevent foreign-based terrorists -- especially state-backed terrorists -- from attacking India.” Internet and policy experts say the government would not be able to stop others from creating maps or satellite images of sensitive locations in the country.

I’m Anne Ball.

Anjana Pasricha reported this story from New Delhi for VOANews.com. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. Read the original published by Voice of America on May 27, 2016

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/voice-of-america-may-27-2016-india-seeks-to-limit-use-of-maps-and-satellite-images

India seeks a tighter grip on social media

praskrishna — 2012-08-25T03:02:35Z

India, with the world's third largest number of Facebook users, is clamping down on social media after recent posting of inflammatory videos on Web sites.

Published in United Press International on August 24, 2012. Pranesh Prakash is quoted.

But the United States urged New Delhi to find the right balance between freedom of speech and the need to maintain law and order, a report by The Times of India said.

The government's move to block sites it deems unacceptable comes after doctored videos showing apparent violence against Muslims in Assam created violent panic.

While officials say they believe the videos originated on Pakistani blogs, the issue highlighted the uneasy relationship between freedom of speech on the Internet and the government's need to damp down inter-ethnic tensions.

Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh said New Delhi will be raising the issue with Pakistani officials.

"I am sure they (Pakistan) will deny it but we have fairly accurate technical evidence to show that the images originated and were circulated from their territory," he said.

Last week Indian federal and state ministers as well as police authorities watched closely as Assamese Muslims living and working in Bangalore engulfed the train station seeking train ticket home after rumors of the Web site information swept through their community.

Rail authorities and train companies in Bangalore, in the southwest state of Karnataka, put on extra trains to Assam in the northeast to cope with the influx of people who said they feared an outbreak of ethnic violence.

Twitter promised to cooperate with the government after the Prime Minister's Office complained to it about objectionable content on six accounts resembling the PMO's official account, a Press Trust of India report said.

Twitter said it was "actively reviewing" the request and will seek information from the Ministry of Communication and IT "to locate the unlawful content and the specific unlawful tweet," the PTI report said.

Facebook said it will comply with requests from Indian authorities but only where posts broke its existing rules that apply in all countries, a report by the BBC said.

"We have received requests from Indian authorities and agencies and are working through those requests and responding to the agencies," Facebook said. "Content or individuals can be removed from Facebook for a variety of reasons including issuing direct calls for violence or perpetuating hate speech."

At stake for many Internet service providers, site developers and proxy servers is a slice of one of the world's potentially most lucrative advertising markets.

A report by Businessweek in May said India will have more users of Facebook -- which opened an office in India in 2010 -- than any other country by 2015.

India has around 46,300,000 Facebook users,Socialbakers, a social media analytics firm in London, says. This makes India the third-biggest Facebook market behind second-place Brazil with just more than 48 million users and first-place United States with nearly 157 million.

The growth of users in India is around 22 percent a month and will match the United States by the end of 2014, each having around 175 million users, Socialbakers said.

However, the United States has voiced concern that India may overstep a censorship mark in its attempt to stamp out offensive Web sites.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington has been monitoring the situation of Assamese Indians flooding back to Assam from southern India because of concerns about their personal safety.

The U.S. government is "going to obviously watch and see how that process goes forward."

"We are always on the side of full freedom of the Internet," Nuland said in a report by The Times of India.

"But as the Indian government continues to investigate these instances and preserve security, we also always urge the government to maintain its own commitment to human rights, fundamental freedoms, rule of law."

Nuland also said the U.S. government maintained "open lines to our own companies in India, as we do around the world, and we are obviously open to consultation with them if they need it from us."

The weight of the law may be against most of Internet intermediaries, Pranesh Prakash, a lawyer at the Bangalore-based Center for Internet and Society, said.

"The rules are very onerous on intermediaries, since they require them to act within 36 hours to disable access to any information that they receive a complaint about," Prakash wrote in an article The Indian Express newspaper in May 2011.

Any "affected person" according to technology laws can complain about issues including defamation, blasphemy, trademark infringement, threatening the integrity of India, disparaging speech or the blanket "in violation of any law."

It isn't mandatory to give the violator an opportunity to be heard before taking down their content.

"Since intermediaries would lose protection from the law if they didn't take down content, they have no incentives to uphold freedom of speech," Prakash said.

"They instead have been provided incentives to take down all content about which they receive complaints without a considered evaluation of the content."

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/www-upi-com-aug-24-2012-india-seeks-a-tighter-grip-on-social-media