Centre for Internet and Society

Pervasive Mobile Technologies: Meet Our Mobile Devices!

jdine — 2012-12-21T07:48:40Z

As a part of the Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Marketplace research project, the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is researching 12 mobile phone devices to generate a better understanding of the intellectual property (IP) implications of pervasive mobile technologies available in the Indian market. This post is an introduction to our 12 mobile phones.

As detailed in my introductory blog on Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Marketplace Research Initiative, CIS will be conducting research on mobile technologies as a small off-shoot of the overall project. Pervasive technologies that can be purchased for less than USD 100 play an integral role in bringing access to knowledge to those that routinely face barriers to the consumption of information. However, their legality, particularly in terms of their use of IP, is unclear. In order to better understand the legal environment in which these technologies exist, CIS purchased 12 mobile phones to study the patent implications of their hardware, software and content.

Through examination, research, interviews and consultancies, we hope to create an in-depth documentation of each device, an extensive database or account of the patents implicated, and a number of narrower research avenues on topics related to IP, patents, and mobile technologies.

This blog post will serve as a brief introduction to our mobile devices. The information that I have compiled was discovered through shallow interaction with the phones — turning a device on and exploring the interface and content — which is why the documentation is not particularly extensive at this point. I have had difficulty identifying certain features of some of the phones, like which media formats they support or whether or not they are EDGE[2] — enable, but I am confident that I will be able to ascertain these specifications in the near future; however, certain features, like what OS (operating system) they run on and what chip set they are using, will require collaboration with experts to identify. The exploration is on-going, and more information will be posted as it is discovered.

Aside from all of the usual functions of a mobile phone (making calls, receiving calls, saving numbers, etc.), each of our mobiles devices possess what I have termed the "basics": dual GSM SIM capabilities with dual standby, the ability to connect to 2G networks, GPRS, a WAP browser (except device 011), bluetooth capabilities, a microSD slot, a dual camera (a camera that takes still photos and records video), an FM radio receiver and the ability to play .mp3 audio files and .mp4 video files, record audio and view .jpg images. Each phone also has a handful of various "utilities" and "extras" applications (such as an alarm, a calculator, a calendar, etc.) as well as at least one game. The full specifications of each phone will be provided in the near future, along with further pictures of each device.

As much of the research in this project pertains to the IP implications of the devices, we have decided to withhold the make and model of each device to shield the producers from any negative repercussions that could be the result of our research inquiries. They have been assigned the numeric code names 001 to 012.

Without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to our mobile phones:

001 - The Classroom in a Box

Price: Rs. 6,300.00 / $113.00

KEY FEATURES

Pico-Projector
Analog TV Receiver
MS Office Document Viewer


This bar-design feature phone has all of the basics with a few added bonuses: an analog TV receiver, viewer, and a built-in pico-projector that projects the mobile's screen onto any surface. Though this phone does not technically fall into our definition of pervasive technologies because of its price, it was the first mobile phone with a built-in pico-projector as well as an analog TV receiver available on the Indian market for less than Rs. 10,000 when it was purchased more than a year ago. Since then, other sub-USD100 pico-projector mobile devices have made an appearance on the Indian market, but each of those devices appear to have been discontinued and 001 continues to be the cheapest pico-projector mobile phone available for purchase.

002 - The Supercharger

Price: Rs. 2,499.00 / $45.00

KEY FEATURES

Solar Panel
Hindi Keyboard

	002 is a sleek candybar feature phone with a particularly interesting innovation. While it uses a standard lithium-ion battery that can be recharged via connection to a wall socket or electrical device (such as a laptop), it also has a built-in solar panel that can generate some charge as well. The solar panel technology is not yet very efficient—the panel would have to be placed in direct sunlight for multiple hours to fully charge the battery—but it represents an important step towards untethering mobile phones and mobile phone users from costly electricity infrastructure, a development that would have significant implications for rural populations who have unreliable access to electricity.

003 - The Networker

Price: Rs. 1,250.00 / $22.00

KEY FEATURES

Wi-Fi
Optical Trackpad
Secondary Forward-facing Camera
Support for 8 Languages


With a boxy, QWERTY-keyboard design and relatively small screen, 003 does not appear, at first glance, to be anymore than an average feature phone — but appearances can be deceiving. With a highly responsive optical trackpad, an analog TV receiver, BlackBerry-esque interface and WiFi capabilities, this mobile device packs some sophisticated technologies and features. Further, it is the only phone in our collection that can connect to the internet using WLAN networks. Considering that some of the other devices are much more complex — and expensive — than 003, the wide-spread exclusion of WiFi capabilities in our collection is intriguing. Is the choice to include or exclude mobile technology a matter of economics? Are cellular WiFi components expensive, and producers are choosing to exclude WiFi as a method of cutting costs? Is it simply a response to patterns of consumer demand? The WiFi questions will be explored in more depth in up-coming blog posts.

004 - The Linguist

Price: Rs. 2,250.00 / $40.00

KEY FEATURES

Android-like OS
Support for 14 Languages
Secondary Forward-facing Camera
Large Number of Pre-loaded Apps


Though it may be hard to believe at first glance, this mobile device was purchased for less than Rs. 2500. With its large internal memory, support for 14 different languages (including Tamil, Bengali and Hindi), and its large array of pre-loaded games and social media applications already set it apart from the less sophisticated mobiles in our collection, 004 also runs on a mysterious Android-like operating system similar to the popular MIUI Android ROM developed by the Chinese-based company Xiaomi Tech. This give it a very sophisticated interface with the look and feel of a smartphone, though the device itself lacks many of the capabilities that are often considered as smartphone criteria (GPS, high-speed internet access, push/pull email, Wi-Fi, an app store, etc.). Because this device, and others like it in our collection, have more sophisticated hardware, software and content than a generic feature phone, but are not as capable as a smartphone, I have taken to calling these devices "semi-smart".

005 - TV on the Go

Price: Rs. 1,450.00 / $26.00

KEY FEATURES

Analog TV receiver
Arabic Keyboard
Secondary Forward-facing Camera


Though it doesn't have any particular innovation that sets it apart from the other devices, 005 is a hardy QWERTY-design feature phone with all of the basics as well as a good collection of social media applications and an analog TV receiver. Though its keyboard can be programmed to write in English, Tamil, Arabic and Hindi script, the buttons have the Arabic abjad on them, which brings up the question of which market this mobile was originally designed for.

006 - The Spy

Price: Rs. 1,680.00 / $30.00

KEY FEATURES:

Secondary “Spy” Camera
Ability to behave as a modem via USB connection

	006 is an interesting candy bar feature phone. On initial examination, this mobile appears to be a completely generic feature phones with all of the basics, but nothing auxiliary. However, a more careful inspection will reveal a secondary camera with an unusual placement — instead of being place at the top of the screen like all of the other secondary cameras found on our devices, this camera is situated on the right hand side of the phone.

The manufacturer of this device actually refers to this secondary camera as a "spy" camera, and it is truly an appropriate name; from a distance, it looks more like a headphone jack than a camera, and its placement allows for photo and video to be taken without any suspicious movement or positioning by the user. The secondary camera has 1.3 megapixels and can take relatively high resolution photos and videos.

007 - The Semi-Smartphone

Price: Rs. 2,150.00 / $39.00

KEY FEATURES

Android-like OS (maybe MIUI)
USB Tethering
Push Email


Device 007 is a semi-smart touchscreen phone, and by far the most sophisticated device in our collection. We believe that it uses MIUI OS, which gives it a very similar look to Android and a functionality that is reminiscent of iOSx. While it doesn't have an app store, 007 is jam-packed with pre-loaded applications and can support a wide variety of file formats. Further, while the phone cannot connect to WLAN networks on its own; it can connect to WiFi by tethering to a networked device via USB connection.

008 - The Trendy

Price: Rs. 2,350.00 / $42.00

KEY FEATURES

Android-like OS
Support for 9 languages


Another mainstream look-alike, 008 runs the same unidentified OS as device 004 and has similar capabilities. Its plastic casing is a bit flimsy, but its "back", "home" and "list" buttons are touch sensitive. Its sophisticated OS and pre-loaded applications make it a semi-smart device.

009 - The Boombox

Price: Rs. 1,420.00 / $26.00

KEY FEATURES

Huge built-in speaker
Android-like OS

	Though it is less recognizable than some of the other devices, this mobile may have one of the significant smartphone qualifiers that our other devices lack: an app store — or what appears to be an app store. The app store icon itself is actually the icon for the Android app store, but the interface is completely different, and the only thing available for download is a handful of games. Interestingly enough, many of these games also make appearances on some of the other mobile devices (like fishing joy and tear clothes). Further, I would not call this phone semi-smart, as its interface is not particularly any more sophisticated than some of the other feature phones in our collection.

009 also features a large built-in speaker, the Opera Mini mobile browser and an Android-like OS, though this OS is less sophisticated than that of 004 and 008.

010 - 3D

Price: Rs. 1,440.00 / $26.00

KEY FEATURES

Android-like OS
Pre-loaded Stereoscopic (3D) videos
Support for 13 languages


This semi-smart touchscreen phone also has an Android-like operating system. Though it lacks an app store and push-email, it comes pre-loaded with a veritable smorgasbord of games and social media applications and supports 13 different languages. It also comes with a pair of 3D glasses and two short, very basic pre-loaded stereoscopic videos.

011 - The Mighty Mini

Price: Rs. 750.00 / $14.00

KEY FEATURES

Dual GSM SIM support
Best bang-for-your-buck for a basic mobile phone


At Rs. 750, this little feature phone was the least expensive phone we could find that still had almost all of the basics. Even without any extra features, it is still almost Rs. 200 cheaper than the majority of the most basic GSM dual SIM mobiles available on the formal Indian market[3]— and, in most cases, 011 has more capabilities than most of those devices. With .mp3 and .mp4 file playback, a dual camera, colour display, a WAP browser, MMS messaging support, two charging ports and Urdu and Hindi language support, this mobile phone personifies affordable accessibility to knowledge and media.

012 - The Pianist

Price: Rs. 1,550.00 / $28.00

KEY FEATURES

Touch piano
Two charging ports
Support for a multitude of audio, video and image formats

	012 is a basic candy bar feature phone with a particularly novel innovation: a touch piano. It is quite sensitive to touch and has a one octave range.

013 - The Indian Experience

Price: Rs. 2,100.00 / $38.00

KEY FEATURES

India specific content
Proprietary App Store

	This little touchscreen mobile is chockfull of “Indian-specific” content, including an application that links directly to an online portal where consumers can download “Hungama” videos, music and movies onto the phone—for a price. Many of the games also charge a monthly user fee, though interestingly enough, Angry Birds and Talking Tom Cat are pre-loaded and free to play. This phone also has a proprietary app store with a limited amount of mBounce4] applications and games available for purchase. I am not yet sure if this app store can be remotely updated with new apps, but the device can receive data vis USB connection, so it is possible that new applications can be added through direct file transfer. It also has keyboard support for English, Hindi and Tamil, but the interface cannot be set it appear in anything other than English.

[2]. Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution, also known as Enchanced GPRS (EGPRS) is a mobile phone technology that also improved data transmission on GSM networks. It is considered a pre-3G radio technology. Read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Data_Rates_for_GSM_Evolution
[3]. Information retrieved from www.flipkart.com. The prices shown here have been verified as being the same or very similar (though never more expensive) to the prices offered by each brand's official distributors. See Flipkart search links:

Mircomax: http://bit.ly/UW3q0U

Spice Mobility: http://bit.ly/V0DK9i

Karbonn: http://bit.ly/10DKKbz

Lava: http://bit.ly/TSxUzQ

[4] mBounce Ltd is a Hong Kong-based company that performs a variety of mobile phone application support services like proprietary in-house billing infrastructure for app stores, the pre-loading of applications and app stores, and application creation. They are MediaTek-nominated key partner in providing MRE (Maui Runtime Environment) App Store Solutions, but mBounce applications and software can also be placed on other mobile operating systems. You can read more about mBounce here: http://www.mbounce.com/?lang=eng&module=ltrbox&menu=m1&content=home and here: http://developer.mediatek.com/mre/en/partner/335

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-mobile-technologies-meet-our-grey-market-devices

Perumal Murugan and the Law on Obscenity

Japreet Grewal — 2016-08-09T13:01:03Z

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Personal Data, Public Profile

nishant — 2012-02-14T06:19:52Z

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The original article was published in the Financial Express

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

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

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

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

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

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

Concerns with the bill

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Concerns highlighted by JPC Members

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

Perché l'India ha tagliato internet al Kashmir

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

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

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

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

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

Blackout nelle comunicazioni

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

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

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

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

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

La crisi

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

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

Peoples Rights

praskrishna — 2016-01-12T01:46:58Z

People Rights

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/PeoplesRights.jpg

People voice their support for net neutrality, say Internet a utility not a luxury

praskrishna — 2015-05-08T01:56:28Z

As the campaign and support for net neutrality is picking up, Politicians, celebrities and a cross section of people are voicing their support for it. Net neutrality means all data and sites are treated and charged equally be it mobile app or any other app.

The blog post was published in IBN Live on April 13, 2015. Pranesh Prakash gave his inputs.

According to AIB whose video on net neutrality has gone viral, more than one lakh emails have been sent to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) through the website savetheinternet.in. This is in response to the regulator's call for public consultation.

MK Stalin, DMK treasurer: The Internet is changing India. For the first time there is a platform that gives equal opportunity for everyone to gain knowledge and reap economic benefits. TRAI, the government telecom regulatory body is proposing to change this by allowing telecom companies to allow preferential access to websites. If this is allowed, companies will be allowed to charge extra for commonly used services like Whatsapp, YouTube, web based voice calling and many more. This will also allow telcos to allow preferential treatment of websites, allowing the big companies to destroy start-ups and internet based small business by blocking or slowing them down. This goes against the very concept of the Internet where every legal website or service is considered equal. This attempt to increase the profits of the telecom companies by surrendering social gains should be condemned. I request the TRAI to dismiss this proposal and let the Internet continue to be a neutral medium which serves our country and community instead of a select few companies.

Tathagata Satpathy, Dhenkanal MP: My concern was that why should TRAI get involved with private profit making companies and give them the facility to become a profiteering company. While saying this we must remember that Internet is not free anywhere in the world. That is accepted. My issue is with TRAI which has not even bothered to reply to my letter, I do not know why TRAI is getting involved and it has put itself in a situation where its interntions are suspect.

Nikhil Pahwa, Editor and publisher of Medianama: Startups may have to get license to provide services in India. Another outcome is communications firms will buy license. Third outcome is TRAI will allow ISP's to make some sites slow.

Pranesh Prakash, cyber security expert: So what the TRAI is proposing is something that should have every single Internet user very worried. There is some truth at least to what companies like Airtel etc. are saying which is that there is a difference in the regular trade standard for the Internet services and the telecom operators. But the correct solution for that is not to increase and sort a new license raj for Internet services but rather to decrease those over onerous burdens.

Riteish Deshmukh, actor: Net neutrality is as important as Freedom of Speech. Our Basic Right

Siddharth Malhotra, actor: Save The Internet push for net neutrality, Internet is a utility not a luxury.

Parineeti Chopra, actress: Save the Internet! Net neutrality is crucial! Proud of you boyses!

Shekhar Ravjiani, singer: Time to stand up and take a stand. Time to fight for what's right. Head to savetheinternet.in to make a difference.

Raghu Ram, Ex Roadies judge: PEOPLE!! Your internet and freedom are under attack in India! Listen to the AIB boys and join the fight.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ibn-live-april-13-2015-people-voice-their-support-for-net-neutrality-say-internet-a-utility-not-a-luxury

People should resist enforcement of UID scheme, say experts

praskrishna — 2013-03-11T06:45:23Z

Internationally recognized expert on law and poverty Dr. Usha Ramanathan Saturday urged citizens of the country to question the enforcement of the UID scheme that has no legitimacy.

This was published in newzfirst on March 3, 2013. CIS organized a workshop at the event.

Addressing the gathering of people from various sections of the society at a workshop- The Unique Identity Number (UID), National Population Register (NPR), and Governance - organized by the ‘Centre for Internet and Society’ and the ‘Say No to UID Campaign’ Ramanathan said that the enforcement of UID scheme is unconstitutional and a mere a experiment on the population.

The scheme is full of ambiguity, confusions and suspicions; while UIDAI says it as voluntary, other government agencies and enterprises have made them mandatory. Neither the government nor the UIDAI officials have the satisfactory answers for the concerns of citizens, she said.

Saying that the ‘Data’ is one of the important properties today, she elaborated that how the individual’s privacy and confidential data was breached after sharing with many companies and agencies, despite the assurances from the authorities.

Emphasizing the resistance against enforcement of UID scheme, another speaker Col. Mathew Thomas of Citizen Action Forum Bangalore, said “If we don’t resist this scheme now, we are putting pushing poor people of the country into more vulnerable situation. We need to fight it by protests and legal means.”

The workshop also discussed the National Population register (NPR), its impact on citizenship and the governance, and how they are linked with national security.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/newzfirst-march-3-2013-people-should-resist-enforcement-of-uid-scheme-say-experts

People Should Have Right To Their Data, Not Companies, Says TRAI

Admin — 2018-07-29T05:44:51Z

Rules for protection of personal data in the telecom space are not sufficient, regulator TRAI said today while suggesting that consumers be given the right to choice, consent and to be forgotten to safeguard their privacy.

This was published by Bloomberg Quint on July 16, 2018. Pranesh Prakash was interviewed.

Recommending a series of measures of "privacy, security and ownership of data in telecom networks", the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India held that consumers are owners of their data and that entities controlling, processing their information are "mere custodians and do not have primary rights over this data".

"The Right to Choice, Notice, Consent, Data Portability, and Right to be Forgotten should be conferred upon the telecommunication consumers," TRAI recommended to the Department of Telecom. In order to ensure sufficient choices to the users of digital services, granularities in the consent mechanism should be built-in by the service providers, the regulator added.

TRAI has suggested that all entities in the digital ecosystem including telecom operators should transparently disclose the information about the privacy breaches on their websites along with the actions taken for mitigation, and preventing such breaches in future.

“This is the first time I’ve seen TRAI being bold enough to venture into this area,” said Pranesh Prakash, a policy director at the Centre for Internet Society. “There are many positives here in terms of the data protection regime that they want to set up,” he told BloombergQuint in an interview. “It talks about user choice, consent, about notice being mandatory and simplified in language that people understand rather than two hundred pages of legal forms.”

There are many things in it that law and technology nerds will rejoice over, for example, the need for greater amounts of encryption and asks DoT to revisit the limitations it has put on encryption because those limitations actually harm national security and user privacy.

Pranesh Prakash, Policy Director, Centre for Internet Society

Here are the highlights from the TRAI’s recommendation:

All entities in the digital ecosystem, which control or process the data, should be restrained from using meta-data to identify the individual users.
A study should be undertaken to formulate the standards for annonymisation/de-identification of personal data generated and collected in the digital eco-system.
Till such time a general data protection law is notified by the government, the existing rules/licence conditions applicable to TSPs for protection of users' privacy be made applicable to all the entities in the digital ecosystem.
The Right to Choice, Notice, Consent, Data Portability, and Right to be forgotten should be conferred upon the telecommunication consumers.
Data Controllers should be prohibited from using "preticked boxes" to gain users consent. Clauses for data collection and purpose limitation should be incorporated in the agreements.
Sharing of information concerning to data security breaches should be encouraged and incentivised to prevent/mitigate such occurrences in future.

The recommendations from TRAI come at a time when there are rising concerns around privacy and safety of user data, especially through mobile apps and social media platforms.

The regulator had issued a consultation paper entitled Privacy, Security and Ownership of Data in the Telecom Sector on Aug 9 last year and an open house discussion was held on Feb. 2. The TRAI had also invited comments and counter comments as part of the consultation.

(With inputs from PTI)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/bloomberg-quint-july-16-2018-people-should-have-right-to-their-data-not-companies-says-trai

People Driven and Tech Enabled – How AI and ML are Changing the Future of Cyber Security in India

Shweta Mohandas — 2018-03-11T15:30:50Z

On the 27th of February, Peter Sparkes the Senior Director, Cyber Security Services, Symantec conducted a webinar on the ‘5 Essentials of Every Next-Gen SOC’. In this webinar, he evaluated the problems that Security Operations Centers (SOCs) are currently facing, and explored possible solutions to these problems. The webinar also put emphasis on AI and ML as tools to improve cyber security. This blog draws key insights from the webinar, and explains how AI and ML can improve the cyber security process of Indian enterprises.

Introduction

In a study conducted by Cisco, it was found that in the past 12-18 months, cyber attacks have caused Indian companies to incur financial damages amounting to USD 500,000.

There is a need to strengthen the nodal agencies in an enterprise that can deal with these threats to prevent irreparable damage to enterprises and their customers. An SOC within any organization is the team responsible for detecting, monitoring, analyzing, communicating and remedying security threats. The SOC technicians employ a combination of technologies and processes to ensure that an enterprise’s security is not compromised. As instances of cyber attacks increase both in number and sophistication, SOCs need to use state of the art technologies to stay one step ahead of the attackers. Presently, SOCs face a number of infrastructural problems such as the low priority given to a cyber security budget, slower and passive response to threats, dearth of skilled technicians, and the absence of a global intelligence network for cyber-threats. This is where technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning are helping, by monitoring the system to identify cyber attacks, and analyse the severity of the threat, and in some cases by blocking such threats.

Evolution of Security Operations Centers

In the same study, Cisco looked at the evolution of cyber threats and how companies were using technologies such as AI and ML to ameliorate those threats. Another key insight the study brought out was that 53 and 51 percent of the subject companies were reliant on ML and AI respectively. One of the reasons behind AI and ML’s effectiveness in cyber security is their capacity not only to detect known threats but also to use their learnings from data to detect unknown threats. In his webinar, Peter Sparkes also stated that SOCs were evolving into a ‘people driven and tech enabled’ system.

People Driven and Tech Enabled

In the case of cyber security, which in itself is a relatively new field, technologies such as AI and ML are helping companies to not only overcome infrastructural barriers but also to respond proactively to threats. A study conducted by the Enterprise Strategy Group, revealed that one-third of the respondents believed that ML technology could detect new and unknown malware.

The study also stated that the use of machine learning to detect and prevent threats from unknown malware reduced the number of cases the cyber security team had to investigate.

Similarly, the tasks of monitoring and blocking which were earlier conducted by entry level analysts were now done by systems, using machine learning. Typically, the AI acts as the first monitoring system after which the threat is examined by the company’s technicians who possess the requisite skill set and experience. By delegating the time consuming task of continuous monitoring to an ML system, the technicians now have time to look at serious threats. In this way AI and humans are working together to build a stronger and responsive security protocol.

Detecting the Unknown

Cyber criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and in order to prevent attacks the monitoring systems (both human and automated) need to be able to detect them before the security is compromised. The detection of threats through AI and ML is done in a similar way as it is done for the identification of spam, where the system is trained on a large amount of data which teaches the algorithm to identify right from wrong.

There have been numerous cases of stealthy cyber attacks such as wannacry and ransomware, that have evaded detection by conventional security firewalls and caused crippling damage. There is also the need to use deception technology which involves automatic detection and analysis of attacks. This technology then tricks the attackers and defeats them to bring back normalcy to the system.

The systems that can handle threats by themselves do so by following a predetermined procedure, or playbook where the AI detects activities that go against the procedure/playbook. This is more effective compared to the earlier system where the technicians would analyse the attacks on a case by case basis.

AI and ML can help in reducing the time required to detect threats enabling technicians to act proactively and prevent damage. As AI and ML systems are less prone to make mistakes compared to human beings, each threat is dealt with in a prompt and accurate manner. AI systems also help by categorising attacks based on their propensity for damage. These systems can use the large volumes of data collected about previous attacks and adapt over time to give enterprises a strong line of defence against attacks.

Passive to Active Defense

Threat to cyber security can emerge even in seemingly safe departments, such as Human Resources. It is therefore important to proactively hunt for threats across all departments uniformly.

In order to detect an anomaly, the AI and ML system will require both large volumes of data as well as a significant amount of processing power, which is difficult for smaller companies to provide. A possible solution to improve defense is to have a system of sharing SOC data between companies, and thereby creating a global database of intelligence. A system of global intelligence and threat data sharing could help smaller companies combat cyber threats without having to compromise on core business development.

Use of AI in Cyber Security in India

In 2017, Indian enterprises were infected by two lethal cyber attacks called Nyetya that crept through a trusted software - Ccleaner and infected computers

. These attacks may just be the tip of the iceberg , since there may be many other attacks that might have gone unreported, or worse, undetected. Cisco reported that less than 55 per cent of the Indian enterprises were reliant on AI or ML for combating cyber threats. Although the current numbers seem bleak, there are a number of Indian enterprises that have recently begun using AI and ML in cyber security.

One such example is HDFC bank which is in the process of introducing an AI based Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC).

This CSOC is based on a four point approach to dealing with threats - prevent, detect, respond and recover. The government of India has also taken its first step towards the use of AI in cyber security through a project that aims to provide cyber forensic services to the various agencies of the government including law enforcement.

Indian intelligence agencies have also entered into an agreement with tech startup Innefu, which utilizes AI, to process data and decipher threats by looking at the patterns of past threats.

As India is increasingly becoming data dense both private and public organizations need to consider cyber security with utmost seriousness and protect the data from crippling attacks.

Conclusion

Enterprises have become storehouses of user data and the SOCs have a responsibility to protect this data. The companies’ SOCs have been plagued with several problems such as lack of skilled technicians, delay in response time and the inability to proactively respond to attacks. AI and ML can help in a system of continuous monitoring as well as take over the more repetitive and time consuming tasks, leaving the technicians with more time to work on damage control. Although it must be kept in mind that AI is not a silver bullet, since attackers will try their best to confuse the AI systems through evasion techniques such as adversarial AI (where the attackers design machine learning models that are intended to confuse the AI model into making a mistake).

Hence, human intervention and monitoring of AI and ML systems in cyber security is essential to maintain the defence and protection mechanisms of enterprises.

A few topics that Indian SOCs need to consider while using AI and ML :

1. The companies need to understand that AI and ML need human expertise and supervision to be effective and hence substituting people for AI is not ideal.

2. The companies need to give equal if not more importance to data security.

3. The companies need to constantly upgrade their systems and re-skill their technicians to combat cyber security threats.

4. The AI and ML systems need to be regularly audited to ensure that they are not compromised by cyber attacks and also to ensure that they are not generating false positives.

[]. Cisco, (2018, February). Annual Cybersecurity Report. Retrieved March 8, 2018, from https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/m/digital/elq-cmcglobal/witb/acr2018/acr2018final.pdf?dtid=odicdc000016&ccid=cc000160&oid=anrsc005679&ecid=8196&elqTrackId=686210143d34494fa27ff73da9690a5b&elqaid=9452&elqat=2

[]. Ibid.

[]. Enterprise Strategy Group (2017, March ). Top-of-mind Threats and Their Impact on Endpoint Security Decisions. Retrieved March 8, 2018 from https://www.cylance.com/content/dam/cylance/pdfs/reports/ESG-Research-Insights-Report-Summary-Cylance-Oct-2017.pdf

[]. Ibid.

[]. Vorobeychik,Y (2016). Adversarial AI. Retrieved March 8, 2018, from https://www.ijcai.org/Proceedings/16/Papers/609.pdf

[]. Quora. ( 2081, February 15). How Will Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning Impact Cyber Security? Retrieved March 8, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/02/15/how-will-artificial-intelligence-and-machine-learning-impact-cyber-security/#569454786147

[]. Sparkes, P. (2018, February 27). The 5 Essentials of Every Next-Gen SOC. Retrieved March 8, 2018, from https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/13389/303251/the-5-essentials-of-every-next-gen-soc

[]. PTI. ( 2018, February 21).Indian companies lost $500,000 to cyber.Retrieved March 8, 2018, from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/indian-companies-lost-500000-to-cyber-attacks-in-1-5-years-cisco/articleshow/63019927.cms

[]. Raval, A. ( 2018,January 30). AI takes cyber security to a new level for HDFC Bank.Retrieved March 8, 2018, from http://computer.expressbpd.com/magazine/ai-takes-cyber-security-to-a-new-level-for-hdfc-bank/23580/

[]. “The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is working on a project to provide cyber forensic services to law-enforcing and other government and non-government agencies.” Ohri, R. (2018, February 15. Government readies AI-muscled cyber security plan. Retrieved March 8, 2018, from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/government-readies-ai-muscled-cyber-security-plan/articleshow/62922403.cms utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

[]. Chowdhury, P.A. (2017, January 30). Cyber Warfare at large in Southeast Asia, India leverages AI for the same cause Retrieved March 8, 2018, from https://analyticsindiamag.com/cyber-warfare-large-southeast-asia-india-leverages-ai-cause/

[]. Open AI.(2017 February 24). Attacking Machine Learning with Adversarial Examples. Retrieved March 8, 2018, from https://blog.openai.com/adversarial-example-research/

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/people-driven-and-tech-enabled-2013-how-ai-and-ml-are-changing-the-future-of-cyber-security-in-india

People are Knowledge – Experimenting with Oral Citations on Wikipedia

praskrishna — 2012-12-14T10:26:31Z

The Centre for Internet and Society in association with the Wikimedia Foundation has produced a documentary film "People are Knowledge". The film evolved out of a project on Oral Citations in India and South Africa funded by the Wikimedia Foundation, and undertaken by Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board Member Achal Prabhala as a short-term fellowship, to help overcome a lack of published materials in emerging languages on Wikipedia. New Delhi-based filmmaker Priya Sen has directed the film, with additional assistance from Zen Marie who handled the shooting in South Africa. The film explores how alternate methods of citation could be employed on Wikipedia, documenting a series of specific situations with regards to published knowledge, and subsequently, with oral citations.

The Problem

Imagine a world with every individual having open access to the sum of human knowledge. But there is a problem — the sum of human knowledge is far greater than the sum of printed knowledge. For example, in India and South Africa, the number of books produced every year is nowhere near to the number of books being producing in UK. There is very little citable, printed material to rely on in the indigenous languages of India or South Africa. So it is difficult for the languages of these countries to grow its own Wikipedia. While there are significant media markets for Indian languages within and outside India, there is very little scholarly publishing in any language other than English. On the other hand, South African languages with the exception of English and Afrikaans have had a largely oral existence and only in recent times have started a publishing tradition, which is in nascent stages.

Total Production of Books in UK, South Africa and India as of 2005

UK: 161,000 books / 60 million people
South Africa: 6100 books/48 million people
India: 97,000 books/1100 million people

If we were to measure books produced in 2005 per person per country, the comparison is even more glaring:

UK: 1 book per 372 people
South Africa: 1 book per 7869 people
India: 1 book per 11,371 people

Source: Wikimedia page on Research: Oral Citations. For more details see here

As a result of such disparity, everyday, common knowledge — things known, observed and performed by millions of people — do not enter Wikipedia as facts because they haven’t been written down in a reliably published source. Hence, Wikipedia in countries like India and South Africa lose out on opportunities for growth.

While we are enthused about the rise of “small language Wikipedias”, it may not happen soon. Not with the present rules at least. Even if we were to convince every single person in the South with Internet access to become an active editor on Wikipedia, there is still a problem that they are going to run up against. That problem that currently bedevils everyone working in local languages in Asia and Africa, and nobody seems to have a control over it.

For Wikipedias in languages of the South, citations aren’t a problem when the articles being added are translations (for universally important topics, reliable citations are already there in English and other European languages). Assuming, however, that we all want the sphere of knowledge to be universally expanded — and not merely translated from languages of the North to languages of the South — there are two specific problems with finding citations for important local subject matters.

Published, citable resources may simply not exist. This is not just true of Sub-Saharan African languages (many of which use Latin script, have a relatively recent written history, and small or non-existent publishing markets) but also of several South Asian languages (even though they have non-Latin scripts, a relatively ancient written history and thriving publishing markets in news and entertainment).
Even when published scholarly resources exist, they may be inaccessible and thus effectively rendered invisible to Wikipedians. Libraries and archives in India and South Africa are usually not electronically indexed. Furthermore, they are not always conveniently located, and often impose a massive bureaucratic burden on the user to search, see, borrow from or even enter.

Oral Citations as a Possible Solution

Hindi Wikipedia has over 65,000 articles, Malayalam Wikipedia has about 15,000, and Northern Sotho Wikipedia has about 600. Many of these articles — especially when concerning subjects that are specific to a particular people or place — have no citations whatsoever. Yet, an editor — often several editors — created the articles in question. How? Simply put, and barring laziness and carelessness where citations are available, the basis of fact therein is orally circulated knowledge. Even today, in several parts of the world, people are knowledge. Therefore, an exercise where oral citations are collected and assembled — in a manner not different to that by which print sources are cited on Wikipedia, i.e., with diverse viewpoints, several sources, a rationale for authenticity — might be one way to capture this knowledge in a form that is recognisable to Wikipedia.

Anthropologists have been doing this for years — in the academy, it is called field work. The average Wikipedians certainly don’t have the capacity to replicate the arduous research programme of a doctoral student but they do have common sense and access to basic telecommunication facilities. So oral citations can:

Create externally verifiable authentication for a Wikipedia article that is based on experiential facts, but lacks citations simply because no printed source has recorded these facts to date.
Add to the set of published scholarly resources that document an existing fact, for example, in cases where the published sources are archaic or primarily foreign, and thus complete existing knowledge or correct its biases.

The Experiment

Achal Prabhala worked with Wikipedians across three languages in two different countries — Malayalam (40 million speakers) and Hindi (250 million speakers) in India and Northern Sotho (5 million speakers) in South Africa to see how oral citations might be received in the language communities they can benefit, discuss this idea with Wikipedians at large, not as a final solution but as a first step in understanding how we may expand our definition of reliable sources of knowledge beyond what is published in print, and what benefits such an expansion may bring and show this is an idea that takes hold, to create a set of clearly laid-out initial templates that others can use and build upon. Four collaborators: Shiju Alex, Mayur, Mohau Monaledi and Achal Prabhala, with additional help from Vijayakumar Blathur were finalised. Parts of the experiment were then filmed as an edited documentary.

The Pitfalls

There are numerous potential pitfalls[1] the most glaring of which is the principle of ‘No original research’. Naturally, we’re going to have to find a way to justify our approach, or work around it, or expand its meaning. Several people will welcome it, several people will object on all kinds of grounds, and several others possibly misusing and misinterpreting oral citations (i.e., without care to authenticity, diversity of opinion) in their work on Wikipedia.

However, this is the right thing to do. The problem is real. The solution being presented is a first step, not a final answer. Sure, people might have a problem with it, and sure, there may be heated objections to it; but overall, if it’s the right thing to do, it should be done, however strange it seems and however unsettling it is.

After all, if the status quo had to be respected absolutely, we wouldn’t have Wikipedia.

Note

[1]On a side note, Achal says that the pitfall to the pitfall is the status quo: literally thousands of articles without any citations whatsoever, a problem that no one notices because they’re in languages that the majority of current editors on Wikipedia do not understand – and a problem which is often overlooked by language communities in the south in favour of growth.

For recorded interviews, click here

Watch the movie below:

People are Knowledge (subtitled) from Achal R. Prabhala on Vimeo.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/people-are-knowledge

People

sunil — 2011-12-04T15:26:14Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/people

People

nishant — 2020-08-04T05:52:57Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) brings together a range of people with backgrounds in various disciplines who have made significant interventions and impacts in the newly emerging area of Internet and Society. Functioning through a model of collaborations, consultations and peer-networking, our works feature some of the most innovative and relevant ideas embodied by the different people we work with. We also undertake research, advocacy, and educational programmes which involve an extensive network of researchers, practitioners, artists, and institutions partnering with us intellectually and programmatically.

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Pension won’t be denied for want of Aadhaar, says EPFO

Admin — 2018-04-10T22:33:39Z

The move is aimed at ensuring that no retired government employee is deprived of pension for want of Aadhaar or failure of fingerprint authentication.

The article by Prashant K. Nanda and Komal Gupta published by Livemint on April 11, 2018 quoted Pranesh Prakash.

Tens of thousands of pensioners under the employees pension scheme will not be denied their monthly pension if their Aadhaar authentication fails or they do not have the 12-digit unique ID, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has indicated.

The retirement fund manager has asked banks and post offices to facilitate pension disbursement without making senior citizens do the rounds.

The move comes after EPFO received several complaints of denial of pension by banks.

For paying pension to those whose fingerprint authentication fails, “banks may make provisions for iris scanner, along with the fingerprint scanner in bank branches. It has been observed that in many cases, iris authentication is successful even though fingerprint authentication may have failed. This is particularly true for many senior citizens. In such cases, digital life certificate may be generated on the basis of iris authentication and pension may be given,” the EPFO said in a circular on Monday.

And when both iris and fingerprint authentication are not feasible, “an entry should be made in the exception register with reasons and pension may be provided on the basis of paper life certificate and physical Aadhaar card or E-Aadhaar card of the pensioner after due verification as deemed fit by the bank,” the circular said.

The move is aimed at ensuring that no senior citizen is deprived of pension for want of Aadhaar or failure of fingerprint authentication.

Banks have been advised to ensure that benefits of the pension scheme reach the citizens and a proper mechanism for “handling exceptions” is put in place.

“Banks should make special arrangements for the bed-ridden, differently abled, or senior citizens who are unable to visit the Aadhaar enrolment centre,” the circular said.

EPFO has also instructed pension disbursing banks and post offices to make necessary arrangements for enrolling pensioners for Aadhaar and to carry out authentication through iris, especially for those who cannot be verified through fingerprints.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has been under the scanner over the past few months over allegations of access to pension being denied as the fingerprints of the elderly do not match biometrics in the Aadhaar database.

So far, pensioners had to furnish a life certificate and needed to authenticate it using biometrics.

“The fact that it is coming now means that the Unique Identification Authority of India’s claim in the Supreme Court about no person having been denied any benefit due to the lack of Aadhaar is simply untrue,” said Bengaluru-based Pranesh Prakash, an affiliated fellow with the Yale Law School’s Information Society Project that works on issues related to the intersection of law, technology and society.

Prakash, however, welcomed EPFO’s move laying down “a procedure both for those who don’t have an Aadhaar number, as well as those whose biometrics fail for any reason”.

Prakash further said that “as per the UIDAI’s own data, failure rates for iris authentication are higher (8.54%) than for fingerprints (6%). So the utility of pushing for iris authentication is unclear.”

There are more than 1.2 billion Aadhaar holders in the country.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/livemint-prashant-k-nanda-and-komal-gupta-pension-wont-be-denied-for-want-of-aadhaar-epfo

Peng Hwa's Trip Report

praskrishna — 2015-03-08T15:14:32Z

Peng Hwa had visited CIS and he has written a trip report.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/peng-hwa-trip-report.pdf