Centre for Internet and Society

Roundtable with the WhatsApp leadership

Admin — 2019-07-30T00:33:15Z

Will Cathcart, WhatsApp's new global head, visited India and invited Sunil Abraham for a discussion on 26 July 2019 at the Mountbatten, The Oberoi, New Delhi. Sunil met with some other people from WhatsApp leadership.

Discussions took place on the changing policy landscape in India. The event was a free flowing off the record discussion for about an hour between Will Cathcart and representatives of leading civil society organizations.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/roundtable-with-the-whatsapp-leadership

Facebook Data for Good in New Delhi

Admin — 2019-07-31T02:10:23Z

When data is shared responsibly with the communities that need it, it can improve well being and save lives. Anubha Sinha participated in a session organized by Facebook on 29 July 2019 at University of Chicago Center in New Delhi.

Click to download the brochure

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook-data-for-good-delhi

Facebook Data for Good in Bangalore

Admin — 2019-07-31T02:14:06Z

When data is shared responsibly with the communities that need it, it can improve well being and save lives. Shweta Mohandas participated in a session organized by Facebook on 25 July 2019 at Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook-data-for-good-in-bangalore

Comments to the ID4D Practitioners’ Guide

Yesha Tshering Paul, Prakriti Singh, and Amber Sinha — 2019-08-08T10:25:13Z

This post presents our comments to the ID4D Practitioners’ Guide: Draft For Consultation released by ID4D in June, 2019. CIS has conducted research on issues related to digital identity since 2012. This submission is divided into three main parts. The first part (General Comments) contains the high-level comments on the Practitioners’ Guide, while the second part (Specific Comments) addresses individual sections in the Guide. The third and final part (Additional Comments) does not relate to particulars in the Practitioners' Guide but other documents that it relies upon. We submitted these comments to ID4D on August 5, 2019. Read our comments here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-to-the-id4d-practitioners2019-guide

The Appropriate Use of Digital Identity

amber — 2019-08-08T10:24:40Z

As governments across the globe implement new, foundational, digital identification systems (“Digital ID”), or modernize existing ID programs, there is dire need for greater research and discussion about appropriate uses of Digital ID systems. This significant momentum for creating Digital ID in several parts of the world has been accompanied with concerns about the privacy and exclusion harms of a state issued Digital ID system, resulting in campaigns and litigations in countries such as UK, India, Kenya, and Jamaica. Given the very large range of considerations required to evaluate Digital ID projects, it is necessary to think of evaluation frameworks that can be used for this purpose.

At RightsCon 2019 in Tunis, we presented working drafts on appropriate use of Digital ID by the partner organisations of this three-region research alliance - ITS from Brazil, CIPIT from Kenya, and CIS from India.

In the draft by CIS, we propose a set of principles against which Digital ID may be evaluated. We hope that these draft principles can evolve into a set of best practices that can be used by policymakers when they create and implement Digital ID systems, provide guidance to civil society examinations of Digital ID and highlight questions for further research on the subject. We have drawn from approaches used in documents such as the necessary and proportionate principles, the OECD privacy guidelines and scholarship on harms based approach.

Read and comment on CIS’s Draft framework here.

Download Working drafts by CIPIT, CIS, and ITS here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-appropriate-use-of-digital-identity

Holding ID Issuers Accountable, What Works?

Shruti Trikanad and Amber Sinha — 2019-08-08T10:23:58Z

Together with the Institute of Technology & Society (ITS), Brazil, and the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT), Kenya, CIS participated at a side event in RightsCon 2019 held in Tunisia, titled Holding ID Issuers Accountable, What Works?, organised by the Omidyar Network. The event was attended by researchers and advocates from nearly 20 countries. Read the event report here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/holding-id-issuers-accountable-what-works

Design and Uses of Digital Identities - Research Plan

Amber Sinha and Pooja Saxena — 2019-08-17T07:58:44Z

In our research project about uses and design of digital identity systems, we ask two core questions: a) What are appropriate uses of ID?, and b) How should we think about the technological design of ID? Towards the first research question, we have worked on first principles and will further develop definitions, legal tests and applications of these principles. Towards the second research question, we have first identified a set of existing and planned digital identity systems that represent a paradigm of how such a system can be envisioned and implemented, and will look to identify key design choices which are causing divergence in paradigm.

Read the research plan here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/digtial-identities-research-plan

Privacy Matters — Analyzing the "Right to Privacy Bill"

Natasha Vaz — 2012-04-28T04:10:12Z

Privacy India in partnership with International Development Research Centre, Canada, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, the Godrej Culture Lab, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore is organising "Privacy Matters", a public conference at IIT, Bombay on 21 January 2012.

The conference will focus on the questions and dilemmas posed by privacy in India today, with a concentration on the "Right to Privacy Bill". The right to privacy in India has been a neglected area of study and engagement. Although sectoral legislation deals with privacy issues, India does not as yet have a horizontal legislation that deals comprehensively with privacy across all contexts. The absence of a minimum guarantee of privacy is felt most heavily by marginalized communities, including HIV patients, children, women, sexuality minorities, prisoners, etc. — people who most need to know that sensitive information is protected.

Privacy India was established in 2010 with the objective of raising awareness, sparking civil action and promoting democratic dialogue around privacy challenges and violations in India. One of our goals is to build consensus towards the promulgation of comprehensive privacy legislation in India through consultations with the public, legislators and the legal and academic community.

The event will focus on discussing the challenges and concerns to privacy in India. We invite you to attend the meeting and contribute your views. Please confirm your participation by getting in touch with Natasha (natasha@cis-india.org). We sincerely hope that you will be able to attend and look forward to your participation.

Agenda

09:30- 10:00	Registration
10:00- 10:30	Welcome- Privacy in India Prashant Iyengar is a practicing lawyer and lead researcher for Privacy India. He will present who Privacy India is, and the objectives of Privacy India's research. His presentation will focus on discussing privacy in India.
10:30- 11:15	Key Note Address- Draft Privacy Bill Critique Na. Vijayashankar is an e-business consultant. He established the premier Cyber Law information portal in India. He is the founder secretary of Cyber Society of India, Founder Trustee of International Institue of Information Technology Law, and Founder Chairman of Digital Society Foundation. He will present a critique of the Draft Privacy Bill.
11:15- 11:30	Tea Break
11:30- 12:15	Session I Privacy and the Legal System Sudhir Krishnaswamy is an Assistant Professor at the National law School of India University and is currently writing a Doctoral Thesis at the Faculty of Law, Oxford University on ‘The Basic Structure Doctrine in Indian Constitutional Adjudication’. His presentation will look at the trajectory of privacy through the years from a legal perspective.
12:15- 13:00	Privacy and Constitutional Law N. Nappinai is an advocate who specializes in IP and technology laws. She is a founder member of Technology Law Forum (TLF). She has spearheaded and driven several initiatives of TLF with various organization including NASSCOM, FICCI, IMC etc., and has also conducted several workshops and training sessions for the Mumbai Police, Public Prosecutors & Industry verticals in Cyber Laws. Her presentation will define the scope of Article 21 under the Indian Constitution, which protects the right to privacy.
13:00- 13:15	Discussion
13:15- 14:00	Lunch Break
14:00- 14:45	Session II Privacy and Freedom of Expression Apar Gupta is an advocate who specializes in intellectual property, electronic commerce law and technology media and telecoms. He holds a master from Columbia Law School and has authored a Commentary on the Information Technology Act, 2000. His presentation will focus on the limits of a privacy right when it competes and conflicts with the freedom of speech and expression. He will examine certain provisions of the Draft Privacy Bill questioning how privacy arguments may be used to stifle debate or disclosure made in the public interest.
14:45- 15:30	Sexuality Minorities and Privacy Danish Sheikh graduated from Nalsar University of Law with a B.A., LL.B. (Hons.). Currently, he is a researcher at the Alternative Law Forum in Bangalore. He will examine the status of sexual minorities in the light of privacy framework in India. Culling out some real life examples based on various studies, media reports and judgments from the Supreme Court and the High Courts of Delhi and Allahabad, he will bring to light the privacy violations being committed by both individuals as we all state authorities.
15:30- 15:45	Discussion
15:45- 16:30	Session III Privacy and National Security Menaka Guruswamy practices law at the Supreme Court of India. She was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, a Gammon Fellow at Harvard Law School, and a gold medalist from the National Law School of India and has law degrees from all three schools. Menaka has advised the United National Development Program and the United Nations Development Fund for Women. She will discuss the relationship between national security and privacy, from the perspective of surveillance by the state etc.
16:30- 17:15	Privacy and UID R. Ramkumar is a Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He is advocate as well as a patent and trademark attorney. His presentation will focus on what standards of privacy are afforded within the UID system.
17:15- 17:30	Tea Break
17:30- 18:00	Discussion and Questions

	Organizers
	Privacy India Privacy India was established in 2010 with the objective of raising awareness, sparking civil action and promoting democratic dialogue around privacy challenges and violations in India. One of our goals is to build consensus towards the promulgation of comprehensive privacy legislation in India through consultations with the public, legislators and the legal and academic community.
	Privacy International (https://www.privacyinternational.org/) Privacy International’s mission is to defend the right to privacy across the world, and to fight surveillance and other intrusions into private life by governments and corporations. PI has been providing citizens and policy-makers with the tools and perspectives to enable them to hold to account those who threaten privacy since 1990. PI has active associates and networks in 46 countries.
	The International Development Research Centre (www.idrc.ca/) Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is one of the world’s leading institutions in the generation and application of new knowledge to meet the challenges of international development. They help developing countries use science and technology to find practical, long-term solutions to the social, economic, and environmental problems they face.
	The Centre for Internet & Society (http://cis-india.org/) The Centre for Interenet & Society brings together a team of practitioners, theoreticians, researchers and artists to work on the emerging field of Internet and Society to critically engage with concerns of digital pluralism, public accountability and pedagogic practices, with particular emphasis on South-South dialogues and exchange.
	Partners
	The Godrej India Culture Lab (www.godrej.com) The Godrej India Culture Lab is an interdisciplinary space which aims to build knowledge networks and interpret the changes rapidly taking place in contemporary India by bringing together the best minds from global academia, business and the creative worlds working on different aspects of Indian society.
	IIT, Bombay (www.iitb.ac.in/) Established in 1958, IIT is recognised worldwide as a leader in the field of engineering education and research. It is reputed for the quality of its faculty and the outstanding calibre of students graduating from its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Over the years, there has been dynamic progress at IIT Bombay in all academic and research activities, and a parallel improvement in facilities and infrastructure, to keep it on par with the best institutions in the world.
	Tata Institute of Social Sciences (http://www.tiss.edu/) Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) offers higher professional education in the field of human service and applied social science research. The institute has gone beyond the initial concern of social work education, since its inception in 1936, to consistently contribute to the promotion of sustainable, participatory development and social justice. Through its work, the Institute facilitates strong linkages between education, research, field action and policy advocacy.

Speakers

1. Apar Gupta

2. Danish Sheikh, Alternative Law Forum

3. NA Vijayashankar, E-Business Consultant, Founder Secretary of Cyber Society of India, Founder Trustee of International Institute of Information Technology Law, and Founder Chairman of Digital Society Foundation

4. N S Nappinai, Advocate and Founder Member of Technology Law Forum

5. Prashanth Iyengar, Assistant Professor & Assistant Director, Centre for Intellectual Property Rights Studies, Lead Researcher with Privacy India, Bangalore; Legal Aid Manager with Rural Development Institute, Hyderabad; Researcher & Lawyer with Alternative Law Forum

6. R. Ramkumar, Assistant Professor, School of Social Sciences, Tata Institute of Social Sciences

7. Shishir Jha, Project Lead at Creative Commons India and Associate Professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

8. Menaka Guruswamy, practices law at the Supreme Court of India.

9. Sudhir Krishnaswamy, is an Assistant Professor at the National law School of India University.

Download the invitation [PDF, 988 kb]

Download the event poster [PDF, 2155 kb]
IIT Bombay Map http://www.iitb.ac.in/campus/howto/howtoget.html

VIDEOS

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/right-to-privacy-bill-conference

Proposed Intermediary Liability Rules threat to privacy and free speech, global coalition tells MeitY

Zaheer Merchant — 2019-03-20T15:56:51Z

“We respectfully call on you to withdraw the draft amendments proposed to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules in December. As published, the draft amendments would erode digital security and undermine the exercise of human rights globally.”

The blog post by Zaheer Merchant was published by Medianama on March 18, 2019.

A global coalition of 31 civil society organizations and technology experts has called on MeitY to reconsider the proposed amendments to the Intermediary Liability Rules, terming them a threat to privacy and free speech. In a letter to the ministry dated March 15, the coalition said that the proposed amendments “would harm fundamental rights and the space for a free internet, without necessarily addressing the problems that the ministry aims to resolve.” Some of the signatories are Centre for Internet and Society, SFLC.in, Internet Freedom Foundation, Government Accountability Project and Human Rights Watch, among others (A copy of the letter is attached at the bottom). The letter breaks down its reasons for opposing the proposed amendments:

1. Traceability would undermine security, lead to surveillance

Under the proposed guidelines, intermediaries would have to ensure ‘traceability’ of messages by providing information related to its originator and receivers. This, the letter argues, would force intermediaries to undermine the security of of their platforms and create a surveillance regime. “Undermining security features to ensure traceability would affect all users of that platform, not just those that are the subjects of the information request,” the letter reads. “… such wide and ambiguous powers… on interception of communications would directly harm the fundamental right to privacy of Indians and facilitate unchecked surveillance.”

2. Data retention antithetical to privacy, must go

The letter also states that the data retention mandate included in the draft guidelines is antithetical to privacy. The guidelines state that intermediaries must preserve content requested by law enforcement for 180 days or longer. This open-ended data retention, the letter argues, contradicts the principle of ‘Storage Limitation’ recommended by the Srikrishna Committee. “Provisions regarding storage limitation and data retention must not be included within the fold of the Intermediary Guidelines, and should be subject to parliamentary law-making,” the letter reads.

3. Proactive monitoring contradicts SC’s Shreya Singhal judgment, would result in censorship

The letter also criticizes the requirement that intermediaries proactively monitor and automatically delete ‘unlawful content’. “[This] would directly conflict with the legal standard laid down by the Supreme Court of India in the Shreya Singhal judgment, which holds that intermediaries should only be legally compelled to take down content on the basis of court orders or legally empowered government agencies,” the letter reads. It could also cause intermediaries to err in favor of takedowns, resulting in unnecessary censorship.

“With the upcoming General Elections in India and the imposition of the Model Code of Conduct on new policy decisions in place, we urge the government to not push through these amended regulations given their impact on fundamental rights and secure communications,” the letter concludes.

The proposed amendments to Intermediary Liability Rules

Released at the end of December 2018, the proposed amendments to the Intermediary Guidelines would modify guidelines under the Information Technology Act concerning intermediaries, ostensibly to prevent misuse of social media platforms and check the spread of fake news. Under India’s Information Technology Act, any entity, person or platform that receives, stores, processes, or transmits electronic information on behalf of another is considered an intermediary. These include social media platforms, cloud services, internet service providers, email service providers and more. For an intermediary to avoid liability for its users’ actions, it must comply with the proposed guidelines which are being amended to the following:

Traceability, and information within 72 hours: The new rules require platforms to introduce traceability to find where a piece of information originated. For this, platforms may have to break end-to-end encryption. The rules require the intermediary to hand over information or assistance to government bodies in 72 hours, including in matters of security or cybersecurity, and for investigative purposes. [Rule 3(5)]
Platforms with more than 50 lakh users are required to be registered under the Companies Act, have a physical address in the country, have a nodal officer who will cooperate with law enforcement agencies, etc. [Rule 3(7)]
Platforms have to pull down unlawful content within a shorter duration of 24 hours from the earlier 36 hours. They also have to keep records of the “unlawful activity” for 180 days – double the period of 90 days in the 2011 rules – as required by the court or government agencies [Rule 3(8)]
Platforms have to deploy tools to proactively identify, remove and disable public access to unlawful information or content. [Rule 3(9)]
The new rules insert a monthly requirement on platforms to inform users of the platforms’ right to terminate usage rights and to remove non-compliant information at their own discretion. [Rule 3(4)]

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/medianama-march-18-2019-zaheer-merchant-proposed-intermediary-liability-rules-threat-privacy-and-free-speech

IETF 104 Prague

Admin — 2019-04-12T01:04:47Z

Karan Saini and Gurshabad Grover participated in IETF 104 organized by IETF in Prague from 23rd March to 29th March 2019.

Karan Saini:

Attended and scribed for the Privacy Enhancements and Assessments Proposed Research Group (PEARG) session.
Attended and made interventions in the Stopping Malware and Researching Threats (SMART RG) research group session.
Attended: DNS Over HTTPS (DOH), Domain Name System Operations (DNSOP), Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Authentication and Authorization for Constrained Environments (ACE WG) group sessions
Attended side meetings: Public Interest Technology (PITG) and Web Packaging (webpack)

Gurshabad Grover:

Attended and made interventions in the Captive Portals (capport) and Registration Protocols Extensions (regext) working groups. Also attended the meetings of the Transport Layer Security (TLS), DNS Privacy, and DNS over HTTPS (DoH) working groups and the Privacy Enhancements and Assessments Proposed Research Group (PEARG). Additionally, attended the Public Interest Technology Group (PITG) and Centralisation of DNS Services side meetings.
At the meeting of the Human Rights Protocol Considerations (HRPC) research group, I presented an update to draft-irtf-hrpc-guidelines ('Guidelines for Human Rights Protocol and Architecture Considerations'), which I am co-editing with Niels ten Oever.
At the IETF Hackathon, I explored the use of differential privacy for privacy-preserving latency measurement in the QUIC protocol (with Amelia Andersdotter and Shivan Kaul Sahib). We will continue the research to see whether differential privacy techniques are viable/useful for IETF protocols.
Attended and made interventions in the Captive Portals (capport) andRegistration Protocols Extensions (regext) working groups. Also attended the meetings of the Transport Layer Security (TLS), DNS Privacy, and DNS over HTTPS (DoH) working groups and the Privacy Enhancements and Assessments Proposed Research Group (PEARG). Additionally, attended the Public Interest Technology Group (PITG) and Centralisation of DNS Services side meetings.
At the meeting of the Human Rights Protocol Considerations (HRPC)research group, I presented an update to draft-irtf-hrpc-guidelines('Guidelines for Human Rights Protocol and ArchitectureConsiderations'), which I am co-editing with Niels ten Oever.
At the IETF Hackathon, I explored the use of differential privacy forprivacy-preserving latency measurement in the QUIC protocol (with Amelia Andersdotter and Shivan Kaul Sahib). We will continue the research to see whether differential privacy techniques are viable/useful for IETF protocols.

For more information visit IETF website

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ietf-104-prague

Programme Officer - Privacy

amber — 2019-04-15T06:53:44Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is seeking applications for the position of Programme Officer, to undertake public policy research on privacy and related themes. For this position, we will hire one full time researcher, to be based in the Delhi office of CIS, for the duration of one year.

To apply for this position please write to amber@cis-india.org along with a CV, two writing samples and contact details of two references, Interested candidates are invited to send their applications at the earliest — latest by April 30th.

Organisation Profile

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfiguration of social processes and structures through the internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. Through its diverse initiatives, CIS explores, intervenes in, and advances contemporary discourse and practices around internet, technology and society in India, and elsewhere.

Privacy Research at CIS

While privacy has been a key subject of study for digital rights and development organisations in India for the last decade, recent and ongoing legal and policy developments have placed this issue at the forefront of human rights and regulatory research. CIS has conducted extensive research into the areas of privacy, data protection, data security, and was also a member of the Committee of Experts constituted under Justice A P Shah. CIS has also been cited multiple times in the Report of the Committee of Experts led by Justice Srikrishna. CIS values the fundamental principles of justice, equality, freedom and economic development and strongly advocates the right to privacy.

Over the next year, CIS intends to look at several research questions on data protection which may include the global experience with privacy enforcement, need for effective redressal mechanisms, documenting the design of business models and data flows, regulation of social media big data, how data of disadvantaged groups including children may be protected. Additionally, while we now have the Supreme Court’s unanimous and emphatic recognition of the fundamental right to privacy, there is a need for research enquiry into several issues such as a clarification of the scope of the Puttaswamy judgment, unpacking the different dimensions of privacy, how state actions interact with privacy.

The Role

Research and analysis: Literature review, policy design, detailed analysis of research topics
Knowledge management: Staying up-to-date on developments of interest to the project, and sharing/debating these with the team. Contributing to documentary and knowledge management processes
Policy outreach and stakeholder engagement: Supporting the project manager in the dissemination of research findings in innovative formats. Attending, planning and executing events
Writing op-eds, short notes, policy briefs and longer form academic writing for a range of audiences
Presentations and formal discussions: Preparing and delivering presentations to various audiences
Helping manage communications with stakeholders including international experts, regulators and policy makers
Managing interns and team: Managing work outputs with our interns; coordinating research with team members and the project manager

Qualifications and Skills

We are looking for professionals from law, regulatory theory and public policy backgrounds.

We are looking for candidates who are interested in studying the regulatory challenges of notice and consent, state capacity, how business models thwart privacy and the future of privacy post Puttaswamy.

This is a full-time position based out of Delhi. The position is for a duration of one year. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/jobs/programme-officer-privacy-2019

Stockholm Internet Forum 2019

Admin — 2019-06-05T04:15:00Z

Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) organized the Stockholm Internet Forum 2019 in Stockholm from 16 - 17 May 2019. Gurshabad Grover was a panelist in the discussion on 'Influencing Internet Governance' co-organised by Article 19. The other panelists were Sylvie Coudray (UNESCO), Grace Githaiga (Kictanet), J. Carlos Lara (Derechos Digitales) and Charles Bradley (GPD). The discussion was moderated by Mallory Knodel (Article 19).

Gurshabad's primary contributions were around the motivations for civil society organisations to participate in technical internet governance fora, and how their role has matured at such fora in the last couple of years. Gurshabad extends his thanks to the inputs of Akriti Bopanna and Arindrajit Basu primarily for their contributions around the motivations for civil society organisations to participate in technical internet governance fora, and how their role has matured at such fora in the last couple of years.

Click to view the agenda. See the concept note here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/stockholm-internet-forum-2019

ABLI Privacy Workshop

Admin — 2019-06-05T07:29:18Z

On May 21 and 22, 2019, Elonnai Hickok, participated in the ABLI privacy workshop along with side events in Singapore.

Click to view the agenda.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/abli-privacy-workshop

HillHacks 2019

Admin — 2019-06-05T14:41:44Z

Karan Saini was a speaker at HillHacks 2019 organized by HillHacks in Bir, Himachal Pradesh from May 24 to May 26, 2019.

Karan's talk was on using web applications for intelligence gathering purposes. For more info on the event, click here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/hillhacks-2019

India's Rs 400-crore Central Monitoring System to snoop on all communication

praskrishna — 2013-06-05T10:39:19Z

Latest reports confirm that the government's longstanding aim of initiating the Central Monitoring System in the country is materialising now.

This was published in Tech 2 on May 9, 2013. Pranesh Prakash is quoted.

The Times of India reports that the government began rolling out the project last month, and it lets them access all communication in the country – comprising online activities, phone calls, SMSes, social media conversations and even the geographical location of individuals. Using the Central Monitoring System, officials with the National Investigation Agency or tax officials will have access to "every byte of communication".

Pavan Duggal, an advocate with the Supreme Court, believes that the new system "is capable of tremendous abuse". He went on to say that the government hasn't revealed much on what it intends to monitor with this new system, and under what criteria.

The Centre for Development of Telematics has been given the task of putting this system in place to give government officials this crucial access to communication in the country. In his statement to the Parliament in December last year, IT minister Milind Deora had said that the Central Monitoring System will "lawfully intercept Internet and telephone services".

This system was initiated in the wake of the horrying bomb blast in Mumbai in November 2008. Post that incident, the government reportedly took on the task of making itself technologically adept to "eavesdrop on digital communications".

It would be important to quote here that the IT law – enacted in 2000, amended in 2008 and in 2011 – confers upon government officials the authority to intercept phone calls, SMSes, emails and even monitor websites. That, however, can only be done for "reasonable security practices and procedures".

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/tech-2-may-9-2013-indias-rs-400-crore-central-monitoring-system-to-snoop-on-all-communication