Centre for Internet and Society

Yatharth

praskrishna — 2022-08-26T01:53:57Z

Yatharth

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

Yamini Aiyar

praskrishna — 2012-04-11T10:13:00Z

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

Yale

praskrishna — 2010-09-09T05:57:20Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/yale_logo.png

WWW: The Hackers’ Haven

praskrishna — 2015-02-05T02:20:04Z

In an increasingly connected world, it pays to be careful when sharing personal information

This story by Abraham C. Mathews was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 09-02-2015. Sunil Abraham gave his inputs.

Last year, Whatsapp changed its encryption algorithm several times and, every time, it was breached,” says Saket Modi, hacker, entrepreneur and CEO of Lucideus Technologies, which just created an app that monitors wayward activity on your smartphone. That’s geekspeak for: “Your WhatsApp chats, including deleted ones, would have been accessible to any hacker worth his salt”. And we are talking about a company that was valued at $19 billion at some point during the year. Only in November 2014 did WhatsApp finally embrace end-to-end encryption, which will ostensibly address the issue.

Or take the sales claim that every smartphone purchaser has heard — “Android is safe from virus.” That’s not, however, what a joint study by security solutions company Kaspersky and Interpol found. In the first half of 2014, 1,75,442 unique malicious programmes targeted at Android were discovered. Clearly a tribute to the platform on which 85 per cent of smartphones run.

In a TEDx talk last year titled ‘What’s physically possible in the virtual world’, Modi demonstrated how, with access to your smartphone for barely 20 seconds, he can see everything that has ever happened on your phone — text messages, call log, browsing history, and so on. He also showed how fraudulent emails could be disguised so as to appear to have come from a yahoo.com email address, and how you could be hacked even without being connected to the Internet. “There are only two kinds of people in the world,” he says. “Those who know they have been hacked and those who don’t.”

Epidemic Proportions
For cyber security, 2014 was annus horribilis. From celebrities whose intimate pictures were dumped on the Internet, to corporates such as Sony, JP Morgan and Target whose records were hacked into and personal information of millions of their customers compromised, it was the year when the proverbial shit hit the fan. Details (names, numbers, even favourite pizza toppings) of six lakh customers of Domino’s Pizza in France and Belgium were stolen for a $40,000 ransom. One hundred and ten million records (credit card details, social security numbers, along with addresses) from Target were stolen. The company later admitted that its sales were “meaningfully weaker” after the data theft was disclosed. One hundred and forty-five million records were stolen from eBay, 109 million from Home Depot and 83 million from JP Morgan during the year.

In 2013, a group that calls itself the Syrian Electronic Army hacked into Swedish company TrueCaller’s database. TrueCaller, an app, allows you to identify phone numbers. The data is collected from the contact list of those who download the app, which means, it even has details of those who haven’t downloaded or used the app in any way. Estimates put the number of Indians whose numbers could have been stolen at a million.

Cyber security is not yet a boardroom topic, says Anil Bhasin, MD, India & Saarc, Palo Alto Networks, which claims to create comprehensive security solutions for users but is fast becoming one with the increase in security breach incidents. Enterprises still use legacy technology that at times is 20 years old, he says, giving the example of banks that sometimes have a layer-3 staple inspection firewall, when they should ideally be running on layer-7.

When companies store your information, you also benefit. For example, when an e-commerce company does so, online shopping becomes faster and easier. But these companies should invest in measures to protect the information, says Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore. But then again, he says, a lot of breaches, like the celebrity iCloud hack, happen because users are negligent with measures designed to protect them. Passwords, for instance.

A Pew Research report found that only four out of 10 Internet users changed passwords after the ‘heartbleed’ virus (which found a way to unlock encrypted data) was uncovered in April 2014. Only 6 per cent thought their information was stolen. But, in August, it emerged that a Russian crime ring had amassed 1.2 billion user name-password combinations of 500 million email addresses from 4,20,000 websites. A Kaspersky study found that the number of malicious programmes detected rose 10 times in just six months to 6,44,000 in March 2014. This shows the call for vigil cannot not be more critical.

Interestingly, your online financial payments may be relatively more secure, thanks to Reserve Bank of India’s dogged persistence in continuing with the two-step verification process for electronic payments (a one-time password and PIN verification). The central bank drew a lot of flak for barring taxi app Uber from storing payment information and automatically deducting charges at the end of a ride. But Modi isn’t impressed. He likens the two-step verification to a batsman going onto the pitch wearing just a helmet. “The rest of your body is still exposed,” he says.

Easy Targets
Here’s one easy hack that Modi describes. Any app that you download from the app store on your phone asks for a set of permissions, which mostly come as an ‘all or nothing’ option. You either grant all the access it asks for, or you can’t download the app. Suppose, you grant a scrabble app access to your text messages. Your number can then be accessed by the app provider. Now think about how your banking transactions are verified — with a one-time password sent as a text message. With access to your text messages, entering that password would hardly be a challenge for hackers, says Modi. Or, suppose you were to set up a new WhatsApp account with that same number. The verification, like we all know, comes through a one-time password sent to your number. With access to your text messages, the hacker is given a virtual key to your entire WhatsApp history.

Or, take for instance, an app that requests access to your SD card (the storage card in your phone). With that permission, the app gets access to everything on your SD card, including your most private photos. Modi’s company Lucideus recently came out with an app, UnHack, that scans your phone to see which apps can access what data. If you use the app, you will find that not only can Facebook access the call logs on your phone, but apps like Wunderlist (which organises to-do lists) and Pocket (which stores articles for future offline reading) can access your contacts as well. The apps from TED (of TED Talks fame) as well as Flipkart can see as well as edit your personal photos and documents.

Companies —Uber, for instance — have in the past been found to be frivolous with data collected. Late last year, Uber greeted a Buzzfeed reporter who had arrived at the company’s New York headquarters with “There you are — I was tracking you”. No prior permission was sought. A venture capitalist, Peter Sims, had written earlier that his exact whereabouts in New York were displayed to a room full of people as part of a demonstration at a company event in Chicago.

Information Overload
Adam Tanner, a Harvard fellow and a Forbes columnist, was at an annual conference of the Direct Marketers Association, where he noticed a list of names of 1.8 million people with erectile dysfunction (ED), along with their email addresses and numbers. The organisers claimed the details were volunteered by the people themselves. Knowing that ED is something that men rarely admit to, he made the organisers an offer — “Let me purchase a list of a thousand people, and write to them to see if they know that they are on such a list.” The organisers refused, saying it would be an immoral use of their data. From this, one can tell that the information came from websites that took their details, promising a cure.

This, and other similar anecdotes made their way to his recent book, What Stays in Vegas, which deals with the world of personal data and the end of privacy as we know it. When Tanner meets Indians, he brings up matrimonial websites. What surprises him is the volume of information that people disclose. To westerners, details such as sub-caste or blood type, as well as in many cases the admission that a person is HIV+ is an outright breach of privacy. That people would volunteer to put this out in public is shocking. “When you are looking for a suitable match, giving the information may be important at the moment, but you must not forget that once something is on the Internet, it can never be completely deleted,” he warns.

But what is the problem if somebody has all the details, you may ask. Is the potential risk greater than the possibility of a perfect match? A PTI report from 2009 talks about a confession by an Indian Mujahideen operative who used information from such sites to get a student identity card as well as a driving licence. Mukul Shrivastava, a partner in the forensic practice at EY, gives you another alarming scenario. Let’s say somebody trawls your Facebook, what is the amount of information that such a person can get access to? Your daily routine, your physical movement, your favourite restaurant or whether you will be at home at a certain time (from a status message like “Can’t wait to watch the Devils trouncing Liverpool at ManU Café tonight!”). Even if a physical attack is not on the agenda, much of the information can be used to guess security questions (favourite cat, first school) and find out required details for phone banking (date of birth, email address, mother’s name). An HDFC Bank official says there is a rise in vishing (the voice equivalent of phishing) attacks, where people with access to bank account numbers as well as personal details pose as bank executives and lure customers with special benefits and convince them to divulge their banking passwords.

Security is an individual’s responsibility, says Sunil Abraham. “You have to remember that you have volunteered to put the information online,” he says. Information once put online is not private anymore. It’s like making an announcement in a large hall that is broadcast on TV. That’s what the Internet is. And once the Internet gets to know, it can never really be forgotten, says Vishnu Gopal, chief technology officer at MobME, a mobile value-added services provider. It will be available on some weblink or at least on archive.org, which claims to have ‘435 billion pages saved over time’.

While reclaiming lost information might be difficult, one can still reclaim privacy. Both Facebook and Gmail have options to disable monitoring by other applications. It might be worthwhile to pay the permissions page a visit. Routine password changes, as well as keying them in every time (rather than saving them on the system) might be worth the trouble. That said, nothing works like caution.

An Attacking Refrigerator!
A year ago, Proofpoint, a US-based security solutions provider, noticed an unusual type of cyber attack. Emails were sent in batches of about a lakh, thrice a day, aimed at slowing down large enterprises. What was unique about this attack was that upto 25 per cent of the volume was sent by devices other than computers, laptops, mobile phones or such devices. Instead, the emails came from everyday consumer electronic items like network routers, televisions, and at least one refrigerator, according to the company, with not more than 10 emails from any one device, making the attack difficult to block. This is now known as the first Internet of Things or IoT-based attack, where connected everyday-use devices are hacked into and used as cyber weaponry.

With the IoT, you have devices talking to one another, opening up multiple places to be breached, says MobME’s Gopal. From your shoe to T-shirt, everything becomes a potential bot. India should be concerned. Research by securities provider Symantec says India tops the list of countries wherein Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks originate. DDoS attacks are those where hundreds of bots target a website (say, an e-commerce company) on its big discount day, thereby slowing down traffic to the site. The report says a bot’s services can be bought for as low as Rs 300 to bring down a site for a few minutes. Monthly subscription plans are available for lengthier attacks.

Corporates can never be too careful, feels Shrivastava who, as part of his investigations, comes across several instances where companies are hacked into because of lack of best practices. How many companies have blocked pen drives on office machinery, he asks. In a tiny device, a humungous amount of data can be stolen. Till the first incident happens, nobody realises the importance of security, he says. For example, at EY, the IT security does not permit copying of the text of emails by the recipient. Recent reports suggest that the JP Morgan security breach was the result of neglect of one of its servers in terms of a security upgrade.

According to a study by Microsoft, the estimated loss to enterprises from lost data in 2014 was $491 billion.

You Against The Mafia
The fight really is about who’s weaker, says Altaf Halde, managing director, Kaspersky Lab-South Asia. “The problem here is the consumer.” Nothing excuses us from not protecting ourselves. That includes getting an anti-virus installed, but most people often disable it when it flags a particular activity that we want to pursue online.

Halde also brings up the BYOD (bring your own device) culture that is taking root. Asking employees to bring their own devices could help cut costs for a company, but that also brings in their inadequate protection, which could potentially translate into a much higher cost to the company, he says.

On the other side of the ring is the virtual underground mafia that profits from all types of data that get compromised — details of one’s sexual preferences, favourite restaurants or credit card details. Modi says in underground circles, the going rate for a stolen credit card number is $2.2 for a Visa, $2.5 for a MasterCard and $3 for an AmEx number. Transactions are made through crypto-currencies such as bitcoins, making them virtually untraceable.

As Modi says, the ideal scenario would be for all of us to throw away our smartphones and live an entirely offline existence. “But since that isn’t feasible, let’s embrace the risk, but with adequate measures to ensure that we are not affected.”

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-world-9-2-2015-abraham-c-mathews-www-the-hackers-haven

WSIS+10 High-Level Event: Open Consultation Process

praskrishna — 2014-06-04T10:14:01Z

Jyoti Panday represented the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) at the WSIS+10 High-Level Event:Open Consultation Process held in Geneva from May 28 to 31, 2014.

The Fifth Physical Meeting marked Phase Six of the Open Consultation Process for the WSIS+10 High-Level Event (HLE) to be held in Geneva from June 10 to 13, 2014.

The meeting saw the culmination of the multistakeholder review process on the WSIS+10 Statement on the Implementation of the WSIS Outcomes and the WSIS+10 Vision for WSIS Beyond 2015.

CIS made interventions on text related to increasing women's participation, freedom of expression, media rights, data privacy, network security and human rights.

CIS also endorsed text on action line 'Media' which reaffirmed committment to freedom of expression, data privacy and media rights offline and online including protection of sources, publishers and journalists.

Download the final agreed draft of the WSIS+10 Statement on the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes that will be deliberated upon and agreed at the HLE, for your reference.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/wsis-high-level-event-open-consultation-process

WSIS+10 Final Agreed Draft

praskrishna — 2014-06-04T10:12:48Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/wsis-final-agreed-draft.pdf

WSIS Forum 2017

praskrishna — 2017-07-18T02:00:44Z

WSIS Forum 2017 was held 12-16 June in Geneva, and included the participation of more than 85 high-level government and civil society representatives, as well as 500 remote interventions and thousands following the webcast. The forum was chaired by Mr Jean Philbert Nsengimana, Minister of Youth and ICT, Government of Rwanda, and co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNCTAD and UNDP, in close collaboration with all UN agencies. Nirmita Narasimhan participated in the forum.

The moderator, Ms Andrea Saks (Chair, Telecommunication Standardisation Sector (ITU-T) Joint Coordination Activity on Accessibility and Human Factors (JCA-AHF)), welcomed the audience and introduced the five panellists, two of whom were remote participants.

The first speaker, participating remotely from India, was Ms Nirmita Narasimhan, Policy Director, Centre of Internet and Society (CIS). Narasimhan heads the CIS accessibility inclusion programme and specialises in policy research and advocacy related to technology access for persons with disabilities. Narasimhan focused on a report (link is external) jointly prepared by ITU and CIS, on how to leverage ICTs in an accessible manner to ensure that persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups are included in planning and responding to disasters and situations involving emergency situations. She raised four stages of preparedness (link is external) for disaster management: (1) early warning planning including creating awareness, education, and training material as well as setting up technological infrastructure; (2) alerts as to when a disaster is happening and where to go for help; (3) recovery, what happens after the disaster; and (4) mitigation which leads back to planning and preparedness. Full report here. More information on the event here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/news/wsis-forum-2017

Writing Skills with Wikipedia

praskrishna — 2016-12-15T02:20:26Z

Writing Skills with Wikipedia

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

Writing skills improve with Wikipedia editing

praskrishna — 2016-12-15T02:21:23Z

Pavan Santhosh said that contributing to Wikipedia and working in Wikimedia community improves our leadership qualities and writing skills. In an awareness session conducted about "You can edit Wikipedia" in JKC college, Guntur, Santhosh explained how to create and improve articles about Wikipedia in this program. Principal I.Nageswara Rao presided over this meeting.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/eenadu-december-3-2016-writing-skills-improve-with-wikipedia-editing

writeshop

praskrishna — 2011-11-21T06:10:13Z

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

Write

praskrishna — 2011-11-14T06:33:36Z

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

Would it be a unique identity crisis ?

praskrishna — 2011-04-01T17:10:30Z

The UID project will centralise a humongous amount of data but the fear is that it might fall into the wrong hands.

The Unique Identification (UID) project is already up and running. It’s touted as a watershed in inclusive politics, of bringing people, who by virtue of physical remoteness, their station in society or other liabilities were excluded from the system, back into it. UID Chairman Nandan Nilekani recently said that the aadhaar number will not replace the passport, driving license or the voter identity card and that by 2014, 60 per cent of the country’s population will have the 12-digit UID number. The idea, though it has not been made explicit, is that Aadhaar will eventually become the key document for the common man to navigate the system, whether it is opening a bank account or making a rent agreement to booking a train ticket or applying for a job.

In fact, there is the implicit danger that sooner than later the original idea of inclusiveness could be turned on its head by denying benefits to people who don’t have the Aadhaar! “There is nothing to ensure that you will continue to receive the same benefits like those who have the UID number. The claim that it is not mandatory is legally correct. But in practice it would not be,” said Prof Sridhar Krishnaswamy of W B University for Juridical Sciences.

It is a fundamental premise that data subjects ought to have “inalienable moral rights” about the “integrity” of the data collected about them. But even as UID is one of the best things that could have happened to deepen the democratic process in our society, the often un-remarked fact is that the project has also become the biggest industrial collector of personal information. Considering the size and heterogeneity of the Indian population, it becomes as big as Google, and the implications of this are quite frightening. The UID draft bill, which has to be cleared by Parliament for it to become law, has only perfunctorily looked at the dangers posed by such huge and centralized collection of data. It glosses over the issue, content with making conservative noises about “the interlinking of databases”. This only shows how casual our policy makers, even the most enlightened of them, are towards the whole issue of safeguarding privacy.

The Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) has analyzed the draft UID bill in considerable depth. They have identified three main areas where the bill needs to be drastically reworked: (i) plugging all loopholes which would enable corporate organizations from accessing information from the Aadhar database for their own commercial or R & D purposes; (ii) stipulating a maximum period for the data to be stored; (iii) to be transparent about the methods it uses to collect, store and disseminate data.

Prof Krishnaswamy agreed that the UID bill has not taken the corporate threat seriously enough. He contends that the UID authorities should take small, concrete steps that would act as effective safeguards. “In the mobile phone segment, user information is stored only for six months. Now, the government is proposing a similar time cap for ISP too. But when it comes to UID there is no such time limit. It means personal information could be held perpetually,” he explained. All that UID Assistant Director A K Pandey had to say to this was, “if that is it, then we have to live with it.”

Another worrying aspect of the proposed bill, according to Usha Ramanathan, an activist and expert on identity and digital issues, is its failure to fix accountability on the main players including enrollers, outsourcing companies, and the UDAI authority itself. “The data collector and data controller should be equally held responsible for the protection of data,” she said. However, UID authorities themselves are of the view that the apprehensions are being overplayed. Pandey maintained that there was nothing in the UID that would compromise the privacy of individuals. “You go to a bank or the LIC office and you give whatever information they ask you. But when it comes to UID alone you say the information you give could be dangerous. We don’t quite understand this,” he retorted. He played down the fears that in the central data storage vital information could go corrupt. “We have taken adequate measures to protect it. We will have a backup,” he said.

The issue of transparency of data collection and storage remains. The CIS analysts feel that the UID should put out a synopsis of the algorithms it will use in collating and protecting data so that the public at large can be reassured of the firewalls that are in place. Then there is also the issue of not having concrete provisions in the UID bill to deal with special cases like whistleblowers and victims of abuse whose identities need to be protected even more carefully.

The UID authority also bypasses the question of whether it is confusing data protection with the larger issue of protection of privacy. A person’s identity is more than her date of birth, surname, religion, fingerprint or even the sum of these. Such information is basically data and allows governments or corporate bodies to provide a person a nominal identity, one that is indispensable if she is to be part of a socio-political system. The state and corporate entities conveniently deny a person her self, thereby reducing her to a subject instead of seeing each individual as a thinking, acting agency.

Be that as it may, right now the concern of civil society is to make at least protection of data as foolproof as possible. Aadhaar is just one of the projects that pose a threat to the privacy of individual citizens. There is the broader problem of how the Internet and mobile phones, the popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and the widespread use of credit and debit cards has led to blatant misuse of personal information gathered online, sharing of consumer data without consent and the state’s own Big Brother surveillance. The need for an effective privacy law in India is imperative.

Read the original in Bangalore Mirror

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/unique-identity-crisis

Worldwide: International Privacy - 2013 Year in Review - Asia

praskrishna — 2014-01-31T08:44:20Z

Asian Data Privacy Updates

The article by Gonzalo S. Zeballos, James A. Sherer and Alan M. Pate was published in Mondaq's yearly review on January 8, 2014.

China

China's Personal Information Protection Law Proposal was submitted to the State Council in 2008, which was followed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's non-binding Internet Information Services Market Order Provisions of 2011. However, little direct progress was made until the standing committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) introduced its Decision on Strengthening Internet Information Protection (the Decision) on December 28, 2012. Echoing Directive 95/46/EC in the EU by stipulating that the collection and use of information will be "legitimate, proper, and necessary," the Decision seeks to protect network information security; the lawful interest of citizens, legal persons, and other organizations; and safeguard China's security and social order through its Articles.

he Decision's first Article states that "[n]o organization or individual may steal or obtain in other illegal manners [ ] citizens' individual electronic information, sell or illegally provide citizens' individual electronic information to other persons." Instruction to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) continues, where providers must, among other activities:

Clearly indicate the purposes, methods, and scope of collection and use of citizens' data;
Obtain agreement from citizens before collecting their data;
Publicize rules for the collection and use of personal data;
Preserve the secrecy of collected data;
Not divulge, distort, or damage the data;
Refrain from selling or otherwise illegally providing the data to others; and
Adopt technical measures and other methods to ensure information security and prevent damage to or loss of the data.

Among the provisions of the Decision is Article Six, specifically directed at network service providers, whereby users of the services must "provide real identity information" prior to "website access," "fixed telephone, mobile telephone," "other surfing formalities," or "information publication services." In response to criticism that Article Six would be used to discourage whistleblowers and other Chinese dissention, the government-sponsored Xinhua News Agency argued that the Decision "will help, rather than harm, the country's netizens."

Japan

On May 24, 2013, the LDP-led ruling coalition directed the passage of the "Common Number" Bill through both Diet chambers. The Common Number Bill plans to assign every Japanese resident, including mid-to-long-stay foreigners and special permanent residents, a personal identification number beginning in January 2016. Additionally, a portal site through which people can check their social security records and other information via the Internet is planned for 2017. The numbering system was originally proposed in 2009, but remained quiescent until the LDP-New Komeito ruling coalition mustered sufficient support based, in part, on a philosophical foundation for fair social welfare and tax systems.

To oversee some aspects of the ID system, a third-party independent committee with independent authority will oversee allegations of data mishandling by public officials. Those who leak or illegally commercialize ID information will face up to four years in prison or a ¥2 million fine. While the use of a single number system has raised some concerns, including the potential for "forcible data-matching," the government push for support has focused on efficiencies in administration and easier detection of tax evasion and welfare fraud.

Malaysia

On November 15, 2013, the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) of 2010 was entered into force, introducing an omnibus privacy regime in Malaysia for the first time. This new regulation carries a host of requirements, including registration with the Personal Data Protection Department of Malaysia (PDPD) for a number of industries, including (among others) banking and financial institutions. The PDPA also includes the threat of severe consequences for non-compliance, including "fines for companies and/or fines and imprisonment for directors and officers of the company."

Khazaksthan

On November 26, 2013, Kazakhstani Law No. 94-V on Personal Data and its Protection came into force, defining such concepts as "personal data" among others, but left some ambiguity in how data might be transferred and/or stored internationally. It also contained a number of limitations: Law No. 94-V does not extend to the collection of personal data for personal and family needs; the use of information for the Kazakhstani National Archive; the collection, processing, and protection of personal data related to Kazakhstani state secrets; or the use of information related to intelligence, counter-intelligence, and criminal activities, within legal limits.

South Korea

Article 16 of South Korea's Personal Information Protection Act (effective September 30, 2011) was amended on August 6, 2013 to incorporate an affirmative obligation on the part of a personal information processor, requiring notification to data subjects that data subjects may deny consent for the collection of any personal information other than for any purposes under Article 15(1). This continues South Korea's stringent efforts to promote data privacy, and provides another instance of South Korea's articulation of a minimum data collection regime.

Singapore

Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), passed in 2012, went into effect on January 2, 2013, the same day Singapore's Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) was established; some portion of PDPA does not come into full effect until July 2, 2014. The PDPC followed-up the implementation of the PDPA with a further guidance note on September 24, 2013 which, among other topics, gave direction to organizations regarding notification requirements for the collection, use, or disclosure of personal data as well as the anonymization of personal data. This guidance outlined the use of 'cookies' for internet user's online activity, distinguishing in part between active consent on one hand, and "the mere failure of an individual to actively manage his browser settings" on the other.

Hong Kong

Revisions to Hong Kong's Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance – Code of Practice on Consumer Credit Data – took effect on April 1, 2013. These revisions require consent prior to the use of personal data in the context of targeted, direct advertising, and instruct individuals that, while direct marketers must notify individuals of their opt-out right prior to using personal data for the first time, individuals may choose to opt out at any time at no cost to the individual opting out. The Ordinance also provides for the following penalties: if "the transfer of personal data to third parties [is] for gain, the maximum penalty is a fine of HK$1,000,000 and imprisonment for 5 years. For other direct marketing contraventions, the maximum penalty is a fine of HK$500,000 and imprisonment for 3 years."

India

While India currently adheres to the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011 (Rules) enacted in 2011, the Centre for Internet and Society presented a new Privacy (Protection) Bill, 2013 (Bill), on September 30, 2013. The Bill seeks to further refine provisions of the Rules, with a focus on protection of personal data through limitations on use and requirements for notice. The collection of personal data would be prohibited unless "necessary for the achievement of a purpose of the person seeking its collection," and, subject to sections 6 and 7 of the Bill, "no personal data may be collected under this Act prior to the data subject being given notice, in such form and manner as may be prescribed, of the collection." The Bill acknowledges the collection of data with and without consent; the regulation of personal data storage, processing, transfer, and security; and discusses the different types of disclosure.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/mondaq-january-8-2014-gonzalo-s-zeballos-james-a-sherer-alan-m-pate-worldwide-international-privacy-2013-year-in-review-asia

Worldwide - 1

praskrishna — 2011-03-30T13:13:58Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/home-images/Worldwide1.jpg

World Wide Web Consortium for All

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T12:08:15Z

Indian web designers have long ignored needs of people with different disabilities but a new dedicated wiki aspires to change that, writes Malvika Tegta

Mobility can also mean being able to seamlessly steer through and negotiate one’s way in a jungle of online information to get work done. Any good website should enable that.Yet, not many Indian ones do. At least not for those who can’t see or hear or operate the mouse with ease.

For them, e-mobility or e-access remains as ignored an aspect as mobility in the physical space.

And to think that all it takes to fix this is to conform to the accessibility standards laid down by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at minimal extra cost. Any good web designer should follow that. And any good government must put a policy in place to ensure that it happens, especially when it is signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disability, which warrants such action.

Intent, however, isn’t the problem. But limited awareness about how information and services can be best delivered to persons with disabilities is. And for a country with close to 70 million people with disabilities, awareness can mean the difference between booking an e-ticket and buying one from the railways counter, between living independently and relying on others for things they can easily do for themselves.

Addressing this is the recently launched 125-article-rich wiki, being executed by the Centre of Internet and Society (CIS) Bangalore and funded by the National Internet Exchange of India, New Delhi. The wiki intends to be a comprehensive resource for users, caretakers, web developers, NGOs, teachers, and members of legal communities for information on what technology — hardware and software — and related legislations offer persons with disabilities.

Web standards prescribe that a description of a graphic or a visual be added for the benefit of visually impaired persons so that any screen-reader can read it. For someone with hearing disability, sound alerts should be accompanied by visual cues, and audios tagged. For those who cannot operate the mouse and hence rely on desk keyboards or onscreen keyboards, developers should incorporate built-in shortcut keys for efficient access.

“But the W3C standards are not binding; it is something countries adopt. In India, these guidelines have been made advisory for Government websites, not mandatory,” says Nirmita Narasimhan, programme manager, CIS, who is also working on drafting the accessibility policy for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

Mumbai-based disability activist Nilesh Singlit, who has been working on access audits, accessibility and inclusive design, training and research for the past 12 years, says that the standards are simple enough to be used by anyone with basic grasp of HTML. “But some specialised website designers charge high amounts to make websites disabled-friendly. Yes, there are issues of extensive testing of websites to adhere to the standards required. However, there is no relation between the cost and the end product. More awareness needs to be created to break the myth that accessible websites are expensive,” he says.

The Government of India has made accessibility of its websites advisory. But as Singlit says, if they’re anything like the current railways website — which does little for persons with disability — then it remains to be seen how effective the implementation will be.

Furthermore, the government does not proactively share information with outsiders. “How is one to approach the government unless one knows about the incentives on procurement of assistive technologies, training and awareness camps and educational awareness. Unless this research is made available, you don’t have the base to build on,” says a researcher from the field.

Read the article in DNA

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/www-for-all