The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 11 to 25.
Workshop on Democratic Accountability in the Digital Age (Delhi, November 14-15)
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/workshop-on-democratic-accountability-in-the-digital-age-delhi-november-14-15
<b>IT for Change, along with Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) and National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI), is organising a two day workshop on ‘Democratic Accountability in the Digital Age’. The workshop will focus on evolving a comprehensive policy approach to data based governance and digital democracy, grounded in a rights and social justice framework. It will be held at the United Service Institution of India, Delhi, during November 14-15, 2016. The CIS team to participate in the workshop includes Sumandro Chattapadhyay (speaker), Amber Sinha (speaker), Vanya Rakesh (participant), and Himadri Chatterjee (participant).</b>
<p> </p>
<p>The workshop aims to:</p>
<ul><li>
<p>Discuss the institutional norms, rules and practices appropriate to the rise of ‘governance by networks’ and ‘rule by data’ that can guarantee democratic accountability and citizen participation, and</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Articulate the steps to claim the civic-public value of digital technologies so that data and the new possibilities for networking are harnessed for a vibrant grassroots democracy.</p>
</li></ul>
<p>We hope the workshop can create a civil society coalition that can build effective strategies for legal and policy reform to further participatory democracy in the digital age. On the first day, the workshop will set the context through knowledge sharing and thematic presentations and discussions. On the second day, we aim to concretize strategies for collective action to further democratic accountability in the digital age.</p>
<hr />
<h4><a href="http://itforchange.net/mavc/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Workshop-Agenda-Democratic-accountability-in-the-digital-age-14-to-15-Nov-2016-2.pdf">Workshop Agenda</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4><a href="http://itforchange.net/mavc/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Background-note-for-workshop-on-Democracy-in-Digital-Age-Sep21.odt">Background Note</a> (ODT)</h4>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/workshop-on-democratic-accountability-in-the-digital-age-delhi-november-14-15'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/workshop-on-democratic-accountability-in-the-digital-age-delhi-november-14-15</a>
</p>
No publishersumandroDigital IDDigital GovernancePrivacyUIDInternet GovernanceAccountabilityDigital IndiaAadhaarWelfare GovernanceE-GovernanceDigital Rights2016-12-15T09:27:22ZEventMillions of Indians move from cash to digital payments. But some ask whether it’s safe
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/washington-post-january-14-2017-rama-lakshmi-millions-of-indians-move-from-cash-to-digital-payments
<b>Minutes after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi began an ambitious new mobile-phone-payment application in December, several clones of the app popped up at Android smartphone stores.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Rama Lakshmi was <a class="external-link" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/millions-of-indians-move-from-cash-to-digital-payments-but-some-ask-whether-its-safe/2017/01/13/e807ebf0-ae9b-488b-9eb1-1dcba80ba984_story.html?utm_term=.fc710ade922b">published by Washington Post</a> on 14 January 2017, Sunil Abraham was quoted. Annie Gowen contributed to this report.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the first few days, users were flooded with <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Industry/Q1z2di95uWbhcSMUKcx1SK/BHIM-app-users-raise-security-concerns-within-first-week.html">spam</a> requests for money.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Bhim app sponsored by the government was rushed out after Modi’s abrupt <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-invalidates-large-bank-notes-in-crackdown-on-crime/2016/11/08/cc705ee2-a5c6-11e6-ba46-53db57f0e351_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.1e0d0920f753">withdrawal</a> of large currency bills two months ago. More than 10 million people downloaded it in just 10 days, but in a country where awareness and regulation of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/privacy-concerns-grow-in-india/2012/01/26/gIQAyM0UmQ_story.html">privacy</a>, data protection and digital <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/None-of-mobile-payment-apps-in-India-fully-secure-warns-Qualcomm/articleshow/55967778.cms">security</a> are low, the number of cyberattacks is rising.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“We are rushing toward launching and using these plethora of financial tech apps without the exhaustive security testing and education that is needed,” said Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Center for Internet and Society. “We are operating in a bit of a regulatory vacuum.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Modi’s ambitious move to swap old bills for new was intended to fight the hoarding of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-targets-tax-evaders-who-hide-black-money-at-home-and-abroad/2015/09/04/2532b7c2-50c4-11e5-b225-90edbd49f362_story.html?utm_term=.6a8c7baf45d0">illicit</a> cash reserves. But it was derailed by shoddy implementation, left citizens in Asia’s third-largest economy without <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/panic-anger-and-scramble-to-stash-cash-amid-indias-black-money-squeeze/2016/11/10/32cb222a-565a-4c6f-8d40-59257c042109_story.html?utm_term=.6316c5fcb192">cash</a> for weeks, slowed <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/indias-currency-crisis-is-stalling-small-industries-and-sending-workers-home/2016/12/24/5a2d3aea-c7b2-11e6-acda-59924caa2450_story.html?utm_term=.ad60424e45f2">manufacturing</a> and sent workers home, and is now likely to significantly affect the country’s economic growth this year, economists say. It was acutely painful for a country where 80 percent of transactions were conducted with cash.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Modi quickly responded by turning the adversity into a call for Indians to kick their overwhelming dependence on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/indians-like-to-pay-cash-the-government-is-now-forcing-them-to-swipe-cards/2016/12/16/58a5a42c-c0a6-11e6-b527-949c5893595e_story.html">cash</a> and opt for digital payments overnight. The Bhim app is just one of many available. But in this leap, experts say, security concerns are being overlooked.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The new payment apps and e-wallet companies are governed by India’s outdated information technology law of 2008 and central bank guidelines.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“India urgently needs a new digital payment law that regulates all these mobile payment apps that have sprung up overnight,” said Pavan Duggal, a cyber-law expert. “We are right now in a completely uncharted and unsupervised territory legally. The norms for wallet companies are undefined. If I lose my money due to a fraud, I can go round and round in circles with no remedy.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The central bank recently issued guidelines asking payment banks to carry out security audits, but Duggal said “there is no penalty or punishment for noncompliance.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The problem is compounded by the fact that education about security risks online is abysmally sparse, especially in India’s small towns and villages. Indians are complacent about cyber risks in their online behavior, according to the Norton Cyber Security Insights <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/indian-users-complacent-when-it-comes-to-cyber-security-norton-report/">Report</a>. India does not have a privacy law.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India reported more than 39,000 incidents of cyberattacks in the first nine months of 2016, <a href="http://164.100.47.190/loksabhaquestions/annex/10/AS16.pdf">according</a> to the government, including phishing, scanning and probing, website intrusions, defacements, virus and malicious code, and denial-of-service attacks.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“The Pentagon got hacked, right? You haven’t closed down the Pentagon as yet,” said Piyush Goyal, a minister. “These things will happen, and we have to be one step ahead of the hackers and the so-called security breaches and continuously improving and improvising as they do in America or other developed economies.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In October, top banks had to fix the security codes of about 3.2 million debit cards in one of the biggest data breaches in India. Some users complained that their cards had been used in China.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Last month, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/12/12/the-man-hacking-indias-rich-and-powerful-talks-motives-music-drugs-and-next-targets/?utm_term=.33bc426ae67a">hackers</a> attacked Twitter and email accounts of prominent politicians and journalists and defaced the website of the National Security Guard, an elite commando force.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“The focus of global hackers has shifted to India. The cyber risk is a direct fallout of the growth in the number of digital users,” said Saket Modi, the chief executive of Lucideus Tech, the firm that conducted the security audit of the government’s Bhim app.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Since the cash crunch began, the largest private e-wallet company, Paytm, has experienced a 400 percent jump in new downloads.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">But only <a href="http://gadgets.ndtv.com/telecom/news/mobile-internet-subscribers-in-india-reached-34265-million-in-march-sinha-863186" shape="rect">342 million people</a> access the Internet on their mobile phones. The government has introduced dial-in service for those who have basic cellphones to make digital payments.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The government is airing radio jingles telling citizens not to share their personal identification numbers and has a toll-free helpline to teach people how to make online payments.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Officials understand how security worries can be a big dampener in their campaign to get people to go digital,” said Vinayak Godse, senior director at the Data Security Council of India, an industry body that advises the government.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">But in a trade-off between convenience and security, the central bank recently <a href="http://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/internet/payment-firms-applaud-rbis-move-to-relax-2-factor-authentication-for-small-value-transactions/55858515">waived</a> the mandatory two-factor authentication for transactions less than $30 online.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Some cybersecurity experts say that Indians are not ready for this step.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The police recently arrested a gang in the eastern state of Jharkhand; operators were calling people posing as bank executives and tricking them into sharing their card details. They used the cards to do online shopping and transferred money into their e-wallet accounts.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“People are gullible and can be threatened or lured to part with their bank details easily. We need as many safeguards as we can have,” said Surendra Kumar, a senior police officer in New Delhi who busted the gang.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">But the biggest problem people face is that police in one state get very little cooperation from those in another state in digital-crime complaints, said Rakshit Tandon, a cybersecurity expert who trains police, military members and school students.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Only in big-ticket frauds will police departments from different states coordinate their investigations,” Tandon said. “If a person loses a relatively smaller amount digitally, the case won’t go far. Even though that amount may mean a lot in that person’s life.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/washington-post-january-14-2017-rama-lakshmi-millions-of-indians-move-from-cash-to-digital-payments'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/washington-post-january-14-2017-rama-lakshmi-millions-of-indians-move-from-cash-to-digital-payments</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital MoneyInternet GovernanceDigital GovernanceDigital Economy2017-01-16T02:52:33ZNews ItemFake Narendra Modi apps aplenty, but it’s up to users to protect themselves
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/indian-express-december-2-2016-fake-narendra-modi-apps-aplenty-but-it-is-up-to-users-to-protect-themselves
<b>The app, hosted on Google Play store, automatically gets excessive permission including full network access and ability to take pictures and videos once downloaded.</b>
<p>The article was <a class="external-link" href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/this-fake-narendra-modi-app-can-secretly-take-pictures-shoot-videos-using-your-phone-4407400/">published by Indian Express</a> on December 2, 2016. Pranesh Prakash was quoted. Also see Nandini Yadav's blog post in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.bgr.in/news/beware-of-the-fake-narendra-modi-app-on-google-play-store/">BGR</a> on December 3, 2016.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img alt="modi3" class="size-full wp-image-4407413" src="http://images.indianexpress.com/2016/12/modi3.jpeg" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The app, hosted on Google Play store, automatically gets excessive permission including full network access and ability to take pictures and videos once downloaded.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A “<a href="http://indianexpress.com/about/narendra-modi">Narendra Modi</a>” app, purportedly offered by the Government of India, caught the attention of Internet expert Pranesh Prakash on Thursday as the app developer was found to be using a Bangladesh-based web host and e-mail address. Suggesting that this could be the work of a con-artist, Prakash underlined that granting access to fake apps could lead to security breach. The app, hosted on <a href="http://indianexpress.com/about/google/">Google</a> Play store, automatically gets excessive permission including full network access and ability to take pictures and videos once downloaded. The original NaMo, however, only gets access to read, modify and delete the user’s media files. The “fake” app was downloaded more than 1 lakh times and has an average rating of 4.4 from over 2,000 reviews. A simple search on the play store throws up dozens of Narendra Modi apps, some even calling themselves fake apps. The original app was published by Narendramodi.in and Government Of India. But there are scores of other apps trying to imitate the original.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/NMApp.png" alt="Narendra Modi App" class="image-inline" title="Narendra Modi App" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/NMApp.png" alt="Narendra Modi App" class="image-inline" title="Narendra Modi App" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Pranesh, who is Policy Director at The Centre for Internet and Society, also questioned how users can differentiate between fake and genuine apps when even the official app was registered using a gmail address. While the Government of India Narendra Modi app has been published using info@narendramodi.press, the one by Narendramodi.in has been published using a simple Gmail app. He also highlighted how the play store was flooded with fake banking apps, with one such “SBI app” gaining full access to the user’s files. Incidentally, the fake Modi Ki Note app which has been in the limelight since the demonetisation on high value notes and issue of new ones itself has many duplicates.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the last two days, the Congress and its vice-president Rahul Gandhi fell victim to hacking as their verified Twitter accounts were compromised. Profane content was shared from both accounts, targeting the Gandhi and his family. This lead to the Congress questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s digital India push as security remains a huge concern.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/indian-express-december-2-2016-fake-narendra-modi-apps-aplenty-but-it-is-up-to-users-to-protect-themselves'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/indian-express-december-2-2016-fake-narendra-modi-apps-aplenty-but-it-is-up-to-users-to-protect-themselves</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDigital IndiaInternet GovernanceDigital GovernancePrivacy2016-12-10T04:24:24ZNews ItemThe soon-to-be launched Aadhaar Pay will let you make purchases using your fingerprint
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/economic-times-indulekha-aravind-january-15-2017-the-soon-to-be-launched-aadhaar-pay-will-let-you-make-purchases-using-your-fingerprint
<b>Paying for your groceries and other goods by using your biometrics instead of an e-wallet, debit card or cash seems to be the next phase in the Centre’s ambitious push to shift the country to a “less cash” economy, as its mandarins term it.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article by Indulekha Aravind was <a class="external-link" href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/the-soon-to-be-launched-aadhaar-pay-will-let-you-make-purchases-using-your-fingerprint/articleshow/56542475.cms">published in the Economic Times</a> on 15 January 2017. Sunil Abraham was <a class="external-link" href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-now/experts/sunil-abraham-on-aadhaars-misuse-during-demonetisation/videoshow/56544492.cms">consulted for this</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), says it will be rolling out Aadhaar-enabled payment system, or Aadhaar Pay, for merchants in the next few weeks. This will be an app for merchants that enables them to receive payments through biometric authentication of the customer, provided their bank accounts are linked to their Aadhaar number. "A pilot is under way in fair price shops in Andhra Pradesh where shopkeepers are accepting payments from PDS beneficiaries. The results are very encouraging," says Pandey.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The idea takes off from the existing Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AEPS) used by bank business correspondents (BCs) in rural areas to disburse and accept cash, using micro ATMs. "We are trying to tweak this so that a similar device can be used by a local merchant," says Pandey. Adoption will depend on two factors: merchants’ acceptance of it and whether they can use an app rather than a micro ATM. The biggest advantage through this method of payment, says Pandey, is that the customer will not need a credit or debit card, or even a smartphone.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img alt="The soon-to-be launched Aadhaar Pay will let you make purchases using your fingerprint" class="gwt-Image" src="http://img.etimg.com/photo/56542603/page-19-1.jpg" title="The soon-to-be launched Aadhaar Pay will let you make purchases using your fingerprint" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The limits for transactions using AEPS, such as the number of daily transactions, will be left to the discretion of the banks. In the long term, the AEPS will be migrated to the BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) platform but the rollout of Aadhaar Pay will happen before that. Post demonetisation, banking BC’s number of transactions using AEPS has leapt from 4-5 lakh to 14-15 lakh, says Pandey. According to Reserve Bank of India data on electronic payment systems, the total volume of such transactions jumped from 671 million in November 2016 to 957 million in December. USSD-based payments, which can be done using a basic feature phone, are among the biggest beneficiaries: the volume rose from just 7,000 in November to 1,02,000 in December, and value of transactions from over Rs 7,000 to over Rs 1 lakh. Prepaid payment instruments — mainly mobile wallets — rose from 59 million to 88 million in the same period (and value from Rs 1,300 crore to Rs 2,100 crore).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While Aadhaar Pay is likely to ride the demonetisation wave if it is launched soon, certain concerns remain, as the list is how secure such a payment system will be. The UIDAI CEO says it is a paramount concern for the organisation, too. "We are using the latest technology to ensure the information stays encrypted end to-end, so that information is not leaked or misused. In the months to come, we will strengthen the security."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Wary About Security</b> <br /> Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, a think tank that has been analysing the Aadhaar project for six years, outlines several reasons why Aadhaar-based biometrics is inappropriate for authentication in payments, unlike card-based payments that use cryptography. <br /> <br /> "With biometrics, there is always an error ratio. It is imprecise matching, whereas with cryptography (smart cards), there is no false positive or negative. You either have the key (PIN) or you don’t. It is also very cheap to defeat biometric authentication — even an unlettered person can do it," says Abraham. It would be easy enough, he says, to replicate someone else’s fingerprint by pressing it against lukewarm wax and filling the mould with glue to get a dummy finger. In contrast, compromising a smart card requires more cost and effort, from tech-savviness to machines such as a skimmer that will read the card. "And once you are compromised,you are compromised forever. You can’t change it, like a debit card PIN."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Using Aadhaar for authentication had proved to be a failure during the exchange of currency notes following demonetisation, he adds, pointing to how the poor and the middle class stood in queues for money while stacks of new currency were recovered from the homes of businessmen and bureaucrats. "When you have bank officials who are corrupt, giving them your biometrics is giving them more ammunition for corruption." To catch the criminals, law enforcement agencies had to resort to CCTV footage,a relatively older technology, he says. Others point out that while it may be secure, certain factors stand in the way of making biometrics-based payment authentication a large-scale success. Amrish Rau, CEO of PayU India, a payment gateway provider, cites a list of reasons why it would inevitably take off but only in 5-10 years.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"For one, the technology is not yet good enough. There are also bandwidth and data constraints in sending biometric data," says Rau. Even in more mature markets, it has yet to find widespread acceptance, he says, pointing to the slow adoption of Apple Pay and Samsung Pay in the US. "It’s not the answer today.” This is in contrast to NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant’s recent remarks that cards and PoS machines would become redundant by 2020 because Indians would be making payments using their thumb (biometrics). "... my view is that in the next two and a half years, India will make all its debit cards, credit cards, all ATM machines, all PoS machines totally irrelevant,” Kant had said at a Pravasi Bharatiya Divas session in Bengaluru.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">UIDAI’s Pandey is more circumspect. “I wouldn’t say who would replace what. But from the government’s side we are encouraging all modes of digital payment. India has a diverse population and some people might prefer using a card, others a wallet. Collectively, they will contribute to a less-cash society.”</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/economic-times-indulekha-aravind-january-15-2017-the-soon-to-be-launched-aadhaar-pay-will-let-you-make-purchases-using-your-fingerprint'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/economic-times-indulekha-aravind-january-15-2017-the-soon-to-be-launched-aadhaar-pay-will-let-you-make-purchases-using-your-fingerprint</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaDemonetisationDigital PaymentDigital GovernanceDigital EconomyPrivacyInternet GovernanceDigital MoneyVideoAadhaarBiometrics2017-01-16T03:14:22ZNews ItemState of Consumer Digital Security in India
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/state-of-consumer-digital-security-in-india
<b>This report attempts to identify the existing state of digital safety in India, with a mapping of digital threats, which will aid stakeholders in identifying and addressing digital security problems in the country. This project was funded by the Asia Foundation.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Since 2006, successive Union governments in India have shown increased focus on digital governance. The National e-Governance Plan was launched by the UPA government in2006, and several digital projects led by the state such as digitisation of the filing of taxes, appointment process for passports, corporate governance, and the Aadhaar programme(India’s unique digital identity system that utilises biometric and demographic data) arose under it, in the form of mission mode projects (projects that are part of a broader National e-governance initiative, each focusing on specific e-Governance aspects, like banking, land records, or commercial taxes). In 2014, when the NDA government came to power, the National e-Governance Plan was subsumed under the government’s flagship project of Digital India, and several mission mode projects were added. In the meantime, the internet connectivity, first in the form of wire connectivity, and later in the form of mobile connectivity has increased greatly. In the same period, use of digital services, first in new services native to the Internet such as email, social networking, instant messaging, and later the platformization and disruption of traditional business models in transportation, healthcare, finance and virtually every sector, has led to a deluge of digital private service providers in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Currently, India has 500 million internet users — over a third of its total population — making it the country with the second largest number of Internet users after China. The uptake of these technological services has also been accompanied by several kinds of digital threats that an average digital consumer in India must regularly contend with. This report is a mapping of consumer-facing digital threats in India and is intended to aid stakeholders in identifying and addressing digital security problems. The first part of the report categorises digital threats into four kinds, Personal Data Threats, Online Content Related Threats, Financial Threats, and Online Sexual Harassment Threats. Threats under each category are then defined, with detailed consumer-facing consequences, and past instances where harm has been caused because of these threats.</p>
<hr />
<p> </p>
<p>Read the full report <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/report-state-of-consumer-digital-security-in-india" class="internal-link" title="Report - State of Consumer Digital Security in India">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/state-of-consumer-digital-security-in-india'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/state-of-consumer-digital-security-in-india</a>
</p>
No publisherpranavDigital GovernancePrivacyDigital KnowledgeInternet GovernanceDigital Media2021-07-05T11:07:24ZBlog EntryAn Evidence based Intermediary Liability Policy Framework: Workshop at IGF
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/igf-workshop-an-evidence-based-intermediary-liability-policy-framework
<b>CIS is organising a workshop at the Internet Governance Forum 2014. The workshop will be an opportunity to present and discuss ongoing research on the changing definition of intermediaries and their responsibilities across jurisdictions and technologies and contribute to a comprehensible framework for liability that is consistent with the capacity of the intermediary and with international human-rights standards.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Centre for Internet and Society, India and Centre for Internet and Society, Stanford Law School, USA, will be organising a workshop to analyse the role of intermediary platforms in relation to freedom of expression, freedom of information and freedom of association at the Internet Governance Forum 2014. <span>The aim of the workshop is to highlight the increasing importance of digital rights and broad legal protections of stakeholders in an increasingly knowledge-based economy. The workshop will discuss public policy issues associated with Internet intermediaries, in particular their roles, legal responsibilities and related liability limitations in context of the evolving nature and role of intermediaries in the Internet ecosystem. distinct</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Online Intermediaries: Setting the context</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Internet has facilitated unprecedented access to information and amplified avenues for expression and engagement by removing the limits of geographic boundaries and enabling diverse sources of information and online communities to coexist. Against the backdrop of a broadening base of users, the role of intermediaries that enable economic, social and political interactions between users in a global networked communication is ubiquitous. Intermediaries are essential to the functioning of the Internet as many producers and consumers of content on the internet rely on the action of some third party–the so called intermediary. Such intermediation ranges from the mere provision of connectivity, to more advanced services such as providing online storage spaces for data, acting as platforms for storage and sharing of user generated content (UGC), or platforms that provides links to other internet content.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Online intermediaries enhance economic activity by reducing costs, inducing competition by lowering the barriers for participation in the knowledge economy and fuelling innovation through their contribution to the wider ICT sector as well as through their key role in operating and maintaining Internet infrastructure to meet the network capacity demands of new applications and of an expanding base of users.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Intermediary platforms also provide social benefits, by empowering users and improving choice through social and participative networks, or web services that enable creativity and collaboration amongst individuals. By enabling platforms for self-expression and cooperation, intermediaries also play a critical role in establishing digital trust, protection of human rights such as freedom of speech and expression, privacy and upholding fundamental values such as freedom and democracy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, the economic and social benefits of online intermediaries are conditional to a framework for protection of intermediaries against legal liability for the communication and distribution of content which they enable.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Intermediary Liability</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Over the last decade, right holders, service providers and Internet users have been locked in a debate on the potential liability of online intermediaries. The debate has raised global concerns on issues such as, the extent to which Internet intermediaries should be held responsible for content produced by third parties using their Internet infrastructure and how the resultant liability would affect online innovation and the free flow of knowledge in the information economy?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Given the impact of their services on communications, intermediaries find themselves as either directly liable for their actions, or indirectly (or “secondarily”) liable for the actions of their users. Requiring intermediaries to monitor the legality of the online content poses an insurmountable task. Even if monitoring the legality of content by intermediaries against all applicable legislations were possible, the costs of doing so would be prohibitively high. Therefore, placing liability on intermediaries can deter their willingness and ability to provide services, hindering the development of the internet itself.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Economics of intermediaries are dependent on scale and evaluating the legality of an individual post exceeds the profit from hosting the speech, and in the absence of judicial oversight can lead to a private censorship regime. Intermediaries that are liable for content or face legal exposure, have powerful incentives, to police content and limit user activity to protect themselves. The result is curtailing of legitimate expression especially where obligations related to and definition of illegal content is vague. Content policing mandates impose significant compliance costs limiting the innovation and competiveness of such platforms.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">More importantly, placing liability on intermediaries has a chilling effect on freedom of expression online. Gate keeping obligations by service providers threaten democratic participation and expression of views online, limiting the potential of individuals and restricting freedoms. Imposing liability can also indirectly lead to the death of anonymity and pseudonymity, pervasive surveillance of users' activities, extensive collection of users' data and ultimately would undermine the digital trust between stakeholders.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Thus effectively, imposing liability for intermediaries creates a chilling effect on Internet activity and speech, create new barriers to innovation and stifles the Internet's potential to promote broader economic and social gains. To avoid these issues, legislators have defined 'safe harbours', limiting the liability of intermediaries under specific circumstances.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Online intermediaries do not have direct control of what information is or information are exchanged via their platform and might not be aware of illegal content per se. A key framework for online intermediaries, such limited liability regimes provide exceptions for third party intermediaries from liability rules to address this asymmetry of information that exists between content producers and intermediaries.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, it is important to note, that significant differences exist concerning the subjects of these limitations, their scope of provisions and procedures and modes of operation. The 'notice and takedown' procedures are at the heart of the safe harbour model and can be subdivided into two approaches:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">a. Vertical approach where liability regime applies to specific types of content exemplified in the US Digital Copyright Millennium Act</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">b. Horizontal approach based on the E-Commerce Directive (ECD) where different levels of immunity are granted depending on the type of activity at issue</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Current framework </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Globally, three broad but distinct models of liability for intermediaries have emerged within the Internet ecosystem:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">1. Strict liability model under which intermediaries are liable for third party content used in countries such as China and Thailand</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">2. Safe harbour model granting intermediaries immunity, provided their compliance on certain requirements</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">3. Broad immunity model that grants intermediaries broad or conditional immunity from liability for third party content and exempts them from any general requirement to monitor content. <b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While the models described above can provide useful guidance for the drafting or the improvement of the current legislation, they are limited in their scope and application as they fail to account for the different roles and functions of intermediaries. Legislators and courts are facing increasing difficulties, in interpreting these regulations and adapting them to a new economic and technical landscape that involves unprecedented levels user generated content and new kinds of and online intermediaries.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The nature and role of intermediaries change considerably across jurisdictions, and in relation to the social, economic and technical contexts. In addition to the dynamic nature of intermediaries the different categories of Internet intermediaries‘ are frequently not clear-cut, with actors often playing more than one intermediation role. Several of these intermediaries offer a variety of products and services and may have number of roles, and conversely, several of these intermediaries perform the same function. For example , blogs, video services and social media platforms are considered to be 'hosts'. Search engine providers have been treated as 'hosts' and 'technical providers'.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This limitations of existing models in recognising that different types of intermediaries perform different functions or roles and therefore should have different liability, poses an interesting area for research and global deliberation. Establishing classification of intermediaries, will also help analyse existing patterns of influence in relation to content for example when the removal of content by upstream intermediaries results in undue over-blocking.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Distinguishing intermediaries on the basis of their roles and functions in the Internet ecosystem is critical to ensuring a balanced system of liability and addressing concerns for freedom of expression. Rather than the highly abstracted view of intermediaries as providing a single unified service of connecting third parties, the definition of intermediaries must expand to include the specific role and function they have in relation to users' rights. A successful intermediary liability regime must balance the needs of producers, consumers, affected parties and law enforcement, address the risk of abuses for political or commercial purposes, safeguard human rights and contribute to the evolution of uniform principles and safeguards.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Towards an evidence based intermediary liability policy framework</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This workshop aims to bring together leading representatives from a broad spectrum of stakeholder groups to discuss liability related issues and ways to enhance Internet users’ trust.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Questions to address at the panel include:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">1. What are the varying definitions of intermediaries across jurisdictions?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">2. What are the specific roles and functions that allow for classification of intermediaries?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">3. How can we ensure the legal framework keeps pace with technological advances and the changing roles of intermediaries?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">4. What are the gaps in existing models in balancing innovation, economic growth and human rights?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">5. What could be the respective role of law and industry self-regulation in enhancing trust?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">6. How can we enhance multi-stakeholder cooperation in this space?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Confirmed Panel:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Technical Community: Malcolm Hutty: Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA)<br />Civil Society: Gabrielle Guillemin: Article19<br />Academic: Nicolo Zingales: Assistant Professor of Law at Tilburg University<br />Intergovernmental: Rebecca Mackinnon: Consent of the Networked, UNESCO project<br />Civil Society: Anriette Esterhuysen: Association for Progressive Communication (APC)<br />Civil Society: Francisco Vera: Advocacy Director: Derechos Digitale<br />Private Sector: Titi Akinsanmi: Policy and Government Relations Manager, Google Sub-Saharan Africa<br />Legal: Martin Husovec: MaxPlanck Institute</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span>Moderator(s): </span><span>Giancarlo Frosio, Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) and </span><span>Jeremy Malcolm, Electronic Frontier Foundation </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><span><span>Remote Moderator: </span><span>Anubha Sinha, New Delhi</span></span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/igf-workshop-an-evidence-based-intermediary-liability-policy-framework'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/igf-workshop-an-evidence-based-intermediary-liability-policy-framework</a>
</p>
No publisherjyotihuman rightsDigital Governanceinternet governanceFreedom of Speech and ExpressionInternet Governance ForumHuman Rights OnlineIntermediary LiabilityPoliciesMulti-stakeholder2014-07-04T06:41:10ZBlog EntryThe Centre for Internet and Society’s comments and recommendations to the: The Digital Data Protection Bill 2022
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-comments-recommendations-to-digital-data-protection-bill
<b>The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) published its comments and recommendations to the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, on December 17, 2022.</b>
<div class="WordSection1" style="text-align: justify; ">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center; "><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:right; "><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<h1><span>High Level Comments</span></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>1.<span> </span></span></b><b><span>Rationale for removing the distinction between personal data and sensitive personal data is unclear.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>All the earlier iterations of the Bill as well as the rules made under Section 43A of the Information Technology Act, 2000<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1"><sup><sup><span>[1]</span></sup></sup></a> had classified data into two categories; (i) personal data; and (ii) sensitive personal data. The 2022 version of the Bill has removed this distinction and clubbed all personal data under one umbrella heading of personal data. The rationale for this is unclear, as sensitive personal data means such data which could reveal or be related to eminently private data such as financial data, health data, sexual orientations and biometric data. Considering the sensitive nature of the data, the data classified as sensitive personal data is accorded higher protection and safeguards from processing, therefore by clubbing all data as personal data, the higher protection such as the need for explicit consent to the processing of sensitive personal data, the bar on processing of sensitive personal data for employment purposes has also been removed. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>2.<span> </span></span></b><b><span>No clear roadmap for the implementation of the Bill</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>The 2018 Bill had specified a roadmap for the different provisions of the Bill to come into effect from the date of the Act being notified.<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2"><sup><sup><span>[2]</span></sup></sup></a> It specifically stated the time period within which the Authority had to be established and the subsequent rules and regulations notified. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>The present Bill does not specify any such blueprint; it does not provide any details on either when the Bill will be notified or the time period within which the Board shall be established and specific Rules and regulations notified. Considering that certain provisions have been deferred to Rules that have to be framed by the Central government, the absence and/or delayed notification of such rules and regulations will impact the effective functioning of the Bill. Provisions such as Section 10(1) which deals with verifiable parental consent for data of children, Section 13 (1) which states the manner in which a Data Principal can initiate a right to correction, the process of selection and functioning of consent manager under </span><span>3(7)</span><span> are few such examples, that when the Act becomes applicable, the data principal will have to wait for the Rules to Act of these provisions, or to get clarity on entities created by the Act. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>The absence of any sunrise or sunset provision may disincentivise political or industrial will to support or enforce the provisions of the Bill. An example of such a lack of political will was the establishment of the Cyber Appellate Tribunal. The tribunal was established in 2006 to redress cyber fraud. However, it was virtually a defunct body from 2011 onwards when the last chairperson retired. It was eventually merged with the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal in 2017. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>We recommend that Bill clearly lays out a time period for the implementation of the different provisions of the Bill, especially a time frame for the establishment of the Board. This is important to give full and effective effect to the right of privacy of the individual. It is also important to ensure that individuals have an effective mechanism to enforce the right and seek recourse in case of any breach of obligations by the data fiduciaries. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>The Board must ensure that Data Principals and Fiduciaries have sufficient awareness of the provisions of this Bill before bringing the provisions for punishment into force. This will allow the Data Fiduciaries to align their practices with the provisions of this new legislation and the Board will also have time to define and determine certain provisions that the Bill has left the Board to define. Additionally enforcing penalties for offenses initially must be in a staggered process, combined with provisions such as warnings, in order to allow first time and mistaken offenders which now could include data principals as well, from paying a high price. This will relieve the fear of smaller companies and startups and individuals who might fear processing data for the fear of paying penalties for offenses.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<h3><a name="_kn12ecl3pdrp"></a><span>3.<span> </span></span><span>Independence of Data Protection Board of India.</span></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>The Bill proposes the creation of the Data Protection Board of India (Board) in place of the Data Protection Authority. In comparison with the powers of the Board with the 2018 and 2019 version of Personal Data Protection Bill, we witness an abrogation of powers of the Board to be created, in this Bill. Under Clause 19(2), the strength and composition of the Board, the process of selection, the terms and conditions of appointment and service, and the removal of its Chairperson and other Members shall be such as may be prescribed by the Union Government at a later stage. Further as per Clause 19(3), the Chief Executive of the Board will be appointed by the Union Government and the terms and conditions of her service will also be determined by the Union Government. The functions of the Board have also not been specified under the Bill, the Central Government may assign the functions to be performed by the Board.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>In order to govern data protection effectively, there is a need for a responsive market regulator with a strong mandate, ability to act swiftly, and resources. The political nature of personal data also requires that the governance of data, particularly the rule-making and adjudicatory functions performed by the Board are independent of the Executive. </span></p>
<h1><a name="_n9jzjnvile8f"></a><span>Chapter Wise Comments and Recommendations </span></h1>
<h2><a name="_chp7y0vgrjqa"></a><span>CHAPTER I- PRELIMINARY</span></h2>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><span> </span>●<span> </span></span><b><span>Definition:</span></b><span> While the Bill has added a few new definitions to the Bill including terms such as gains, loss, consent manager etc. there are a few key definitions that have been removed from the earlier versions of the Bill. The removal of certain definitions in the Bill, eg. sensitive personal data, health data, biometric data, transgender status, creating a legal uncertainty about the application of the Bill. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>With respect to the existing definitions as well the definition of the term ‘harm’ has been significantly reduced to remove harms such as surveillance from the ambit of harms. In addition, with respect of the definition of the term of harms also, the 2019 version of the Bill under Clause 2 (20) the definition provides a non exhaustive list of harms, by using the phrase “harms include”, however in the new definition the phrase has been altered to “harm”, in relation to a Data Principal, means”, thereby removing the possibility of more harms that are not apparent currently from being within the purview of the Act. We recommend that the definition of harms be made into a non-exhaustive list.<br /> <br /> </span></p>
<h2><a name="_nhwnuzprx0ir"></a><span>CHAPTER II - OBLIGATIONS OF DATA FIDUCIARY</span></h2>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>Notice: </span></b><span>The revised Clause on notice does away with the comprehensive requirements which were laid out under Clause 7 of the PDP Bill 2019. The current clause does not mention in detail what the notice should contain, while stating that that the notice should be itemised. While it can be reasoned that the Data Fiduciary can find the contents of the notice throughout the bill, such as with the rights of the Data Principal, the removal of a detailed list could create uncertainty for Data Fiduciaries. By leaving the finer details of what a notice should contain, it could cause Data Fiduciaries from missing out key information from the list, which in turn provide incomplete information to the Data Principal. Even in terms of Data Fiduciaries they might not know if they are complying with the provisions of the bill, and could result in them invariably being penalised. In addition to this by requiring less work by the Data Fiduciary and processor, the burden falls on the Data Principal to make sure they know how their data is processed and collected. The purpose of this legislation is to create further rights for individuals and consumers, hence the Bill should strive to put the individual at the forefront.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>In addition to this Clause 6(3) of the Bill states <i>“The Data Fiduciary shall give the Data Principal the option to access the information referred to in sub-sections (1) and (2) in English or any language specified in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India.”</i> While the inclusion of regional language notices is a welcome step, we suggest that the text be revised as follows <i>“The Data Fiduciary shall give the Data Principal the option to access the information referred to in sub-sections (1) and (2) in English<b> and in</b> any language specified in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India.” </i>While the main crux of notice is to let the person know before giving consent, notice in a language that a person cannot read would not lead to meaningful consent.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>Consent <br /> <br /> </span></b><span>Clause 3 of the Bill states <i>“request for consent would have the contact details of a Data Protection Officer, where applicable, or of any other person authorised by the Data Fiduciary to respond to any communication from the Data Principal for the purpose of exercise of her rights under the provisions of this Act.” </i>Ideally this provision should be a part of the notice and should be mentioned in the above section. This is similar to Clause 7(1)(c) of the draft Personal Data Protetion Bill 2019 which requires the notice to state <i>“the identity and contact details of the data fiduciary and the contact details of the data protection officer, if applicable;”. </i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>Deemed Consent</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>The Bill introduces a new type of consent that was absent in the earlier versions of the Bill. We are of the understanding that deemed consent is used to redefine non consensual processing of personal data. The use of the term deemed consent and the provisions under the section while more concise than the earlier versions could create more confusion for Data Principals and Fiduciaries alike. The definition and the examples do not shed light on one of the key issues with voluntary consent - the absence of notice. In addition to this the Bill is also silent on whether deemed consent can be withdrawn or if the data principal has the same rights as those that come from processing of data they have consented to. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>Personal Data Protection of Children </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>The age to determine whether a person has the ability to legally consent in the online world has been intertwined with the age of consent under the Indian Contract Act; i.e. 18 years. The Bill makes no distinction between a 5 year old and a 17 year old- both are treated in the same manner. It assumes the same level of maturity for all persons under the age of 18. It is pertinent to note that the law in the offline world does recognise that distinction and also acknowledges the changes in the level of maturity. As per Section 82 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 83, any act by a child under the age of 12 shall not be considered as an offence. While the maturity of those aged between 12–18 years will be decided by court (individuals between the age of 16–18 years can also be tried as adults for heinous crimes). Similarly, child labour laws in the country allow children above the age of 14 years to work in non-hazardous industry</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>There is a need to evaluate and rethink the idea that children are passive consumers of the internet and hence the consent of the parent is enough. Additionally, the bracketing of all individuals under the age of 18 as children fails to look at how teenages and young people use the internet. This is more important looking at the 2019 data which suggests that two-thirds of India’s internet users are in the 12–29 years age group, with those in the 12–19 age group accounting for about 21.5% of the total internet usage in metro cities. Given that the pandemic has compelled students and schools to adopt and adapt to virtual schools, the reliance on the internet has become ubiquitous with education. Out of an estimated 504 million internet users, nearly one-third are aged under 19. As per the Annual Status on Education Report (ASER) 2020, more than one-third of all schoolchildren are pursuing digital education, either through online classes or recorded videos.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Instead of setting a blanket age for determining valid consent, we could look at alternative means to determine the appropriate age for children at different levels of maturity, similar to what had been developed by the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office. The Age Appropriate Code prescribes 15 standards that online services need to follow. It broadly applies to online services "provided for remuneration"—including those supported by online advertising—that process the personal data of and are "likely to be accessed" by children under 18 years of age, even if those services are not targeted at children. This includes apps, search engines, social media platforms, online games and marketplaces, news or educational websites, content streaming services, online messaging services. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>The reservation to definition of child under the Bill has also been expressed by some members of the JPC through their dissenting opinion. MP Ritesh Pandey stated that keeping in mind the best interest of the child the Bill should consider a child to be a person who is less than 14 years of age. This would ensure that young people could benefit from the advances in technology without parental consent and reduce the social barriers that young women face in accessing the internet. Similarly Manish Tiwari in his dissenting note also observed that the regulation of the processing of data of children should be based on the type of content or data. The JPC Report observed that the Bill does not require the data fiduciary to take fresh consent of the child, once the child has attained the age of majority, and it also does not give the child the option to withdraw their consent upon reaching the majority age. It therefore, made the following recommendations:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Registration of data fiduciaries, exclusively dealing with children’s data. Application of the Majority Act to a contract with a child. Obligation of Data fiduciary to inform a child to provide their consent, three months before such child attains majority Continuation of the services until the child opts out or gives a fresh consent, upon achieving majority. However, these recommendations have not been incorporated into the provisions of the Bill. In addition to this the Bill is silent on the status of non consensual processing and deemed consent with respect to the data of children.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>We recommend that fiduciaries who have services targeted at children should be considered as significant Data Fiduciaries. In addition to this the Bill should also state that the guardians could approach the Data Protection Board on behalf of the child. With these obligations in place, the age of mandatory consent could be reduced and the data fiduciary could have an added responsibility of informing the children in the simplest manner how their data will be used. Such an approach places a responsibility on Data Fiduciaires when implementing services that will be used by children and allows the children to be aware of data processing, when they are interacting with technology.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>Chapter III-RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF DATA PRINCIPAL</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>Rights of Data Principal</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Clause 12(3) of the Bill while providing the Data Principal the right to be informed of the identities of all the Data Fiduciaries with whom the personal data has been shared, also states that the data principal has the right to be informed of the categories of personal data shared. However the current version of the Bill provides only one category of data that is personal data. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Clause 14 of the Bill talks about the Right of Grievance Redressal, and states that the Data Principal has the right to readily available means of registering a grievance, however the Bill does not provide in the Notice provisions the need to mention details of a grievance officer or a grievance redressal mechanism. It is only the additional obligations on significant data fiduciary that mentions the need for a Data Protection officer to be the contact for the grievance redressal mechanism under the provisions of this Bill. The Bill could ideally re-use the provisions of the IT Act SPDI Rules 2011 in which Section 5(7) states <i>“Body corporate shall address any discrepancies and grievances of their provider of the information with respect to processing of information in a time bound manner. For this purpose, the body corporate shall designate a Grievance Officer and publish his name and contact details on its website. The Grievance Officer shall redress the grievances or provider of information expeditiously but within one month ' from the date of receipt of grievance.”<br /> </i><br /> The above framing would not only bring clarity to the data fiduciaries on what process to follow for a grievance redressal, it also would reduce the significant burden of theBoard. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>Duties of Data Principals</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>The Bill while entisting duties of the Data Principal states that the “Data Principal shall not register a false or frivolous grievance or complaint with a Data Fiduciary or the Board”, however it is very difficult for a Data Principal to and even for the Board to determine what constitutes a “frivolous grievance”. In addition to this the absence of a defined notice provision and the inclusion of deemed consent would mean that the Data Fiduciary could have more information about the matter than the Data Principal. This could mean that the fiduciary could prove that a claim was false or frivolous. Clause 21(12) states that “<i>At any stage after receipt of a complaint, if the Board determines that the complaint is devoid of merit, it may issue a warning or impose costs on the complainant.” </i>In addition to this Clause 25(1) states that “ <i>If the Board determines on conclusion of an inquiry that non- compliance by <b>a person </b>is significant, it may, after giving the person a reasonable opportunity of being heard, impose such financial penalty as specified in Schedule 1, not exceeding rupees five hundred crore in each instance.” </i>The use of the term “person” in this case includes data which could mean that they could be penalised under the provisions of the Bill, which could also include not complying with the duties.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>CHAPTER IV- SPECIAL PROVISIONS</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>Transfer of Personal Data outside India</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Clause 17 of the Bill has removed the requirement of data localisation which the 2018 and 2019 Bill required. Personal data can be transferred to countries that will be notified by the central government. There is no need for a copy of the data to be stored locally and no prohibition on transferring sensitive personal data and critical data. Though it is a welcome change that personal data can be transferred outside of India, we would highlight the concerns in permitting unrestricted access to and transfer of all types of data. Certain data such as defence and health data do require sectoral regulation and ringfencing of the transfer of data. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>Exemptions</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Clause 18 of the Bill has widened the scope of government exemptions. Blanket exemption has been given to the State under Clause 18(4) from deleting the personal data even when the purpose for which the data was collected is no longer served or when retention is no longer necessary. The requirement of <i>proportionality, reasonableness and fairness</i> have been removed for the Central Government to exempt any department or instrumentality from the ambit of the Bill.</span><span> </span><span>By doing away with the four pronged test, this provision is not in consonance with test laid down by the Supreme Court and are also incompatible with an effective privacy regulation. There is also no provision for either a prior judicial review of the order by a district judge as envisaged by the Justice Srikrishna Committee Report or post facto review by an oversight committee of the order as laid down under the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3"><sup><sup><span>[3]</span></sup></sup></a> and the rules framed under Information Technology Act<a href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4"><sup><sup><span>[4]</span></sup></sup></a>. The provision states that such processing of personal data shall be subject to the procedure, safeguard and oversight mechanisms that may be prescribed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify; "><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="100%" />
<div id="ftn1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1"><sup><span><sup><span>[1]</span></sup></span></sup></a><span> Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules, 2011</span><span>.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2"><sup><span><sup><span>[2]</span></sup></span></sup></a><span> Clause 97 of the 2018 Bill states<i>“(1) For the purposes of this Chapter, the term ‘notified date’ refers to the date notified by the Central Government under sub-section (3) of section 1. (2)The notified date shall be any date within twelve months from the date of enactment of this Act. (3)The following provisions shall come into force on the notified date-(a) Chapter X; (b) Section 107; and (c) Section 108. (4)The Central Government shall, no later than three months from the notified date establish the Authority. (5)The Authority shall, no later than twelve months from the notified date notify the grounds of processing of personal data in respect of the activities listed in sub-section (2) of section 17. (6) The Authority shall no, later than twelve months from the date notified date issue codes of practice on the following matters-(a) notice under section 8; (b) data quality under section 9; (c) storage limitation under section 10; (d) processing of personal data under Chapter III; (e) processing of sensitive personal data under Chapter IV; (f) security safeguards under section 31; (g) research purposes under section 45;(h) exercise of data principal rights under Chapter VI; (i) methods of de-identification and anonymisation; (j) transparency and accountability measures under Chapter VII. (7)Section 40 shall come into force on such date as is notified by the Central Government for the purpose of that section.(8)The remaining provision of the Act shall come into force eighteen months from the notified date.”</i></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3"><sup><span><sup><span>[3]</span></sup></span></sup></a><span> </span><span>Rule 419A (16): The Central Government or the State Government shall constitute a Review Committee. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Rule 419 A(17): The Review Committee shall meet at least once in two months and record its findings whether the directions issued under sub-rule (1) are in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) of Section 5 of the said Act. When the Review Committee is of the opinion that the directions are not in accordance with the provisions referred to above it may set aside the directions and orders for destruction of the copies of the intercepted message or class of messages.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn4">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4"><sup><span><sup><span>[4]</span></sup></span></sup></a><span> </span><span>Rule 22 of Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009: The Review Committee shall meet at least once in two months and record its findings whether the directions issued under rule 3 are in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) of section 69 of the Act and where the Review Committee is of the opinion that the directions are not in accordance with the provisions referred to above, it may set aside the directions and issue an order for destruction of the copies, including corresponding electronic record of the intercepted or monitored or decrypted information.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-comments-recommendations-to-digital-data-protection-bill'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-comments-recommendations-to-digital-data-protection-bill</a>
</p>
No publisherShweta Mohandas and Pallavi BediInternet GovernanceDigital GovernanceData ProtectionPrivacy2023-01-20T02:35:30ZBlog EntrySummary Report Internet Governance Forum 2015
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/summary-report-internet-governance-forum-2015
<b>Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), India participated in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) held at Poeta Ronaldo Cunha Lima Conference Center, Joao Pessoa in Brazil from 10 November 2015 to 13 November 2015. The theme of IGF 2015 was ‘Evolution of Internet Governance: Empowering Sustainable Development’. Sunil Abraham, Pranesh Prakash & Jyoti Panday from CIS actively engaged and made substantive contributions to several key issues affecting internet governance at the IGF 2015. The issue-wise detail of their engagement is set out below. </b>
<p align="center" style="text-align: left;"><strong>INTERNET
GOVERNANCE</strong></p>
<p align="justify">
I. The
Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group to the IGF organised a discussion on
<em><strong>Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) and Internet Economy</strong></em><em>
</em>at
the Main Meeting Hall from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm on 11 November, 2015.
The
discussions at this session focused on the importance of Internet
Economy enabling policies and eco-system for the fulfilment of
different SDGs. Several concerns relating to internet
entrepreneurship, effective ICT capacity building, protection of
intellectual property within and across borders were availability of
local applications and content were addressed. The panel also
discussed the need to identify SDGs where internet based technologies
could make the most effective contribution. Sunil
Abraham contributed to the panel discussions by addressing the issue
of development and promotion of local content and applications. List
of speakers included:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p align="justify">
Lenni
Montiel, Assistant-Secretary-General for Development, United Nations</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Helani
Galpaya, CEO LIRNEasia</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Sergio
Quiroga da Cunha, Head of Latin America, Ericsson</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Raúl
L. Katz, Adjunct Professor, Division of Finance and Economics,
Columbia Institute of Tele-information</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Jimson
Olufuye, Chairman, Africa ICT Alliance (AfICTA)</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Lydia
Brito, Director of the Office in Montevideo, UNESCO</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
H.E.
Rudiantara, Minister of Communication & Information Technology,
Indonesia</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Daniel
Sepulveda, Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Coordinator for
International and Communications Policy at the U.S. Department of
State </p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Deputy
Minister Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services for
the republic of South Africa</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Sunil
Abraham, Executive Director, Centre for Internet and Society, India</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
H.E.
Junaid Ahmed Palak, Information and Communication Technology
Minister of Bangladesh</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Jari
Arkko, Chairman, IETF</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Silvia
Rabello, President, Rio Film Trade Association</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Gary
Fowlie, Head of Member State Relations & Intergovernmental
Organizations, ITU</p>
</li></ol>
<p align="justify">
Detailed
description of the workshop is available here
<a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">http</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">://</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">www</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">.</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">intgovforum</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">.</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">org</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">/</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">cms</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">/</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">igf</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">2015-</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">main</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">-</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">sessions</a><u>
</u></p>
<p align="justify">
Transcript
of the workshop is available here
<u><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2327-2015-11-11-internet-economy-and-sustainable-development-main-meeting-room">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2327-2015-11-11-internet-economy-and-sustainable-development-main-meeting-room</a></u></p>
<p align="justify">
Video
link Internet
economy and Sustainable Development here
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6obkLehVE8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6obkLehVE8</a></p>
<p align="justify"> II.
Public
Knowledge organised a workshop on <em><strong>The
Benefits and Challenges of the Free Flow of Data </strong></em>at
Workshop Room
5 from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm on 12 November, 2015. The discussions in
the workshop focused on the benefits and challenges of the free flow
of data and also the concerns relating to data flow restrictions
including ways to address
them. Sunil
Abraham contributed to the panel discussions by addressing the issue
of jurisdiction of data on the internet. The
panel for the workshop included the following.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p align="justify">
Vint
Cerf, Google</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Lawrence
Strickling, U.S. Department of Commerce, NTIA</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Richard
Leaning, European Cyber Crime Centre (EC3), Europol</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Marietje
Schaake, European Parliament</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Nasser
Kettani, Microsoft</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Sunil
Abraham, CIS
India</p>
</li></ol>
<p align="justify">
Detailed
description of the workshop is available here
<a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">http</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">://</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">www</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">.</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">intgovforum</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">.</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">org</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">/</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">cms</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">/</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">workshops</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">/</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">list</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">-</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">of</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">-</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">published</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">-</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">workshop</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">-</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">proposals</a><u>
</u></p>
<p align="justify">
Transcript
of the workshop is available here
<a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2467-2015-11-12-ws65-the-benefits-and-challenges-of-the-free-flow-of-data-workshop-room-5">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2467-2015-11-12-ws65-the-benefits-and-challenges-of-the-free-flow-of-data-workshop-room-5</a></p>
<p align="justify">
Video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtjnHkOn7EQ</p>
<p align="justify"> III.
Article
19 and
Privacy International organised a workshop on <em><strong>Encryption
and Anonymity: Rights and Risks</strong></em>
at Workshop Room 1 from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm on 12 November, 2015.
The
workshop fostered a discussion about the latest challenges to
protection of anonymity and encryption and ways in which law
enforcement demands could be met while ensuring that individuals
still enjoyed strong encryption and unfettered access to anonymity
tools. Pranesh
Prakash contributed to the panel discussions by addressing concerns
about existing south Asian regulatory framework on encryption and
anonymity and emphasizing the need for pervasive encryption. The
panel for this workshop included the following.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p align="justify">
David
Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Juan
Diego Castañeda, Fundación Karisma, Colombia</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Edison
Lanza, Organisation of American States Special Rapporteur</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Pranesh
Prakash, CIS India</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Ted
Hardie, Google</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Elvana
Thaci, Council of Europe</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Professor
Chris Marsden, Oxford Internet Institute</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Alexandrine
Pirlot de Corbion, Privacy International</p>
</li></ol>
<p align="justify"><a name="_Hlt435412531"></a>
Detailed
description of the workshop is available here
<a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">http</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">://</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">www</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">.</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">intgovforum</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">.</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">org</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">/</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">cms</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">/</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">worksh</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">o</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">ps</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">/</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">list</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">-</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">of</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">-</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">published</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">-</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">workshop</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">-</a><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">proposals</a><u>
</u></p>
<p align="justify">
Transcript
of the workshop is available here
<a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2407-2015-11-12-ws-155-encryption-and-anonymity-rights-and-risks-workshop-room-1">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2407-2015-11-12-ws-155-encryption-and-anonymity-rights-and-risks-workshop-room-1</a></p>
<p align="justify">
Video link available here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUrBP4PsfJo</p>
<p align="justify"> IV.
Chalmers
& Associates organised a session on <em><strong>A
Dialogue on Zero Rating and Network Neutrality</strong></em>
at the Main Meeting Hall from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm on 12 November,
2015. The Dialogue provided access to expert insight on zero-rating
and a full spectrum of diverse
views on this issue. The Dialogue also explored alternative
approaches to zero rating such as use of community networks. Pranesh
Prakash provided
a
detailed explanation of harms and benefits related to different
approaches to zero-rating. The
panellists for this session were the following.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p align="justify">
Jochai
Ben-Avie, Senior Global Policy Manager, Mozilla, USA</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Igor
Vilas Boas de Freitas, Commissioner, ANATEL, Brazil</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Dušan
Caf, Chairman, Electronic Communications Council, Republic of
Slovenia</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Silvia
Elaluf-Calderwood, Research Fellow, London School of Economics,
UK/Peru</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Belinda
Exelby, Director, Institutional Relations, GSMA, UK</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Helani
Galpaya, CEO, LIRNEasia, Sri Lanka</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Anka
Kovacs, Director, Internet Democracy Project, India</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Kevin
Martin, VP, Mobile and Global Access Policy, Facebook, USA</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Pranesh
Prakash, Policy Director, CIS India</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Steve
Song, Founder, Village Telco, South Africa/Canada</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Dhanaraj
Thakur, Research Manager, Alliance for Affordable Internet, USA/West
Indies</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Christopher
Yoo, Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer & Information
Science, University of Pennsylvania, USA</p>
</li></ol>
<p align="justify">
Detailed
description of the workshop is available here
<a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions" target="_top">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/igf2015-main-sessions</a></p>
<p align="justify">
Transcript
of the workshop is available here
<a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2457-2015-11-12-a-dialogue-on-zero-rating-and-network-neutrality-main-meeting-hall-2">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2457-2015-11-12-a-dialogue-on-zero-rating-and-network-neutrality-main-meeting-hall-2</a></p>
<p align="justify"> V.
The
Internet & Jurisdiction Project organised a workshop on
<em><strong>Transnational
Due Process: A Case Study in MS Cooperation</strong></em>
at Workshop Room
4 from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm on 13 November, 2015. The
workshop discussion focused on the challenges in developing an
enforcement framework for the internet that guarantees transnational
due process and legal interoperability. The discussion also focused
on innovative approaches to multi-stakeholder cooperation such as
issue-based networks, inter-sessional work methods and transnational
policy standards. The panellists for this discussion were the
following.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p align="justify">
Anne
Carblanc Head of Division, Directorate for Science, Technology and
Industry, OECD</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Eileen
Donahoe Director Global Affairs, Human Rights Watch</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Byron
Holland President and CEO, CIRA (Canadian ccTLD)</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Christopher
Painter Coordinator for Cyber Issues, US Department of State</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Sunil
Abraham Executive Director, CIS India</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Alice
Munyua Lead dotAfrica Initiative and GAC representative, African
Union Commission</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Will
Hudsen Senior Advisor for International Policy, Google</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Dunja
Mijatovic Representative on Freedom of the Media, OSCE</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Thomas
Fitschen Director for the United Nations, for International
Cooperation against Terrorism and for Cyber Foreign Policy, German
Federal Foreign Office</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Hartmut
Glaser Executive Secretary, Brazilian Internet Steering Committee</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Matt
Perault, Head of Policy Development Facebook</p>
</li></ol>
<p align="justify">
Detailed
description of the workshop is available here
<a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals</a></p>
<p align="justify">
Transcript
of the workshop is available here
<a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2475-2015-11-13-ws-132-transnational-due-process-a-case-study-in-ms-cooperation-workshop-room-4">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2475-2015-11-13-ws-132-transnational-due-process-a-case-study-in-ms-cooperation-workshop-room-4</a></p>
<p align="justify">
Video
link Transnational
Due Process: A Case Study in MS Cooperation available here <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9jVovhQhd0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9jVovhQhd0</a></p>
<p align="justify"> VI.
The Internet Governance Project organised a meeting of the
<em><strong>Dynamic
Coalition on Accountability of Internet Governance Venues</strong></em>
at Workshop Room 2 from 14:00
– 15:30 on
12 November, 2015. The coalition
brought together panelists to highlight the
challenges in developing an accountability
framework
for internet governance
venues that include setting up standards and developing a set of
concrete criteria. Jyoti Panday provided the perspective of civil
society on why acountability is necessary in internet governance
processes and organizations. The panelists for this workshop included
the following.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>
Robin
Gross, IP Justice</p>
</li><li>
<p>
Jeanette
Hofmann, Director
<a href="http://www.internetundgesellschaft.de/">Alexander
von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society</a></p>
</li><li>
<p>
Farzaneh
Badiei,
Internet Governance Project</p>
</li><li>
<p>
Erika
Mann,
Managing
Director Public PolicyPolicy Facebook and Board of Directors
ICANN</p>
</li><li>
<p>
Paul
Wilson, APNIC</p>
</li><li>
<p>
Izumi
Okutani, Japan
Network Information Center (JPNIC)</p>
</li><li>
<p>
Keith
Drazek , Verisign</p>
</li><li>
<p>
Jyoti
Panday,
CIS</p>
</li><li>
<p>
Jorge
Cancio,
GAC representative</p>
</li></ol>
<p>
Detailed
description of the workshop is available here
<a href="http://igf2015.sched.org/event/4c23/dynamic-coalition-on-accountability-of-internet-governance-venues?iframe=no&w=&sidebar=yes&bg=no">http://igf2015.sched.org/event/4c23/dynamic-coalition-on-accountability-of-internet-governance-venues?iframe=no&w=&sidebar=yes&bg=no</a></p>
<p>
Video
link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIxyGhnch7w</p>
<p> VII.
Digital
Infrastructure
Netherlands Foundation organized an open forum at
Workshop Room 3
from 11:00
– 12:00
on
10
November, 2015. The open
forum discussed the increase
in government engagement with “the internet” to protect their
citizens against crime and abuse and to protect economic interests
and critical infrastructures. It
brought
together panelists topresent
ideas about an agenda for the international protection of ‘the
public core of the internet’ and to collect and discuss ideas for
the formulation of norms and principles and for the identification of
practical steps towards that goal.
Pranesh Prakash participated in the e open forum. Other speakers
included</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>
Bastiaan
Goslings AMS-IX, NL</p>
</li><li>
<p>
Pranesh
Prakash CIS, India</p>
</li><li>
<p>
Marilia
Maciel (FGV, Brasil</p>
</li><li>
<p>
Dennis
Broeders (NL Scientific Council for Government Policy)</p>
</li></ol>
<p>
Detailed
description of the open
forum is available here
<a href="http://schd.ws/hosted_files/igf2015/3d/DINL_IGF_Open%20Forum_The_public_core_of_the_internet.pdf">http://schd.ws/hosted_files/igf2015/3d/DINL_IGF_Open%20Forum_The_public_core_of_the_internet.pdf</a></p>
<p>
Video
link available here <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joPQaMQasDQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joPQaMQasDQ</a></p>
<p>
VIII.
UNESCO, Council of Europe, Oxford University, Office of the High
Commissioner on Human Rights, Google, Internet Society organised a
workshop on hate speech and youth radicalisation at Room 9 on
Thursday, November 12. UNESCO shared the initial outcome from its
commissioned research on online hate speech including practical
recommendations on combating against online hate speech through
understanding the challenges, mobilizing civil society, lobbying
private sectors and intermediaries and educating individuals with
media and information literacy. The workshop also discussed how to
help empower youth to address online radicalization and extremism,
and realize their aspirations to contribute to a more peaceful and
sustainable world. Sunil Abraham provided his inputs. Other speakers
include</p>
<p>
1.
Chaired by Ms Lidia Brito, Director for UNESCO Office in Montevideo</p>
<p>
2.Frank
La Rue, Former Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression</p>
<p>
3.
Lillian Nalwoga, President ISOC Uganda and rep CIPESA, Technical
community</p>
<p>
4.
Bridget O’Loughlin, CoE, IGO</p>
<p>
5.
Gabrielle Guillemin, Article 19</p>
<p>
6.
Iyad Kallas, Radio Souriali</p>
<p>
7.
Sunil Abraham executive director of Center for Internet and Society,
Bangalore, India</p>
<p>
8.
Eve Salomon, global Chairman of the Regulatory Board of RICS</p>
<p>
9.
Javier Lesaca Esquiroz, University of Navarra</p>
<p>
10.
Representative GNI</p>
<p>
11.
Remote Moderator: Xianhong Hu, UNESCO</p>
<p>
12.
Rapporteur: Guilherme Canela De Souza Godoi, UNESCO</p>
<p>
Detailed
description of the workshop
is available here
<a href="http://igf2015.sched.org/event/4c1X/ws-128-mitigate-online-hate-speech-and-youth-radicalisation?iframe=no&w=&sidebar=yes&bg=no">http://igf2015.sched.org/event/4c1X/ws-128-mitigate-online-hate-speech-and-youth-radicalisation?iframe=no&w=&sidebar=yes&bg=no</a></p>
<p>
Video
link to the panel is available here
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIO1z4EjRG0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIO1z4EjRG0</a></p>
<p> <strong>INTERMEDIARY
LIABILITY</strong></p>
<p align="justify">
IX.
Electronic
Frontier Foundation, Centre for Internet Society India, Open Net
Korea and Article 19 collaborated to organize
a workshop on the <em><strong>Manila
Principles on Intermediary Liability</strong></em>
at Workshop Room 9 from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm on 13 November 2015. The
workshop elaborated on the Manila
Principles, a high level principle framework of best practices and
safeguards for content restriction practices and addressing liability
for intermediaries for third party content. The
workshop
saw particpants engaged in over lapping projects considering
restriction practices coming togetehr to give feedback and highlight
recent developments across liability regimes. Jyoti
Panday laid down the key details of the Manila Principles framework
in this session. The panelists for this workshop included the
following.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p align="justify">
Kelly
Kim Open Net Korea,</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Jyoti
Panday, CIS India,</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Gabrielle
Guillemin, Article 19,</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Rebecca
McKinnon on behalf of UNESCO</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Giancarlo
Frosio, Center for Internet and Society, Stanford Law School</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Nicolo
Zingales, Tilburg University</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Will
Hudson, Google</p>
</li></ol>
<p align="justify">
Detailed
description of the workshop is available here
<a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals</a></p>
<p align="justify">
Transcript
of the workshop is available here
<a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2423-2015-11-13-ws-242-the-manila-principles-on-intermediary-liability-workshop-room-9">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2423-2015-11-13-ws-242-the-manila-principles-on-intermediary-liability-workshop-room-9</a></p>
<p align="justify">
Video link available here <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFLmzxXodjs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFLmzxXodjs</a></p>
<p align="justify"> <strong>ACCESSIBILITY</strong></p>
<p align="justify">
X.
Dynamic
Coalition
on Accessibility and Disability and Global Initiative for Inclusive
ICTs organised a workshop on <em><strong>Empowering
the Next Billion by Improving Accessibility</strong></em><em>
</em>at
Workshop Room 6 from 9:00 am to 10:30 am on 13 November, 2015. The
discussion focused on
the need and ways to remove accessibility barriers which prevent over
one billion potential users to benefit from the Internet, including
for essential services. Sunil
Abraham specifically spoke about the lack of compliance of existing
ICT infrastructure with well established accessibility standards
specifically relating to accessibility barriers in the disaster
management process. He discussed the barriers faced by persons with
physical or psychosocial disabilities. The
panelists for this discussion were the following.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p align="justify">
Francesca
Cesa Bianchi, G3ICT</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Cid
Torquato, Government of Brazil</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Carlos
Lauria, Microsoft Brazil</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Sunil
Abraham, CIS India</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Derrick
L. Cogburn, Institute on Disability and Public Policy (IDPP) for the
ASEAN(Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Region</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Fernando
H. F. Botelho, F123 Consulting</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Gunela
Astbrink, GSA InfoComm</p>
</li></ol>
<p align="justify">
Detailed
description of the workshop is available here
<u><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals</a></u></p>
<p align="justify">
Transcript
of the workshop is available here
<u><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2438-2015-11-13-ws-253-empowering-the-next-billion-by-improving-accessibility-workshop-room-3">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2438-2015-11-13-ws-253-empowering-the-next-billion-by-improving-accessibility-workshop-room-3</a></u></p>
<p align="justify">
Video
Link Empowering
the next billion by improving accessibility <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RZlWvJAXxs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RZlWvJAXxs</a></p>
<p align="justify"> <strong>OPENNESS</strong></p>
<p align="justify">
XI.
A
workshop on <em><strong>FOSS
& a Free, Open Internet: Synergies for Development</strong></em>
was organized at Workshop Room 7 from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm on 13
November, 2015. The discussion was focused on the increasing risk to
openness of the internet and the ability of present & future
generations to use technology to improve their lives. The panel shred
different perspectives about the future co-development
of FOSS and a free, open Internet; the threats that are emerging; and
ways for communities to surmount these. Sunil
Abraham emphasised the importance of free software, open standards,
open access and access to knowledge and the lack of this mandate in
the draft outcome document for upcoming WSIS+10 review and called for
inclusion of the same. Pranesh Prakash further contributed to the
discussion by emphasizing the need for free open source software with
end‑to‑end encryption and traffic level encryption based
on open standards which are decentralized and work through federated
networks. The
panellists for this discussion were the following.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p align="justify">
Satish
Babu, Technical Community, Chair, ISOC-TRV, Kerala, India</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Judy
Okite, Civil Society, FOSS Foundation for Africa</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Mishi
Choudhary, Private Sector, Software Freedom Law Centre, New York</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Fernando
Botelho, Private Sector, heads F123 Systems, Brazil</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Sunil
Abraham, CIS
India</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Pranesh
Prakash, CIS
India</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Nnenna
Nwakanma- WWW.Foundation</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Yves
MIEZAN EZO, Open Source strategy consultant</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Corinto
Meffe, Advisor to the President and Directors, SERPRO, Brazil</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Frank
Coelho de Alcantara, Professor, Universidade Positivo, Brazil</p>
</li><li>
<p align="justify">
Caroline
Burle, Institutional and International Relations, W3C Brazil Office
and Center of Studies on Web Technologies</p>
</li></ol>
<p align="justify">
Detailed
description of the workshop is available here
<u><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals" target="_top">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/workshops/list-of-published-workshop-proposals</a></u></p>
<p align="justify">
Transcript
of the workshop is available here
<u><a href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2468-2015-11-13-ws10-foss-and-a-free-open-internet-synergies-for-development-workshop-room-7" target="_top">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/187-igf-2015/transcripts-igf-2015/2468-2015-11-13-ws10-foss-and-a-free-open-internet-synergies-for-development-workshop-room-7</a></u></p>
<p align="justify">
Video
link available here <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwUq0LTLnDs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwUq0LTLnDs</a></p>
<p align="justify">
<br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/summary-report-internet-governance-forum-2015'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/summary-report-internet-governance-forum-2015</a>
</p>
No publisherjyotiAccess to KnowledgeBig DataFreedom of Speech and ExpressionEncryptionInternet Governance ForumIntermediary LiabilityAccountabilityInternet GovernanceCensorshipCyber SecurityDigital GovernanceAnonymityCivil SocietyBlocking2015-11-30T10:47:13ZBlog EntryOpen Standards Workshop at IGF '09
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dcos-workshop-09
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society co-organized a workshop on 'Open Standards: A Rights-Based Framework' at the fourth Internet Governance Forum, at Sharm el-Sheikh. The panel was chaired by Aslam Raffee of Sun Microsystems and the panellists were Sir Tim Berners-Lee of W3C, Renu Budhiraja of India's DIT, Sunil Abraham of CIS, Steve Mutkoski of Microsoft, and Rishab Ghosh of UNU-MERIT.</b>
<p>Sir Tim Berners-Lee started the session with an address on various rights. Rights, he noted can range from being things like the rights to air and water to the right not to have the data carrier you use determine which movie you watch. Then, there are tensions between rights: the right to anonymity can clash with the right to know who posted information on making a bomb. Berners-Lee stated that for 2009, he has chosen to pursue one particular right: the right to government-held data. This data can include everything from where schools are to emergency services such as locations of hospitals. Today, we are talking about standards. </p>
<p>The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is a fifteen-year old body in which all kinds of people come together for purposes of setting standards around the World Wide Web. Thus, everything from HTML, which is used to write Web pages to WCAG, which are guidelines to enable people with disabilities access websites through assistive technologies. W3C conducts its discussions openly: anybody who has a good idea has a right to participate in its discussions -- it does not matter who one works for, who one represents -- what does matter are the ideas one brings to the table. The kinds of standards that W3C deals with are of interest to an immensely wide-ranging group of people. Even ten-year olds have actually expressed their opinions about standards like HTML. All this openness of participation must be guaranteed while ensuring that the processes move forward.</p>
<p>Next spoke Renu Budhiraja of the Department of Information and Technology, which is a part of the Indian government. She started off by hoping that this workshop would be not only a platform to share knowledge, but also to reach consensus on a few matters. Next, she laid out why open standards are extremely important for the Indian government. What citizens want in their interactions with the government are ease of interaction and efficiency. For them it is immaterial whether a certain service is provided by Department A or Department B. Thus we need to move towards a single-window government service for citizens, enabling them to interact easily with the government's various departments. While such an initiative must be centralized for it to be effective, it is crucial that its implementation be decentralized and suited to each district or localities' needs.</p>
<p>There is, understandably, a huge institutional mechanism behind ensuring that these systems are based on open standards. We have expert committees, consisting of academics and knowledgeable bureaucrats, and working groups, which include industry groups. Through these, we have evolved a National Policy on Open Standards, which is currently in a draft stage, but shall be notified soon. This policy outlines the principles based on which particular standards required for governmental functioning are to be chosen or evolved. This document will ensure long-term accessibility to public documents and information, and seamless interoperability of various governmental services and departments. It will also reduce the risk of vendor lock-in and reduce costs, and thus ensure long-term, sustainable, scalable and cost-effective solutions.</p>
<p>Ms. Budhiraja noted that there are a few aspects of the policy that bear discussion in a forum such as the IGF. First is the issue of whether royalty-free is the only choice for innovation. All other things equal, between royalty-free and reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) standards, of course royalty-free is to be preferred. But what if a superior technology (JPEG200 vs. JPEG) is RAND? What should the government's position be in such a case? Further, what should the government's position be when in a particular domain a RAND standard is the only option? </p>
<p>Next is the issue of single vs. multiple open standards. When interoperability is what we are aiming at, can multiple standards be recommended as some in the industry are asking us to do? And then is the issue of market maturity. The government sometimes finds itself in a situation where a standard is available, but well-developed products around that standard aren't and there aren't sufficient vendors using that standard. All these issues are of great practical importance when a government works on a policy document on standards.</p>
<p>Next up was Sunil Abraham, Executive Director of the Centre for Internet and Society. His presentation was on open standards as citizens' and consumers' rights. He started off by citing the example of the Smart Card Operating System for Transport Application (SCOSTA) standard, and the implications that the SCOSTA story has on large-scale projects such as the National Unique ID project currently under way in India. SCOSTA, an open standard, was being written off as unimplementable by all the MNC smart card vendors who wished to push RAND standards. IIT Kanpur helped the government develop a working implementation. Within twenty days, the card manufacturers submitted modified cards for compliance testing by NIC. Because of SCOSTA being an open standard, local companies also joined the tender. The cost went down from Rs. 600 per card to Rs. 30 per card. This shows the benefits of open standards as a means of curbing oligopolistic pricing, and working for the benefit of consumers.</p>
<p>From a rights-based perspective, access to the state machinery is a primary right. Citizens should not be required to pirate or purchase software to interact with the state. If e-governance solutions are based on proprietary standards, not all citizens would be equal. The South African example or requiring a particular browser to access the election commission's website shows that in a rather drastic fashion. When intellectual property interferes with governmental needs, governments have not been shy of issuing compulsory licences. This was seen when during the Great War the United States government pooled various flight-related patents and compulsorily licensed them, as well as what we are currently seeing with many Aids-related drugs being compulsorily licensed in developing countries. Thus, there are precedents for such licensing, and governments should explore them in the realm of e-governance. Many countries now have statutes that guarantee the right to government-held information. Government Interoperability Frameworks should take these into account, and mandate all government-to-citizen (G2C) information be transacted via open standards. This must be backed up by a strong accessibility policy to ensure that the governments don't discriminate between their citizens.</p>
<p>Proprietary standards act like pseudo-intellectual property rights, just as DRMs do. They add a layer on top of rights such as copyright, and can prevent the exercise of fair use and fair dealing rights because of an inability to legally negotiate the standards in which the content is encoded in a cost-free manner. In guaranteeing this balance between copyrights and fair dealing rights, free software and alternative IP models play a crucial role. Because of software patents being recognized in a few countries, development of free software which allows citizens to exercise their fair use rights is harmed in all countries.</p>
<p>Steve Mutkoski of Microsoft spoke next and placed the standards debate in a large context. He noted that standards are a technicality that are only a small part of the large issue which is interoperability in e-governance and delivery to citizens. The real challenges are organizational and semantic interoperability. Frequently interoperability is not harmed by technical issues, but by legal and organizational issues. Governments used to work on paper; during the shift to electronic data, they didn't engage in any organizational changes. Thus they continue to function with electronic data the same way that they did with paper-based data. Governments often lack strong privacy policies regarding the data that each of their departments holds. This harms governmental functioning. Additionally, legacy hardware and software have to be catered to by the standards we are talking about: sometimes an open standard just will not work. </p>
<p>Standards don't guarantee interoperability, and there is significant work done on this by noted academics ("Why Standards Are Not Enough To Guarantee End-to-End Interoperability" Lewis et al.; "Difficulties Implementing Standards" Egyedi & Dahanayake; "Standards Compliant, But Incompatible?" Egyedi et al.). Mandated standards lists will not help address interoperability issues between different implementations of the same standard. What would help? Transparency of implementations; collaboration with community; active participation in maintenance of standards, etc., would help. There is a need for continued public sector reform, with a focus on citizen-centric e-governance, and a need to engage with the question of whether government-mandated standards lists lead the market or follow the market.</p>
<p>Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, a senior researcher at UN University, Maastricht, spoke next. He started by noting that technical standards are left to technical experts. That needs to change, which is why discussing open standards at the IGF is important. He next set off a hypothetical: imagine you go to the city council office in Sharm el Sheik, and at the parking lot there it says that your car has to be a Ford if you are to park there; or if the Dutch government insists that you have a Philips TV if you are to receive the national broadcaster's signal. While these might seem absurd, situations like this arise all the time when it comes to the realm of software. Thus, the social effects of open standards are of utmost importance, and not just their technical qualities. Analysing the social effects of open standards takes us back to the economics of technology and technological standards. Technological standards exhibit network externalities: their inherent value is less than the value of others using them. Being the only person in the world with a telephone won't be very useful. Technological standards also exhibit path dependence: once you go with one technological format, it is difficult to change over to another even if that other format is superior to the first. Thus, clearly, standards benefit when there is a 'natural monopoly'. The challenge really arises when faced with the question of how to ensure a monopoly in a technology without the supplier of that technology exhibiting monopolistic tendencies. This can only be done when the technology is open and developed openly, of which the web standards and the W3C are excellent examples. If the technology or the process are semi-open, then because of the few intellectual property rights attached to the technology, some would be better off than others. Just as governments cannot insist on driving a particular make of cars as a prerequisite for access to them, they cannot insist on using a particular proprietary standard as a means of accessing them.</p>
<p>Many interesting questions arose when the floor was thrown open to the audience. "Should governments only mandate a particular standard when it is certain that market maturity exists?" Not really, since governmental decisions also give signals to the market and help direct attention to those standards. It would be best if roadmaps were provided, with particular under-mature standards being designated as "preferred standards", thus helping push industry in a particular direction. Examples where this strategy has borne fruit abound. This is also the strategy found in the Australian GIF. On the issue of multiplicity of standards, Sir Tim was very clear that they have to be avoided at all costs. He gave the example of XSLT and CSS, which are both stylesheet formats. He noted that their domain of operation was very different (with one being for servers and the other for clients), so having two standards with similar functions but different domains of operation does not make them multiple standards. Multiple standards defeat the purpose of the standardization process.</p>
<p>It was noted that governmental choices are of practical importance to citizens. During the Hurricane Katrina emergency, the federal emergency website only worked properly if Internet Explorer was used. How do we move forward? We must move forward by having policies that strike a balance between allowing for the natural evolution of standards and stability. The Government Interoperability Frameworks must be dynamic documents, allowing for categorization between standards and having clear roadmaps to enable industry to provide solutions to the government in a timely fashion. Governments must be strong in order to push industry towards openness, for the sake of its citizens, and not let industry dictate proprietary standards as the solution. Some opined that since there are dozens of domains that governments function in, maintaining lists of standards is a time-consuming process that is not justified, but others rebutted that by noting that for enterprise architectures to work, governments have to maintain such lists internally. Opening up that list to citizens and service providers would not entail greater overheads.</p>
<p><strong>Sunil Abraham talking Open Standards at IGF09</strong></p>
<p>(Video added on December 30, 2009)<br /><br /><br /><a title="<OBJECT>, shockwave-flash@http://www.youtube.com/v/woC_6GddD6A&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" class="__noscriptPlaceholder__" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/woC_6GddD6A&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1">
</a></p>
<div style="float: none; text-align: start;" class="__noscriptPlaceholder__1"><a title="<OBJECT>, shockwave-flash@http://www.youtube.com/v/woC_6GddD6A&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" class="__noscriptPlaceholder__" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/woC_6GddD6A&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1">
<div class="__noscriptPlaceholder__2"> </div>
</a></div>
<a title="<OBJECT>, shockwave-flash@http://www.youtube.com/v/woC_6GddD6A&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" class="__noscriptPlaceholder__" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/woC_6GddD6A&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1">
</a>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dcos-workshop-09'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/dcos-workshop-09</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshOpen StandardsConsumer RightsDigital GovernanceFair DealingsFLOSSWorkshopOpenness2011-08-23T02:54:03ZBlog EntryCivic Hacking Workshop
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/civic-hacking-workshop
<b>CIS, with the UK Government's Foreign Office and the Cabinet Office Team for Digital Engagement, and Google India, is organizing a workshop on open data (or the lack thereof) and 'civic hacking'.</b>
<p>The UK Government's Foreign Office and the Cabinet Office Team for Digital Engagement, Google India and the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore are organizing a 'Civic Hacking Workshop' on Wednesday, July 28, 2010, bringing together civic-minded technologists who've been working with governmental data in India and Britain.</p>
<p>The workshop will discuss the problems of obtaining data, especially in India, the technological solutions that these various groups have encountered, the difficulties of technology as a mass-based civic solution, and the visions that these groups have for a more engaged civil society and the contributions they seek to make to the public.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The people attending are, from India (Bangalore):</p>
<ol><li>Alok Singh (Akshara Foundation)</li><li>Shivangi Desai (Akshara Foundation)</li><li>Arun Ganesh (Geohackers / National Institute of Design)</li><li>A. Pandian (Mapunity)</li><li>Sridhar Raman (Mapunity)</li><li>S. Raghavan Kandala (Mapunity)</li><li>Thejesh GN (Janaagraha / Infosys)</li><li>Sushant Sinha (IndianKanoon.com / Yahoo)</li><li>Vijay Rasquinha (Mahiti)</li><li>P.G. Bhat (SmartVote.in)<br /></li><li>Pranesh Prakash (CIS)</li><li>Raman Jit Singh Chima (Google)</li></ol>
<p><br />And from Britain:</p>
<ol><li>David McCandless (Information Is Beautiful)</li><li>Harry Metcalfe (TellThemWhatYouThink.org / Open Rights Group)</li><li>Tim Green (Democracy Club)</li><li>Edmund von der Burg (YourNextMP)</li><li>Rohan Silva (Special Adviser to the PM)</li></ol>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/civic-hacking-workshop'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/civic-hacking-workshop</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshOpen DataWorkshopDigital GovernanceOpenness2011-08-23T03:14:03ZBlog EntryEngaging on the Digital Commons
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/digital-commons
<b>We at the Centre for Internet and Society are very glad to be able to participate in the 13th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC). Our interest in the conference arises mainly from our work in the areas of intellectual property rights reform and promotion of different forms of ‘opennesses’ that have cropped up as a response to perceived problems with our present-day regime of intellectual property rights, including open content, open standards, free and open source software, open government data, open access to scholarly research and data, open access to law, etc., our emerging work on telecom policy with respect to open/shared spectrum, and the very important questions around Internet governance. The article by Sunil Abraham and Pranesh Prakash was published in the journal Common Voices, Issue 4.</b>
<p>Our work on intellectual property reform are proactive measures at effecting policy change that go towards protecting and preserving an intellectual, intangible commons. We have opposed the Protection and Utilization of the Public-funded Intellectual Property Bill (an Indian version of the American Bayh-Dole Act) which sought to privatise the fruits of publicfunded research by mandating patents on them. We are working towards reform of copyright law which we believe is lopsided in its lack of concern for consumers and that its current march towards greater enclosure of the public domain is unsustainable. Believing that not all areas of industry and technology are equal, and that patent protection is ill-suited for the software industry, we have worked to ensure that the current prohibitions against patenting of software are effectively followed.</p>
<p>Defensively—that is working within the existing framework of intellectual property law—we seek to promote the various forms of copyright and patent licensing that have arisen as reactions to restrictive IP laws. Free/open source software and open content have arisen as a reaction to the restrictive nature of copyright law, such as the presumption under copyright law that a work is copyrighted by the mere fact of it coming into existence. (for instance, this was not so in the United States until 1989, till when a copyright notice was required to assert copyright). While earlier the presumption was that a work was to belong to the public domain, after the Berne Convention, that presumption was reversed. This led to the creation of the idea of special licences, by using which one could allow all others to share his/her work and reuse it. This innovation in using the law to promote, rather than restrict, what others could do with one’s works has enabled the creation and sharing of everything from Wikipedia, to Linux (which powers more than 85 percent of the world’s top 500 supercomputers) and Apache HTTP server (more than 60 percent of all websites). The advent of the Internet has allowed the creation of intangible digital commons.</p>
<p>We are also starting to engage with the question of telecom policy around spectrum allocation, and believe that promotion of a shared spectrum would help make telecom services, including broadband Internet, available to people at reasonable prices. We also believe that Internet governance should not be the prerogative of governments, and should not happen in a top-down fashion.</p>
<p>Comparisons between tangible commons and intangible commons have been made by people like Elinor and Vincent Ostrom, who in 1977 contributed to our understanding of subtractability and public goods. James Boyle has written about the expansion of copyright law as “the second enclosure movement”, following in the footsteps of the first enclosure movement against the take-over of common land which stretched from the fifteenth century till the nineteenth. Yochai Benkler, has written extensively on commons in information and communication systems as well as on spectrum commons. Just as Elinor Ostrom’s work shows how Garrett Hardin’s evocative ‘tragedy of the commons’ and the problems of free-riding are very often avoided in practice, Michael Heller’s equally evocative phrase ‘gridlock economy’ shows that ‘over-propertisation’ of knowledge can lead to a ‘tragedy of the anti-commons’.</p>
<p>Through this conference we wish to learn of the lessons that academic writings on tangible commons have to impart to intangible commons which are configured very differently (in terms of subtractability, for instance). Ostrom’s work shows how individuals can, in a variety of settings, work to find institutional solutions that promote social cooperation and human betterment. As part of her nine design principles of stable local common pool resource management, she lists clearly defined boundaries for effective exclusion of external unentitled parties. How does that work, when even the existing mechanisms of boundary-definition in intellectual property, such as patent claims, are often decried as being ambiguous thanks to the legalese they are written in? What of traditional knowledge for which defining the community holding ownership rights becomes very difficult? As Ostrom and Hess note, “the rules and flow patterns are different with digital information”, but how do these differences affect the lessons learned from CPR studies? How do Ostrom’s pronouncements against uniform top-down approaches to resource management affect the way that copyright and patents seek to establish a uniform system across multiple areas of art, science and industry (musical recordings and paintings, pharmaceuticals and software)? And how can Ostrom’s work on management of natural resources inform us about the management of resources such as spectrum or the Internet itself? These are all very interesting and important questions that need to be explored, and we are glad that this conference will help us understand these issues better.</p>
<p>Please read the article in Common Voices Issue 4 <a class="external-link" href="http://iasc2011.fes.org.in/common-voices-4.pdf">here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/digital-commons'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/digital-commons</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshDigital AccessOpennessCommonsDigital Governance2011-08-20T12:56:26ZBlog EntryOpening Government: A Guide to Best Practice in Transparency, Accountability and Civic Engagement across the Public Sector
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/opening-government-best-practice-guide
<b>The Transparency & Accountability Initiative has published a book called “Opening Government: A Guide to Best Practice in Transparency, Accountability and Civic Engagement across the Public Sector”. We at the Centre for Internet & Society contributed the section on Open Government Data.</b>
<p>Cross-posted from the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.transparency-initiative.org/reports/opening-government">Transparency & Accountability Initiative blog</a>.</p>
<p>Download <a class="external-link" href="http://www.transparency-initiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Opening-Government3.pdf">the full report</a> (PDF, 440 Kb)</p>
<h3>Open Government Partnership</h3>
<p>In January 2011, a small group of government and civil society leaders from around the world gathered in Washington, DC to brainstorm on how to build upon growing global momentum around transparency, accountability and civic participation in governance. The result was the creation of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a new multi-stakeholder coalition of governments, civil society and private sector actors working to advance open government around the world — with the goals of increasing public sector responsiveness to citizens, countering corruption, promoting economic efficiencies, harnessing innovation, and improving the delivery of services.</p>
<p>In September 2011, these founding OGP governments will gather in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly to embrace a set of high-level open government principles, announce country-specific commitments for putting these principles into practice and invite civil society to assess their performance going forward. Also in September, a diverse coalition of governments will stand up and announce their intention to join a six-month process culminating in the announcement of their own OGP commitments and signing of the declaration of principles in January 2012.</p>
<h3>'Opening Government' report</h3>
<p>To help inform governments, civil society and the private sector in developing their OGP commitments, the Transparency and Accountability Initiative (T/A Initiative) reached out to leading experts across a wide range of open government fields to gather their input on current best practice and the practical steps that OGP participants and other governments can take to achieve it.</p>
<p>The result is the first document of its kind to compile the state of the art in transparency, accountability and citizen participation across 15 areas of governance, ranging from broad categories such as access to information, service delivery and budgeting to more specific sectors such as forestry, procurement and climate finance.</p>
<p>Each expert’s contribution is organized according to three tiers of potential commitments around open government for any given sector — minimal steps for countries starting from a relatively low baseline, more substantial steps for countries that have already made moderate progress, and most ambitious steps for countries that are advanced performers on open government.</p>
<h3>Chapters and Contributing Authors</h3>
<ol>
<li>Aid – <a href="http://www.publishwhatyoufund.org/" target="_blank" title="Publish What You Fund">Publish What You Fund</a></li>
<li>Asset disclosure - <a href="http://www.globalintegrity.org/" target="_blank" title="Global Integrity">Global Integrity</a></li>
<li>Budgets – <a href="http://www.internationalbudget.org/" target="_blank" title="IBP">The International Budget Project</a></li>
<li>Campaign finance – <a href="http://www.transparency-usa.org/" target="_blank" title="TI USA">Transparency International - USA</a></li>
<li>Climate finance – <a href="http://www.wri.org/" target="_blank" title="WRI">World Resources Institute</a></li>
<li>Fisheries – <a href="http://transparentsea.co/" target="_blank" title="TransparentSea">TransparentSea</a></li>
<li>Financial sector reform <a href="http://www.gfip.org/" target="_blank" title="Global Financial Integrity">Global Financial Integrity</a></li>
<li>Forestry – <a href="http://www.globalwitness.org/" target="_blank" title="Global Witness">Global Witness</a></li>
<li>Electricity – <a href="http://electricitygovernance.wri.org/" target="_blank" title="Electricity Governance Initiative">Electricity Governance Initiative</a></li>
<li>Environment – <a href="http://www.accessinitiative.org/" target="_blank" title="The Access Initiative">The Access Initiative</a></li>
<li>Extractive industries – <a href="http://www.revenuewatch.org/" target="_blank" title="RWI">The Revenue Watch Institute</a></li>
<li>Open government data – <a href="https://cis-india.org/" target="_blank" title="CIS India">The Centre for Internet and Society - India</a></li>
<li>Procurement – <a href="http://www.transparency-usa.org/" target="_blank" title="TI USA">Transparency International-USA</a></li>
<li>Right to information – <a href="http://www.access-info.org/" target="_blank" title="Access Info">Access Info</a> and the <a href="http://www.law-democracy.org/" target="_blank" title="Center for Law and Democracy">Center for Law and Democracy</a></li>
<li>Service delivery – <a href="http://www.twaweza.org/" target="_blank" title="Twaweza">Twaweza</a></li>
</ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/opening-government-best-practice-guide'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/opening-government-best-practice-guide</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshDigital GovernanceOpen DataPublic AccountabilityOpennesse-governance2012-12-14T10:26:42ZBlog EntryWikipedia Introductory Session organized for Data and India portal consultants
https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikipedia-introductory-session
<b>On May 13, 2013, the Access to Knowledge team led by Subhashish Panigrahi conducted a Wikipedia Introductory Session at the National Informatics Centre in New Delhi for the consultants working for Data and India portal. This session was aimed to emphasize how these portals and their useful data could be used on Wikipedia to create good quality articles.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Recently <a href="https://cis-india.org/" class="external-link">Centre for Internet and Society</a>'s <a class="external-link" href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge">Access To Knowledge</a> team was invited to demonstrate the usefulness of Wikipedia for the consultants of <a class="external-link" href="http://www.nic.in/">National Informatics Centre</a> (NIC) working for the <a class="external-link" href="http://data.gov.in/">Data.gov.in</a> and the <a class="external-link" href="http://india.gov.in/">National Portal of India</a> at NIC's New Delhi office. Data portal being one of the very important open data portal of the Government of India has worked immensely to populate over 2400 datasets from 32 departments participating in it.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Many of the data need to be transcribed in popular medias especially on web. Wikipedia being world's largest online encyclopedia could be one such primary platform to use these useful data. <a class="external-link" href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Psubhashish">Subhashish</a> from A2K team explained the usefulness of Wikipedia for the people associated with this project. The session went with discussing about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_policies">policies</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style">Manual of style</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five_pillars">Five pillars of Wikipedia</a> followed by a demonstration of editing articles on English Wikipedia. Post editing session there was a discussion session about the notability and how to check accuracy of articles by using valid references.</p>
<hr />
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> <a class="external-link" href="http://bit.ly/11DMH5w">http://bit.ly/11DMH5w</a></p>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikipedia-introductory-session'>https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/wikipedia-introductory-session</a>
</p>
No publishersubhaOpen StandardsDigital GovernanceDigital AccessOpen DataOpen ContentOpen AccessOpennessOpen Innovation2013-07-17T06:33:20ZBlog EntryThe Last Cultural Mile
https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/the-last-cultural-mile/the-last-cultural-mile-blog-old
<b>Ashish’s monograph follows the career of a priori contradiction, one that only mandates a state mechanism to perform an act of delivery, and then disqualifies the state from performing that very act effectively. This contradiction which he names as the Last Mile problem is a conceptual hurdle, not a physical one and when put one way, the Last Mile is unbridgeable, when put another, it is being bridged all the time.</b>
<p>This monograph provides a set of four case studies of the Indian State. The case studies address four technologies, television, telecommunications, networked higher education and the Unique Identity project. It also looks at Wireless-in-Local Loop (or WLL) technology that constituted the first revolution in telecommunications in the early 1990s, the arrival of satellite television also in the 1990s, the low-end IT ‘device’ with which the Ministry of HRD plans to use digitized distance education to increase enrolment of Indian students by five per cent of the overall population, and the celebrated Aadhaar.</p>
<p><strong>Download the Monograph <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/last-cultural-mile.pdf" class="internal-link"><span class="external-link"><span class="external-link">here</span></span></a></strong></p>
<div><br /> <br />
<blockquote class="pullquote"></blockquote>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/the-last-cultural-mile/the-last-cultural-mile-blog-old'>https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/the-last-cultural-mile/the-last-cultural-mile-blog-old</a>
</p>
No publisherkaeruDigital GovernanceInternet HistoriesHistories of InternetResearchers at WorkPublications2015-04-03T10:59:23ZCollection (Old)Fill The Gap: Global Discussion on Digital Natives
https://cis-india.org/research/grants/digital-natives-with-a-cause/dntweet
<b>More often than not people don't understand the new practices inspired by Internet and digital technologies. As such a series of accusations have been leveled against the Digital Natives. Educators, policy makers, scholars, and parents have all raised their worries without hearing out from the people they are concerned about. Hivos has initiated an online global discussion about Digital Natives. So, to voice your opinion, start tweeting with us now #DigitalNatives.</b>
<div class="content-view-full">
<div class="class-event">
<div class="pagecontent">
<h2>If you cannot attend Fill The Gap, you can also join us in a global discussion on some of the issues being discussed at #DigitalNatives<br /></h2>
<br />
<p>1.
Are
you an apolitical consumer, or do you have ambitions?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tweetworks.com/groups/view/DigitalNatives" target="_blank">http://www.tweetworks.com/groups/view/DigitalNatives</a></p>
<p>2.
Are
you a little prince or princess, who only wants to talk to like minded people
or are you different?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tweetworks.com/groups/view/DigitalNativesPrincess" target="_blank">http://www.tweetworks.com/groups/view/DigitalNativesPrincess</a></p>
<p>3.
Is
Wikipedia your bible or do you really know something?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tweetworks.com/groups/view/DigitalNativesWiki" target="_blank">http://www.tweetworks.com/groups/view/DigitalNativesWiki</a></p>
<p>4.
Are
you a digital dinosaur? They say you don’t know anything about ICT!</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tweetworks.com/groups/view/DigitalDinosaur" target="_blank">http://www.tweetworks.com/groups/view/DigitalDinosaur</a></p>
<p>5.
Why
use the Internet, why don’t you march the streets?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tweetworks.com/groups/view/DigitalNativesProtest" target="_blank">http://www.tweetworks.com/groups/view/DigitalNativesProtest</a></p>
<p>6.
Plans
to change the world? What do you need?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tweetworks.com/groups/view/DigitalNativesChanceTheWorld" target="_blank">http://www.tweetworks.com/groups/view/DigitalNativesChanceTheWorld</a></p>
<br />If you are in Amsterdam, here is the information you will need to attend the event:<br />
<h2>Fill the Gap! - 7</h2>
<h3>
R U Online?</h3>
<div class="date">Date: 15 January 2010 </div>
<div class="date">Time: 12.30 until
17.00 hour</div>
<div class="date">Location: Het Sieraad, Postjesweg 1, Amsterdam</div>
<br />
<strong></strong>The seventh edition of Fill the Gap! is all about the power of youth
and IT in developing countries. How can their skills be strengthened
and put to use for a better world? Hivos, apart from cohosting the
event, will be involving digital natives to hear their stories about
ICT and engagement.
<br />
<p>
An Open Space event on the potential of new (mobile) media and youth in
developing countries. For everyone in politics, the profit and the
non-profit sectors who is interested in ICT and international
development cooperation.</p>
<p>
The use of new (mobile) technology is the most natural thing in the world for the youth of today.</p>
<p>
Shaped by the digital era and at ease with creativeity, these
innovators use new media to change the world. Just think of the Twitter
revolution in Iran. What can the international development sector learn
from this? How could international development cooperation use the
potential power of youth to tackle development problems?</p>
<p> The seventh edition of Fill the Gap! is all about the power of
youth and IT in developing countries. How can their skills be
strengthened and put to use for a better world? The kick-off will be
hosted by Jennifer Corriero, co-founder of Taking IT Global: the
international platform for youth and the use of new media for a better
world. Then the floor is open to discuss your own ideas with people
from new media, the business world and the international development
sector during the Open Space sessions. Join in: come to Amsterdam on
Friday January 15th and be inspired during Fill the Gap!<br />
<br /> Registration is free. The programme is in English.</p>
<br /><a href="http://www.fill-the-gap.nl/Fill_the_gap_7?" target="_blank">» Fill the Gap</a></div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/research/grants/digital-natives-with-a-cause/dntweet'>https://cis-india.org/research/grants/digital-natives-with-a-cause/dntweet</a>
</p>
No publishernishantSocial mediaDigital ActivismDigital GovernanceDigital NativesAgencyYouthFeaturedCyberculturesNew PedagogiesDigital subjectivitiesICT2010-01-22T10:54:13ZBlog Entry