Programme
Internet Governance
Privacy, free speech, surveillance, digital identity and cybersecurity. 3,058 items.
31 Oct 2011
Blog post
India's Statement Proposing UN Committee for Internet-Related PolicyThis is the statement made by India at the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly, in which its proposal for the UN Committee for Internet-Related Policy was presented.
31 Oct 2011
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CIS Comments on the Draft National Policy on ElectronicsThese were the comments submitted by CIS to the request for comments put out by the Department of Information Technology on its draft 'National Policy on Electronics'.
28 Oct 2011
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Analysis of DIT's Response to Second RTI on Website BlockingIn this blog post, Pranesh Prakash briefly analyses the DIT's response to an RTI request on website blocking alongside the most recent edition of Google's Transparency Report, and what it tells us about the online censorship regime in …
27 Oct 2011
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Text of DIT's Response to Second RTI on Website BlockingCIS had filed a request under the Right to Information Act with the government, asking a number of questions relating to blocking of content under the IT Act. We have reproduced below the response we got from the government.
24 Oct 2011
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Sixth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, Nairobi: A SummaryThe sixth annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum was held from 27 to 30 September 2011 at the United Nations Office in Nairobi, Kenya. Sunil Abraham participated in six workshops: Privacy, Security, and Access to Rights: A …
24 Oct 2011
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Privacy & Sexual MinoritiesDanish Sheikh examines the status of sexual minorities in the light of privacy framework in India. Culling out some real life examples based on various studies, media reports and judgments from the Supreme Court and the High Courts of Delhi …
18 Oct 2011
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Design!Public II in Bangalore ― Event ReportDesign Public, a high-level conclave on innovation, took place in Bangalore at the National Gallery for Modern Art on October 14, 2011. The event was organized by the Centre for Knowledge Societies in collaboration with the Centre for …
14 Oct 2011
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SCOSTA and UID Comparison not Valid, says Finance CommitteeThe Standing Committee on Finance Branch, Lok Sabha Secretariat has responded to the suggestions offered by CIS on the National Identification Authority of India, Bill 2010 and has requested it to mail its views by 14 October 2011.
12 Oct 2011
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Seventh Open Letter to the Finance Committee: A Note on the Deduplication of Unique IdentifiersSahana Sarkar on behalf of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) had sent in a Right to Information application on 30 June 2011 to Ashish Kumar, Central Public Information Officer, UIDAI. The UIDAI sent in its reply. Through the seventh …
10 Oct 2011
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Hack Night in CIS ― A Meeting of Java Script HackersCIS hosted a hack night in conjunction with the tech-event organizers HasGeek at its office on 24 September 2011. The event brought together local java script hackers on a common platform. Tom Dane and Kiran Jonnalagadda participated in the …
3 Oct 2011
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UID: Questions without Answers – A Talk by Usha RamanathanUID enrolment is in full swing, providing an official identification to millions of Indians, yet there are numerous unanswered questions. A public talk on UID was held at the Institute of Science, Bangalore on September 6, 2011. Usha …
28 Sep 2011
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Understanding the Right to InformationElonnai Hickok summarises the Right to Information Act, 2005, how it works, how to file an RTI request, the information that an individual can request under the Act, the possible responses and the challenges to the citizen and the …
23 Aug 2011
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Bye Bye email?Email might be the default method of communication for most of us, but could it be going the telegram way.
22 Aug 2011
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Whole Body Imaging and Privacy Concerns that FollowLaw student at the National University of Juridical Sciences, and intern for Privacy India, Srishti Goyal compares, contrasts, and critiques the Whole Body Imaging practices found in the US, the UK, and Australia, and makes recommendations …
22 Aug 2011
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IP Addresses and Expeditious Disclosure of Identity in IndiaIn this research, Prashant Iyengar reviews the statutory mechanism regulating the retention and disclosure of IP addresses by Internet companies in India. Prashant provides a compilation of anecdotes on how law enforcement authorities in …
22 Aug 2011
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Financial Inclusion and the UIDSince 2009, when Nandan Nilekani began to envision and implement the Unique Identification Project, the UID authority has promoted the UID/Aadhaar scheme as a tool of development for India - arguing that an identity will assist in bringing …
22 Aug 2011
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Cyber Crime & PrivacyIndia is a growing area in the field of active Internet usage with 71 million Internet users.
10 Aug 2011
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CCTV in UniversitiesBasic Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Infrastructure is used to observe movements from a central room, and consists of one or more video cameras that transmit video and audio images to a set of monitors or video recorders.
9 Aug 2011
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Re-thinking Key EscrowWould you make duplicates of your house keys and hand them over to the local police authority? And if so, would you feel safe? Naturally, one would protest this invasion of privacy. Similarly, would it be justified for the government to …
25 Jul 2011
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UID: Nothing to Hide, Nothing to Fear?Isn’t it interesting that authorities ask you about your identity and you end up showing your proof of existence! Isn’t this breaching into one’s personal life? Why so much transparency only from the public side? Why can’t the government be …
24 Jul 2011
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An Overview of DNA Labs in IndiaDNA fingerprinting has become the most precise and technologically advanced method for identifying crimes such as murder, kidnapping, robbery and rape. Police and judicial authorities and in some cases even private parties retain this in …
23 Jul 2011
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Video Surveillance and Its Impact on the Right to PrivacyThe need for video surveillance has grown in this technologically driven era as a mode of law enforcement. Video Surveillance is very useful to governments and law enforcement to maintain social control, recognize and monitor threats, and …
23 Jul 2011
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Consumer Privacy in e-CommerceLooking at the larger picture of national security versus consumer privacy, Sahana Sarkar says that though consumer privacy is important in the world of digital technology, individuals must put aside some of their civil liberties when it …
21 Jul 2011
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Privacy Matters, Guwahati — Event ReportOn June 23, a public seminar on “Privacy Matters” was held at the Don Bosco Institute in Karhulli, Guwahati. It was organised by IDRC, Society in Action Group, IDEA Chirang, an NGO initiative working with grassroots initiatives in Assam, …
20 Jul 2011
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Right to Privacy Bill 2010 — A Few CommentsEarlier this year, in February 2011, Rajeev Chandrasekhar introduced the Right to Privacy Bill, 2010 in the Rajya Sabha. The Bill is meant to “provide protection to the privacy of persons including those who are in public life”. Though the …
19 Jul 2011
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Privacy & Media LawIn her research, Sonal Makhija, a Bangalore-based lawyer, tries to delineate the emerging privacy concerns in India and the existing media norms and guidelines on the right to privacy. The research examines the existing media norms …
18 Jul 2011
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When Data Means Privacy, What Traces Are You Leaving Behind?How do you know yourself to be different from others? What defines the daily life that you live and the knowledge you produce in the span of this life? Is all that information yours or are you a mere stakeholder on behalf of the State whose …
15 Jul 2011
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My Experiment with Scam BaitingToday, as I am sure many of you have experienced, Internet scams are widespread and very deceptive. As part of my research into privacy and the Internet, I decided to follow a scam and attempt to fully understand how Internet scams work, …
12 Jul 2011
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RTI and Third Party Information: What Constitutes the Private and Public?The passing of the Right to Information Act, 2005 was seen as giving an empowering tool in the hands of the citizens of India, six years post its implementation, loopholes have surfaced with misuse of the many fundamental concepts, which …
22 Jun 2011
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Privacy and Security Can Co-existThe blanket surveillance the Centre seeks is not going to make India more secure, writes Sunil Abraham in this article published in Mail Today on June 21, 2011.