Programme
Internet Governance
Privacy, free speech, surveillance, digital identity and cybersecurity. 3,058 items.
21 Mar 2016
Blog post
Aadhaar Bill 2016 Evaluated against the National Privacy PrinciplesIn this infographic, we evaluate the privacy provisions of the Aadhaar Bill 2016 against the national privacy principles developed by the Group of Experts on Privacy led by the Former Chief Justice A.P. Shah in 2012. The infographic is …
20 Mar 2016
19 Mar 2016
Blog post
Adoption of Standards in Smart Cities - Way Forward for IndiaWith a paradigm shift towards the concept of “Smart Cities’ globally, as well as India, such cities have been defined by several international standardization bodies and countries, however, there is no uniform definition adopted globally. …
18 Mar 2016
Blog post
Sexual Harassment at ICANNPadmini Baruah represented the Centre for Internet & Society at ICANN in the month of March 2016. In a submission to ICANN she is calling upon the ICANN board for implementing a system for investigating cases related to sexual harassments.
17 Mar 2016
Blog post
Privacy Concerns Overshadow Monetary Benefits of Aadhaar SchemeSince its inception in 2009, the Aadhaar system has been shrouded in controversy over issues of privacy, security and viability. It has been implemented without a legislative mandate and has resulted in a PIL in the Supreme Court, which …
17 Mar 2016
News
Pratap Vikram Singh - Why Aadhaar is Baseless?This article by Pratap Vikram Singh, Governance Now, discusses the problems emerging out of the UIDAI project due to its lack of mechanisms for informed and granular consent, and for seeking recourse in the case of denial of service. The …
17 Mar 2016
News
India's billion-member biometric database raises privacy fearsIndia's parliament is set to pass legislation that gives federal agencies access to the world's biggest biometric database in the interests of national security, raising fears the privacy of a billion people could be compromised.
17 Mar 2016
News
Forget privacy, Aadhaar Bill gives too much power to the executiveThe government promotes the Aadhaar programme because it believes the 12-digit unique identification number will let them track every penny spent from the exchequer. But money is not all that the Aadhaar number can track.
17 Mar 2016
Blog post
Analysis of Aadhaar Act in the Context of A.P. Shah Committee PrinciplesWhilst there are a number of controversies relating to the Aadhaar Act including the fact that it was introduced in a manner so as to circumvent the majority of the opposition in the upper house of the Parliament and that it was rushed …
17 Mar 2016
News
A scheme in India to help the poor raises privacy concernsIndia’s legislators are on Wednesday debating a law that would allow the government to collect biometric and demographic information from people in return for distributing to them government benefits and subsidies.
16 Mar 2016
News
Will Only Legal Backing For Aadhaar Suffice?Aadhaar is set to become mandatory, but the opponents of the scheme are not amused. Concerns about privacy of the Aadhaar number and the authenticity of the biometric data being collected have been expressed by people right from the …
16 Mar 2016
Blog post
Press Release, March 15, 2016: The New Bill Makes Aadhaar Compulsory!We published and circulated the following press release on March 15, 2016, to highlight the fact that the Section 7 of the Aadhaar Bill, 2016 states that authentication of the person using her/his Aadhaar number can be made mandatory for …
16 Mar 2016
Blog post
Press Release, March 11, 2016: The Law cannot Fix what Technology has Broken!We published and circulated the following press release on March 11, 2016, as the Lok Sabha passed the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016. This Bill was proposed by finance …
16 Mar 2016
Blog post
List of Recommendations on the Aadhaar Bill, 2016 - Letter Submitted to the Members of ParliamentOn Friday, March 11, the Lok Sabha passed the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016. The Bill was introduced as a money bill and there was no public consultation to evaluate the …
16 Mar 2016
News
Govt narrative on Aadhaar has not changed in the last six years: Sunil AbrahamThe bill is basically the same as the UPA version, with some cosmetic changes, and some tokenism towards the right to privacy, says Abraham.
16 Mar 2016
Blog post
An Urgent Need for the Right to PrivacyAlong with a group of individuals and organisations from academia and civil society, we have drafted and are signatories to an open letter addressed to the Union government and urging the same to "urgently take steps to uphold the …
16 Mar 2016
News
Aadhaar is actually surveillance tech: Sunil AbrahamOn March 12, the Lok Sabha passed the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016, paving the way for giving legal status to Aadhaar, a 12-digit unique identification number generated after …
11 Mar 2016
Blog post
The New Aadhaar Bill in Plain EnglishWe have put together a plain English version of the The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016.
11 Mar 2016
News
GNI-Industry Dialogue Learning Session: Human Rights Impact Assessments and Due Diligence in the ICT sectorElonnai Hickok attended the meeting organized by Global Network Initiative on March 11, 2016 in Washington D.C.
10 Mar 2016
Blog post
Are we Losing the Right to Privacy and Freedom of Speech on Indian Internet?The article was published in DNA on March 10, 2016.
10 Mar 2016
Blog post
Aadhaar Bill fails to incorporate suggestions by the Standing CommitteeIn 2011, a standing committee report led by Yashwant Sinha had been scathing in its indictments of the Aadhaar BIll introduced by the UPA government. Five years later, the NDA government has introduced a new bill which is a rehash of the …
9 Mar 2016
Blog post
Aadhaar Bill 2016 & NIAI Bill 2010 - Comparing the TextsThis is a quick comparison of the texts of the Aadhaar Bill 2016 and the National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010. The new sections in the former are highlighed, and the deleted sections (that were part of the latter) are struck …
9 Mar 2016
Blog post
A comparison of the 2016 Aadhaar Bill, and the 2010 NIDAI BillThis blog post does a clause-by-clause comparison of the provisions of National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 and the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016
7 Mar 2016
Blog post
Aadhaar: Still Too Many ProblemsWhile one wishes to welcome govt’s attempt to bring Aadhaar within a legislative framework, the fact is there are too many problems that still remain unaddressed for one to be optimistic.
6 Mar 2016
Blog post
Flaws in the UIDAI ProcessThe accuracy of biometric identification depends on the chance of a false positive: the probability that the identifiers of two persons will match. Individuals whose identifiers match might be termed duplicands. When very many people are to …
4 Mar 2016
1 Mar 2016
Blog post
Sean McDonald - Ebola: A Big Data DisasterWe are proud to initiate the CIS Papers series with a fascinating exploration of humanitarian use of big data and its discontents by Sean McDonald, FrontlineSMS, in the context of utilisation of Call Detail Records for public health …
28 Feb 2016
News
Why the Internet is Making India FuriousThe Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) in Bangalore is a kind of hacker club for wonks and lawyers obsessed with issues of digital rights and global development. Not exactly the mainstream kids’ lunch table. But the Center was brought …
28 Feb 2016
News
Violence call key to 'sedition'Words, whether spoken or shouted, that question or even malign the government cannot be labelled as sedition, unless they specifically incite violence, lawyers and human rights experts familiar with fundamental rights and sedition laws have …
28 Feb 2016
News
India's ‘Facebook ruling’ is another nail in the coffin of the MNO modelAbility to access 'net from mobe no longer considered a miracle.