Sunday, May 2, 2010

Private Defense Against Indian E-Surveillance State

By
Ram K Kaushik

Privacy rights were never considered seriously by India. Indian government instead of enacting suitable privacy legislations for India preferred exactly the opposite by making India an e-police State. India achieved this unconstitutional objective through the instrumentality of information technology amendment act 2008 that coffered upon it unfettered, unreasonable, unregulated and unconstitutional e-surveillance powers. Through this amendment the sole cyber law of India was not only made criminal friendly but also a tool of e-surveillance in India.

Realising that India would remain committed to its endemic e-surveillance status and priorities; Praveen Dalal launched a platform for human rights protection in cyberspace in India. It is the exclusive platform of its type not only in India but also world wide. It provides legal and constitutional techno-legal methods and defenses against an over zealous and endemic e-surveillance Indian State. It also provides a methodology where a law abiding citizen or organisation can exercise “private defense” against State for violation of their human rights. The fears and basis of launching this platform have proved to be correct by the recent developments of human rights violations by Indian State through phone tapping and otherwise.

India has also launched some more serious and fatal e-surveillance projects since the abovementioned initiative by Praveen Dalal was launched in 2009. For instance projects like Natgrid, Aadhar, CCTNS, etc have apparent and certain privacy violation and other human rights violations potential. To meet the growing threats from these initiatives of Indian government, Praveen Dalal has launched once again another platform named as civil liberties protection in cyberspace. This is broader in nature and capable of providing a long term and more robust protection against growing e-surveillance activities of Indian government.

If you are a law abiding citizen and you face a situation where you are a victim of illegal and unconstitutional e-surveillance by Indian authorities, try the tools and methodologies mentioned at these platforms. However, Indian authorities are well within their rights to use e-surveillance for legitimate and legal purposes and in such a situation do not even think about using private defense against them, warn Praveen Dalal.

SOURCE: CIO