Saturday, November 23, 2013

Social Media And Foreign Websites Must Be Made Amenable To Indian Laws- Praveen Dalal

Social media websites like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitters etc and foreign technology companies like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft etc have been operating under the Laws of their jurisdiction i.e. United States. These websites openly deny to be regulated by Indian Laws even though they have significant commercial and business interests in India. Some of them have even subsidiary companies in India but despite this fact Indian Government has failed to regulate them effectively, says Praveen Dalal, managing partner of Perry4Law and the leading techno legal expert of Asia.

These companies can take Indian Laws for granted because Indian Government has not deemed it appropriate to make them Accountable and Amendable to Indian Laws, opines Dalal. However, things may change in the near future. Initially, it was suggested that Internet telephony and VOIP service providers must establish servers in India.

Now the Central Government is working on the formulation of the E-Mail Policy of India. It is contemplating banning private e-mail service providers like G-mail and Yahoo for government communication purposes. Even an advisory by Maharashtra government to use official e-mails, Indian cloud based services, routing traffic through NIXI and section 43 A compliance checks has been issued.

However, G-mail must be banned in India for even private communications as it abets and encourages the commission of cyber crimes in India. Google is openly violating the laws of India by using the façade of conflict of laws and Indian government is taking Google lightly. We need to have techno legal framework in India so that companies like Google cannot take Indian laws for a ride. We also need such techno legal framework so that child pornography can be curbed to the maximum possible extent in India, opines Dalal.

All subsidiary/joint ventures companies in India, especially those dealing in information technology and online environment, must mandatorily establish a Server in India. Otherwise, such companies and their websites should not be allowed to operate in India. A stringent liability for Indian subsidiaries dealing in information technology and online environment must be established by laws of India. More stringent online advertisement and e-commerce provisions must be formulated for Indian subsidiary companies and their websites, opines Dalal.

It is high time for Indian government to consider these recommendations as further delay would not be conducive for the cyberspace environment of India.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Child Pornography In India Needs Serious Attention Of Indian Government Says Perry4Law

Child pornography in India needs to be seriously addressed says Perry4Law, the exclusive techno legal law firm of India.  With growing cases of cyber stalking in India there is an urgent need to draft stringent laws against child pornography in India. Nothing short of a robust techno legal framework would work for India in these circumstances opines Perry4Law.

Child pornography in India is becoming a big nuisance despite stringent laws in this regard. The cyber law of India prescribes stringent punishment for uploading and viewing child pornography in India. An Advisory by Home Ministry of India on Preventing and Combating Cyber Crime against Children in India has also been issued.

However, despite all these efforts, child pornography in India is increasing and protecting children in cyberspace has become a daunting task. Recently Interpol helped India in tracking child porn surfers as tracing such cyber criminals requires techno legal expertise at multiple levels and various jurisdictions.

Law enforcement agencies and other involved in fighting against child pornography and pedophiles are working as undercover agents and by communicating with sexual predators through online mediums. One such experiment was recently conducted by a Dutch organisation for children’s rights that identified more than 1,000 sexual predators after creating a computer generated Filipino girl named “Sweetie” to entice them into asking for child porn.

The Dutch chapter of the group Terre des Hommes (TDH) created the 10-year-old girl and then posed as her on Internet chat rooms to conduct a sting operation to unmask webcam child- sex tourists. They were quickly approached by more than 20,000 predators from 71 countries, and on Monday, they gave the identities of 1,000 of these alleged predators to Interpol. The top country of origin for the adults identified was the United States with 254, followed by Britain with 110 and India with 103.

However, not everybody can be identified and prosecuted so easily. Cyber criminals may be scattered in various parts of the world. These cyber criminals may also be using e-mail services of companies like Google whose Gmail does not provide the source of the communication.

Google is very fussy about providing information about cyber criminals even if there are clear cases of doing so. Although the Delhi High Court is presently hearing a case that would scrutinise the e-mail policy of India yet G-mail should be banned in India not only for governmental purposes but otherwise as well as G-mail abets and encourages commission of cyber crimes and cyber contraventions in India.

Google is openly violating the laws of India and Indian government is taking Google lightly. We need to have techno legal framework in India so that companies like Google cannot take Indian laws for a ride. We also need such techno legal framework so that child pornography can be curbed to the maximum possible extent in India.

Friday, November 8, 2013

G-Mail Is Violating Indian Cyber Law And May Be Banned In India

Indian government has ignored the importance of regulating the e-mail environment for long. Now it is facing a situation where the e-mail service providers located in foreign jurisdictions are taking Indian laws for granted. Some of these e-mail service providers are actually abetting and encouraging commission of cyber crimes and cyber contraventions as prescribed by the Information Technology Act, 2000 that is the cyber law of India.

Indian government is taking Google lightly and Google is continuously violating various laws of India. Now leading techno legal experts of India have recommended that G-mail must be banned in India as it is abetting and encouraging commission of various cyber crimes and cyber contraventions in India.

The Delhi High Court has recently directed the Central Government to frame the e-mail policy of India as soon as possible. While the Central Government would come up with the e-mail policy very soon yet the State of Maharashtra has already issued an advisory that has mandated that e-mail service of G-mail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc would no longer be used in government departments of Maharashtra.

Of all e-mail service providers the services provided by G-mail are most noxious and violative of Indian laws. G-mail not only hides the Internet protocol address of the originator of the communication but substitute its own IP address with that of the originator. Thus, no person can ascertain the IP address of a cyber criminal unless Google discloses the same and getting information from Google is next to impossible for the ordinary individual.

It is surprising why this fact has not been investigated by Indian government so far. This practice of G-mail is clearly violating many provisions of the IT Act, 2000 and till now Indian government has not prosecuted Google/G-mail in this regard. It would be a good idea if the proposed e-mail policy of India deals with this issue in length and make suitable provisions regarding misuse of e-mail facilities provided by G-mail as well.