India Must Deal With Digital Issues Sensibly

The blackberry dilemma has shown that India does not understand and apply technology properly. Instead of properly understanding the technology, the Indian government is making absurd decisions of banning the same.

This show that the ill informed politicians and bureaucrats of India can be easily misguided about technology as there is no one to understand the same. In such a situation the only option these politicians and bureaucrats exercise is to ban the technology and justifying the thumb rule that if we do not understand the technology, we ban it.

Naturally, the privacy rights in India and other civil liberties are at great peril. In fact, they are already dead as there is no law or safeguards subject to which the unreasonable, illegal and unconstitutional e-surveillance powers in India are exercised. This also means that if rights are outlawed, only outlaws would have rights in India.

According to Praveen Dalal, Managing partner of Perrry4Law and leading techno legal expert of India, India has tackled the digital issues with great immaturity and lack of knowledge. The dictates to Blackberry, Skype, Gmail, etc are nothing but sheer lack of understanding about technology. Encryption and cyber security cannot be controlled and compromised in the manner Indian government is trying to do, says Dalal. It would be a good idea if the Indian government stops this immaturity as soon as possible, suggests Dalal.

In fact, as a result of unlimited and unregulated e-surveillance powers, Internet censorship powers and website blocking powers in the hands of Indian government, the things have already been very complicated. This is the main reason why initiatives like human rights protection in cyberspace (HRPIC) were launched by Praveen Dalal.

Indian government must clear its head regarding digital issues and get itself acquainted with information technology. Merely blocking Blackberry’s services or Gmail would not kill the strong encryption technology already in the hands of users, informs Dalal. It would only change the mode of encryption from Blackberry/Gmail to some other software or platform, claims Dalal.

Ultimately, how much civil liberties Indians would have depend upon how much they are willing to fight for the same.

Human Rights In Cyberspace Are Outlawed In India Says Praveen Dalal

In this guest column, Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law and the creator of HRPIC initiative, is analysing the position of e-surveillance and its affect upon civil liberties of Indians, He maintains that in India Human Rights in Cyberspace are clearly outlawed and only outlaws would have these Human Rights.

Philip R. "Phil" Zimmermann Jr. (born February 12, 1954) is one of the greatest civil liberty protectors in the cyberspace. Zimmermann is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), the most widely used email encryption software in the world. He is also known for his work in VoIP encryption protocols, notably ZRTP and Zfone.

In his rationale for creating PGP he tells that using PGP is good for preserving democracy. He believes that if privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy. This is so true not only in the context of America but also India.

India is passing through the worst era of police state and e-surveillance society. Even worst is the reliance upon American models that have failed in America itself. But Home Minister P.Chidambaram is not discouraged by these failures and he would stop only on the failure of these models in India.

Even the Department of Information Technology (DIT) and Department of Telecommunications (DOT) have joined this blind and ignorant race and are trying to ban telecommunication services like Blackberry and Skype and Internet services like Gmail.

These departments are troubled by the strong and secure encryption technology and other similar technologies that prevent unlawful and illegal e-surveillance by the government and its agencies. Criminals and terrorists are already using these, and much better options, and these ignorant actions would only trouble and violate the civil liberties of law abiding citizens alone.

All the limits in this regard were crossed when the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 (IT Act 2008) was made an enforceable law in India. The IT Act 2008 provides unregulated, unconstitutional and illegal e-surveillance, Internet censorship and website blocking powers in the hands of Indian government and its agencies. There is no mechanism at all that can prevent the abuses of these powers and there is no accountability as well.

A time has come in India when Human Rights in Cyberspace are clearly outlawed and only outlaws (as per the norms and standards of Indian government) would have these Human Rights. This is the main reason why I dedicated a resource titled Human Rights Protection in Cyberspace (HRPIC) to those law abiding citizens who cherish and wish to protect their civil liberties in cyberspace.

With further illegal and unconstitutional projects like CCTNS, NATGRID, UID Project/Aadhar Project, etc things are only going to be worst in India. The only option remains is to use self defence against the persons, institutions and agencies that are engaging in illegal and unconstitutional e-surveillance and civil liberty violations.

Scrap Aadhar Project And Dissolve UIDAI

Privacy rights in India do not exist. Instead of strengthening the civil liberties and privacy rights in India, the Indian government has preferred to impose unconstitutional and civil liberty violative projects like National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) Project, Aadhar Project/UID Project, Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) Project, etc.

The worst civil liberty violative project is Aadhar project managed by Nandan Nilekani who is presently acting as the chairman of the unique identification authority of India (UIDAI). The biometric identification initiative has already attracted major opposition from almost all the segments of the society.

Indian government has openly and in an unambiguous manner declared that it does not care about civil liberties in general and privacy and data protection laws in particular. All its promises regarding privacy rights have proved to be just a façade to gain time and subsequently do nothing. The truth is that India is forcibly implementing “unconstitutional projects” like NATGRID Project, Aadhar Project/UID Project, Crime and CCTNS Project, etc.

Another truth is that under the garb of welfare schemes the Indian government is gaining illegal, unconstitutional and unreasonable e-surveillance, Internet censorship and other draconian powers. It is trying to get a complete control over information pertaining to Indians.

The government is not satisfied even with this and now they are planning to introduce the most stupid amendments in the IT laws or cyber law of India.

Although all the projects recently introduced by Indian government are illegal, unconstitutional and outrageous, one project requires special mention. This is the Aadhar project or UID project of India. The same is managed by Nandan Nilekani as the chairman of unique identification authority of India (UIDAI).

What is surprising is that Indian government is wasting crores of public money upon an authority (UIDAI) that does not exist in the eyes of law. This wastage of public money is not only violating many laws of India, including criminal laws, but also against the democratic and Parliamentary scheme of Indian Constitution.

The constitutional analysis of the National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010 produced by the UIDAI clearly shows that UIDAI is an illegal authority and aadhar project is an unconstitutional project.

The Indian government is still pushing hard this project under pressure of industrial lobbying and the only purpose of this project seems to be to serve private interests.

Time has come to scrap these unconstitutional projects till they are duly supported by constitutionally sound legislations.

SOURCE: CIO

Cabinet Committee on Security Is Taking Natgrid Casually

Natgrid Project Of India does not safeguard civil liberties violations in India.

It has been reported that the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has cleared the setting up of the highly controversial National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid) project, which will allow investigating, enforcement and intelligence agencies to access real-time information easily. What is surprising is that the issues that makes Natgrid project violative of civil liberties of Indians have not yet been resolved. Even the CCS has not yet gone through the detailed project report prepared by Home Ministry that claims that privacy violations issues have been resolved.

Interestingly, the detailed report has to be finalised and then only it will be shown to home minister P. Chidambaram before being sent back to CCS. If this is the procedure then there is no question of getting a clearance from CCS at this stage unless both Home Ministry and CCS considers the “safeguards exercise” a formality and redundant exercise.

SOURCE: CIO

Heroes Who Saved Aadhar Project Of India

Aadhar project of India was never constitutional and legal. However, the government was confident that it would be successful in imposing the same upon Indian citizens. At this stage some public spirited individuals rose up to the occasion and forced the Indian government to reconsider its decision. Now as per the latest news, the government of India has agreed to enact a law for Aadhar project of India.

Let us see the heroes who saved Aadhar project of India from governmental arbitrariness and lawlessness.

The first and most obvious choice is the Aadhar Project Watch Initiative founded by Praveen Dalal, the leading techno-legal expert of India and a civil liberty expert of India. The suggestions and recommendations of Aadhar Project Watch Initiative of India have been finally accepted by the government of India. The government has finally agreed to enact a law to back UID Project of India or Aadhar Project of India. There was a growing dissatisfaction among the masses in India regarding the way Aadhar project has been implemented in India. Civil liberty experts like Praveen Dalal have been suggesting that aadhar project of India is illegal and unconstitutional in the absence of a legislative framework. According to Praveen Dalal, the UIDAI must not use public funds till provisions regarding the same are incorporated in the law to be formulated by Parliament of India.

It is good to see that government of India has once again accepted the suggestions that are pertinent for the successful implementation of aadhar project of India. It would be even better if techno-legal experts like Praveen Dalal are inducted into the process of law making so that both technical as well as legal aspects can be suitable incorporated into the proposed law.

Others have also raised their voices against the present form of aadhar project. For instance, V.K.Singh has given a very good account why aadhar project of India is unconstitutional. Gunjan Singh has explained that hit and trial attitude of India is the real cause of failure of these projects. Ram K Kaushik has outlined the importance of aadhar watch project of India in streamlining the efforts of UIDAI. He has also analysed the legal position when citizens of India can take recourse of private defense against the State if projects like Natgrid, Aadhar, etc are imposed upon them.

These people are the real heroes who have played a great role in strengthening the civil liberties of Indian citizens. Interestingly, aadhar is not the first project that has been opposed to by Indians. Previously, even Natgrid project was objected to and the government finally accepted the suggestions of Praveen Dalal in this regard. Let us hope that India will learn from these incidences before trying any new hit and trial project in India.

SOURCE: GROUND REPORT