India Needs Laws To Curb Illegal Surveillance

Colonial laws regarding surveillance are violating civil liberties of Indians, says Praveen Dalal.

India is presently engaging in both legal and illegal e-surveillance activities. Both governmental as well as non-governmental persons and institutions are engaging in electronic communications sniffing. Internet as well as spectrums is vulnerable to illegal eavesdropping and the colonial laws like Indian Telegraph Act are absolutely redundant to remedy the situation.

In the absence of legislative protection, the citizens are well within their right to protect their privacy and property through private defense. The fact is that no time in the history of India the citizens of India are more vulnerable for breaches of their civil liberties. The governmental projects like Aadhar/UID, Natgrid, CCTNS, etc are though of great public interest yet they are also the landmine for civil liberty interests of Indians.

Parliament of India must enact suitable laws in this regard. Till now the Parliament is not willing to regulate the matters pertaining to surveillance and e-surveillance and this is resulting in an increased unrest among civil liberty enthusiastics in India,says Praveen Dalal.

To make the matter worst, the Indian government amended the cyber law of India through information technology amendment act 2008 that provides unlimited, unregulated and unconstitutional e-surveillance powers in the hands of governmental machinery and its agencies. This anarchy has resulted in a situation where now the agencies are not even bothered to ask for permission for surveillance and government cannot do anything except denying such incidences.

It is time for the government of India to wake up and protect the civil liberties of Indians.

SOURCE: CIO

Centre For Protection Of Human Rights In Cyberspace Launched In India

The Natgrid Project of India has been stalled due to lack of safeguards as prescribed by techno-legal experts like Praveen Dalal. This has also shown that India has no legal framework for protection of civil liberties in cyberspace. Fortunately, Perry4Law has launched the first and exclusive Techno-Legal Human Rights Protection Centre in India. The basic purpose of this initiative is to strengthen the human rights protection in cyberspace that is increasingly violated by governments and private individuals alike. Further, the resource also intends to provide good and effective legal framework for protection of civil liberties in cyberspace.

Human Rights Protection in Cyberspace is a tricky issue. On the one hand we have to respect the civil liberties like right to privacy, right to speech and expression, right against Internet censorship, etc whereas on the other hand we have to comply with the State’s right to regulate its citizens and territories. Here comes the real problem as Internet or cyberspace is boundary less.

The problem is not unique to India alone but is a universal problem. Whether it is the “anonymity controversy” regarding Google or recent controversy regarding “censorship” by China or the blocking of the website of zone-h.org in India or any other similar incidence, governments all over the world are unable to cope up with the present information and communication technology (ICT) systems. As a result they are superimposing the traditional concepts to cyberspace resulting in absurd results, says Praveen Dalal, leading techno-legal expert of India.

There is an emergent need to formulate good techno-legal regulation regarding human right protection in cyberspace. We cannot blindly apply the traditional concepts to cyberspace and we need a separate and dedicate branch of techno-legal laws and regulation in this regard. In the Indian context one such initiative has already been undertaken by Perry4Law.

The initiative intends to provide a techno-legal framework to the stakeholders and governments. In the Indian context, it would cover those areas that have a tendency to violate human rights in real life as well as cyberspace. Some of the areas include Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) Project (CCTNS Project), National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) of India, E-Surveillance under the Information Technology Act 2000 (IT Act 2000) and other laws, etc.

The “suggestions” of Praveen Dalal regarding privacy protection and prevention of potential misuse of information for political ends gathered through NATGRID have already been accepted by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) of India. In the end, the CCS withheld its nod and asked the Home Ministry to come back after further consultation with all stakeholders.

Let us hope that the proposed initiative on protection of civil liberties in cyberspace would prove useful to all concerned.

SOURCE: GROUND REPORT

Inadequate Safeguards Stalled Natgrid Temporarily

The proposal to launch national intelligence grid (NATGRID) in India was recently considered by Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) of India. The CCS took a clue from precautionary advice given by techno-legal expert Praveen Dalal regarding the possible political misuse and violation of civil liberties of the Indian citizens. As a result, the CCS withheld its nod and asked the Home Ministry to come back after further consultation with all stakeholders and incorporating adequate safeguards in this regard.

A “dedicated resource” in this regard has been launched by Perry4Law in this regard that may be helpful for the Indian government while implementing projects like Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) Project (CCTNS Project), National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) of India, E-Surveillance under the Information Technology Act 2000 (IT Act 2000) and other laws, etc.

The basic purpose of this initiative is to strengthen the human rights protection in cyberspace that is increasingly violated by governments and private individuals alike. Further, the resource also intends to provide good and effective legal framework for protection of civil liberties in cyberspace.

SOURCE: ITVOIR

Websites Blocking In India

Censorship and e-surveillance have taken a nasty shape in India. Barely four months after dropping its proposal of forcing TV channels to show only an "authorised" feed during security emergencies, the government is now seeking to censor news portals and other websites, that too even at normal times.

Concerns regarding censorship and e-surveillance have been raised times and again by many techno-legal experts of India. Mr. Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law, has suggested that the Congress led Government must openly declare that the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 would be given a “fresh look” in the forthcoming Parliament session. With issues like cyber terrorism, cyber security, cyber forensics, hacking, wireless hacking, phishing, spam, child pornography, etc troubling India, a casual and weak law would not serve the purpose. In fact, there is an emergent need of formulating Information Technology Amendment Act, 2009 by the new Government and Parliament as soon as possible.

It is good to see that media has taken up the issue. The problem is that the same seems to be guided by the concern of “self-protection” rather than raising a voice against weak, ineffective and redundant laws dealing with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in India. It would be a good idea if the media takes firm stand against the proposed Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008 as the same is “unconstitutional”. Once brought into force, it would violate valuable “Civil Liberties” of Indian citizens and Indian media. The same would be pressed against the media as well so it is better to protest before it is too late.

Fortunately, the Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008 has “not been notified yet”. This means for all practical purposes the old Information Technology Act, 2000 still governs the position. Let us hope that the suggestions of Mr. Praveen Dalal would be accepted by the Indian Government and Indian Parliament for the larger interest of all.

AUTHOR: SHAYAM PRASAD

SOURCE: MYNEWS