Privacy
Government may soon find BlackBerry solution
May 16, 2008, Kalyan Parbat and Joji Thomas Philip, The Economic Times
This news report talks about the recent developments in the controversy over monitoring Blackberry traffic in India. It started when the Canadian company Research in Motion (RIM) that owns Blackberry services in India, refused to share the decryption code with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). This had raised security concerns since the security agencies could not monitor the data that were being sent due to the high encryption codes.
DoT asks RIM to set up server in India
March 29, 2008, Thomas K Thomas, The Hindu Business Line
This news report talks about the controversy over monitoring Blackberry-to-Blackberry traffic in India. It started when Research in Motion, the Canadian company that owns Blackberry services, refused to share the decryption code with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on grounds that it is proprietary.
Look who wants to read your emails
March 16, 2008, The Times of India
The recent altercation between Research in Motion (who are the providers of the hugely popular Blackberry service for email access via mobile devices) and the Government of India regarding access to the keys for decryption of the emails has highlighted the possible infringement on personal privacy due to security concerns. While nobody denies the requirement of security agencies to scan email traffic of perceived threats, such widespread access to all emails traversing the Blackberry network do sound a bit too all-encompassing for comfort.
Privacy in India: Attitudes and awareness
May-June 2005, Ponnurangam Kumaraguru and Lorrie Cranor, Proceedings of the 2005 Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET2005)
In recent years, numerous surveys have been conducted to assess attitudes about privacy in the United States, Australia, Canada, and the European Union. Very little information has been published about privacy attitudes in India. As India is becoming a leader in business process outsourcing, increasing amounts of personal information from other countries is flowing into India. Questions have been raised about the ability of Indian companies to adequately protect this information.
Orkut's tell-all pact with cops
May 1, 2007, Times of India
The social networking site Orkut has entered into an informal arrangement with the Mumbai police which will not only block forums and communities which contain inflammatory content, but also provide the IP addresses from which such content has been generated. This agreement termed as 'the priority reporting tool' is apparently aimed at improving communication between Google and the police.
Big brother to watch kids at Net cafe
March 27, 2007, Koride Mahesh, Times of India
The Indian government's Information Technology Act, 2000 (Central Act) still needs to pass through the Cabinet and then the Assembly, but it proposes the radical monitoring of children's use of Internet cafes, barring entry for those below 12 years unless accompanied by an adult as well as prohibiting use during school hours and between 10 pm and 6 am. These rules have been developed through the collaboration of the IT department and the Cyber Crime Police.
