[BITList] Todays News

[John Feltham]

G'day folks,

I wasn't aware that "sexually explicit material in electronic form,  
(and) video voyeurism" were "security crimes".

How times have changed. Is this the beginning of "Big Brother' in India?

What will they have to do do with all the temple carvings strewn  
around India?

The mind boggles.



If you get a mail, trust the govt to know it


Aditi Tandon


Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 24
You now have better reasons to think twice before writing or saying  
anything. The government just assumed the power to intercept your  
computer communications for investigation of offences. It can also  
access your phone records and letters “in the interest of national  
sovereignty”.

The Information Technology (IT) Amendment Bill 2008 passed hurriedly  
by the Lok Sabha yesterday gives the government powers to tackle cyber  
crimes and e-commerce frauds, but doesn’t quite address the issue of  
“breach of privacy.” It is silent on the issue of how personal  
information may be collected, processed, shared and used.

On the face it, the bill appears simple-seeking powers to handle new  
cyber crimes like publication of sexually explicit material in  
electronic form, video voyeurism, breach of confidentiality and  
leakage of data by intermediary and e-commerce frauds.

It makes a company handling sensitive personal data liable to pay up  
to Rs 5 crore in compensation if the company is found negligent in  
implementing reasonable security measures while using such data. It,  
however, does not hold intermediaries liable for third party data or  
content made available by them. It simply requires them to remove  
unlawful content upon awareness of such unlawfulness. The terms  
involved, say experts on techno-legal laws, have not been well defined.

Further, though the bill makes for compensation in case of unlawful  
loss or gain arising from unauthorised use of data, it doesn’t address  
privacy issues. For example, it does say that anyone copying or  
destroying data without permission of the owner must pay damages but  
it does not cover situations in which an employee with permission to  
access certain data misuses such data.

If that was less, the bill does not address concerns on child  
pornography despite the standing committee's suggestion to incorporate  
stringent punishment for the crime. Another of committee's suggestions- 
better clarity on how to handle unwanted commercial e-mails (spam) - 
has been left unaddressed.

“These issues warranted discussion but were conveniently pushed under  
the carpet. Some discussion on the bill happened in the upper house  
but in the lower house, the government rushed the bill by a voice  
vote,” said CPM leader Mohd Salim. The Left had yesterday protested  
government's indiscipline over handling serious legislative business,  
and even boycotted the closing ceremony of parliamentary session.

Earlier too in 2006 when the IT Amendment Bill was introduced, it was  
made public only after certain sections insisted for the same. Techno- 
legal experts have since been objecting to inherent flaws in the bill,  
which has now become a law.





ooroo

If you don't hear the knock of opportunity - build a door.

Anon.



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