The Amendments to the IT Act, 2000

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I guess I'm talking about the intentions behind the Act: it presumes every citizen is a suspected enemy of the state and the Internet and technology a medium for them to propagate malice and harmful/objectionable content. And that is my biggest problem - the presumed guilt of every netizen. There are 5 million or so internet users, how are they going to monitor every single piece of communication? How will this Act be implemented by the 500 (?) strong Cybercell and a totally uneducated police force? And what are the safeguards for ordinary, innocent citizens?

It needs to be seen in a broader light with ID cards as a compliment.

Will it prevent the next attrocity by implicating anyone who supports it by increasing the audit trail.

What kind of effect will this all have on terrorism ?

 

[cranky]

None, and that's the point. Terrorism uses technology when it can. When it can't, it falls back on more primitive ways (9/11, anyone?).

I support the fight against terrorism, at a very macro level. This Act somehow escalates the privileges of law enforcement (which I'm fine with) at the expense of the innocent (which I'm not fine with). There need to be some safeguards and some definitions to 'Malice' and 'objectionable' content. Else it's all very subjective, and law can't be subjective.

 

[HailStonE]

Effects of these rule changes will not see daylight immediately. Maybe in next 3-5 years 'coz clearly our Police & babus are not competent enough to handle cyber crime. But it shows we are following China when it comes to snooping & moderating internet users...

One thing is sure as pointed out by many users , these amendments will be abused by our administration to harass people... like it has been done with earlier acts which deals with terrorism...

 

[ubergeek]

this law hasnt been passed yet right?. so when the law gets passed the police will have the power to implicate any netizen they want just for extracting bribe from them?.even if we read a news article about terrorist or anything based on terrorism we are bound to get caught? :huh: . this worries me a lot unless this law has a clear definition for malice or objectionable content ,netizens in india are gonna be in a constant state of fear,who would want to be with the constant thought that they are gonna be arrested any minute? this worries me a lot iam just expressing my fear

 

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None, and that's the point. Terrorism uses technology when it can. When it can't, it falls back on more primitive ways (9/11, anyone?).

So after 'x' successful terrorist attacks in the future it may be shown that this law has not been much help and something 'better' may be required ?

In a perverse way, the next few attempts have to succeed for this law to be struck down

Some more articles talking about 'effects' of this new Act

Email providers will need to have servers in India

Indian investigating agencies dealing with cyber crime have much to cheer following recent amendments to the IT Act. The amendments passed by Parliament require internet behemoths like Google, Rediff and Microsoft — which provide free email services — to set up Indian servers. Not just that, they may also have to provide Indian email accounts for Indian nationals. This will have far-reaching ramifications for the millions of users of Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoomail in India.

Govt gearing up to gag news websites

Under the draft rules framed under section 69A of the IT amendment Act, every state or Central government department will be empowered to decide whether a certain news item, article, blog or advertisement relating to its jurisdiction is safe to remain on the Net.

Once somebody sends a "complaint" against any information displayed on the Net, the department concerned will take a call on whether the matter in question affects any of the six concerns mentioned in section 69A:
- interest of sovereignty or integrity of India,
- defence of India,
- security of the state,
- friendly relations with foreign states,
- public order or
- incitement to commit any cognizable offence relating to the other five reasons.

 

[cranky]

This is getting interesting It clearly looks like the state is trying to assume control over the medium (not the media, that's different). Without a single clue as to how to go about it. Yahoo already has a .in option, but none other (IIRC) do. So what happens if, eg, Google refuses to set up servers? They get banned or blocked?

It's not about terrorist attacks, those are almost always successful. This Act is being implemented by the Government as a CYA measure, and to give law enforcement some additional bite for investigation after the activity has already happened. Technically, this discussion infringes on the Act, as we are discussing something that is so central to the 'security' of the State, and airing views that oppose the State's point of view. So will TE be blocked or banned in India because we discuss things like this? Will the participants be arrested?

Of course we don't have the infrastructure and resources to monitor all netizens. At least, not today. But when we do, either through manual means or highly automated metadata crawlers, what happens then? The technology exists today, it's a simple search algorithm and it can be quickly deployed on ISP's servers (at the cost of bandwidth and processing power). But what is the extent to which it will be enforced, and upon whom? That is the niggling question that nobody, not even the State, has answers for. Ta-da!

 

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What Was The Password?

Says MoS for IT Sachin Pilot: “In no way will the Act be allowed to take away freedom of speech. The objective is not to endanger national security. We have a lot of strategic assets online. These need to be protected.”

Of course we don't have the infrastructure and resources to monitor all netizens. At least, not today. But when we do, either through manual means or highly automated metadata crawlers, what happens then? The technology exists today, it's a simple search algorithm and it can be quickly deployed on ISP's servers (at the cost of bandwidth and processing power). But what is the extent to which it will be enforced, and upon whom? That is the niggling question that nobody, not even the State, has answers for. Ta-da!

we are getting there slowly

Govt to take a Rs 800-cr grip over phone tapping

Till now, the government would entrust the work of tapping to the relevant individual telecom operators. But a felt need for higher levels of secrecy in the backdrop of growing terror attacks, has spurred it do away with multiple channels of surveillance and set up instead a centralized official tapping facility.

NSA: Intel from aam admi will help terror fight

If national security adviser M K Narayanan has his way, India will soon have a Citizen Intelligence Network (CIN) allowing residents to participate actively in the intelligence gathering mechanism to help prevent terrorist strikes in the country.

How bout that, i feel MUCH safer already