Mandatory Keyloggers in Mumbai's Cyber Cafes 240
YIAAL writes "Indian journalist Amit Varma reports that Mumbai's police are requiring the city's 500 Internet cafes to install keystroke loggers, which will capture every keystroke by users and turn that information over to the government — nearly in realtime by the sound of it. Buy things online, and the underpaid Indian police will have your credit card number. 'Will these end up getting sold in a black market somewhere? Not unlikely.'"
lets go after the innocent (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:lets go after the innocent (Score:5, Insightful)
kdawson AGAIN (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:To those that buy online on a public computer.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Many people in what we call "developing nations" do not have personal computers, and use computers in cyber cafes instead. This includes even computer-savvy people. Still a bad idea to buy online, in my opinion, but it transfers the onus of privacy from a cafe owner who you look in the face to some guy in an office somewhere. And as CounterStrike has taught us, it's a lot easier to be a fuckwad to people you can't see or hear.
I'll expect to see ... (Score:3, Insightful)
... keyboards drawn on the screen under each input field, with Javascript to tie clicks by the mouse pointer on the keys in that keyboard image so the characters are inserted into the appropriate field.
Another option where Javascript can't be used is to create a printed character array that has all the characters. Use the mouse to copy and paste characters one at a time between there and the input field.
All this will be done through HTTPS, of course. Next come the mandatory rootkits. Then patrons bringing in their own Ubuntu or Knoppix disks.
Re:lets go after the innocent (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's Time For A Global Revolution (Score:3, Insightful)
>Violent revolutions should only be reserved for "last resort" - there absolutely is no other choice.
So the colonies should have bit the bullet and waited for the next king to come around?
Re:It's Time For A Global Revolution (Score:5, Insightful)
The American Revolution had some very unique circumstances that don't typically exist in most revolutions.
That isn't to say that people facing an oppressive government shouldn't overthrow the government... but most revolutions won't have the very specific advantages that the United States had in its revolution. The United States got VERY VERY VERY lucky with the circumstances of its revolution.
Re:It's Time For A Global Revolution (Score:3, Insightful)
If it doth prosper, none dare call it treason.
Re:Fiddle the cursor (Score:2, Insightful)
what is the problem? (Score:3, Insightful)
You can't trust any random computer you sit down at.
Re:It's Time For A Global Revolution (Score:3, Insightful)
The way I see it, and from what I've seen through history, violent revolution is inevitable. No government is perfectly stable, and eventually all will fall. I see revolutions as a natural part of a cycle - birth, rise, rule, and collapse of an empire/government/civilization, only to begin anew again. Some countries unfortunately are stuck in a perpetual loop of revolution, which is sad, but that being said I do not think revolutions in general are avoidable. This is not to say I *condone* violent revolution per se, but rather that I think it is inevitable.
Furthermore, revolutions are a critical part of wealth redistribution. No matter how their contemporaries (or even historians!) try to sugar coat it with glitzy values like purity, freedom, liberty, etc, every major revolution that's ever occurred has had their basis in economics. When an oligarchy appears, when the poor and destitute become the majority, and simply when the wealth gap gets ridiculously wide, society will revolt and equalize the wealth (usually by slaughtering the rich). This is why I'm wary of the growing wealth divide in first-world nations, as the wider we get the closer we are to the next big revolution.
Re:It's Time For A Global Revolution (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Indians don't care about privacy (Score:3, Insightful)
The Indian Constitution protects the Fundamental rights of people far more zealously than the US does. Freedom of Speech is certainly important. However, in a developing country with large volume of poor and exploitable people, the fundamental rights that the Constitution of India does guarantee ie:
1.Right to equality
2.Right to freedom
3.Right against exploitation
4.Right to freedom of religion
5.Cultural and educational rights
6.Right to constitutional remedies
Carry precedence in our social context. I'm no big fan of Babasaheb Ambedkar (he was quite the nutcase in other areas), but he knew what he was doing when he wrote the constitution.Have you even read the bloody thing, or are you just mouthing off nonsense?
Oh, and Article 19 Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech, etc.
(1) All citizens shall have the right -
(a) to freedom of speech and expression;
(b) to assemble peaceably and without arms;
(c) to form associations or unions;
(d) to move freely throughout the territory of India;
(e) to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India; and
(f) to practice any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business.
Does guarantee freedom of speech. It's just not as high up on the list as the right not to be starved to death, is all (we've still got a loong way to go in that area though).
Have a read: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Ind
The only significant thing that the US constitution guarantees that the Indian Constitution does not is the right to bear arms (legal stuff, like the right not to incriminate yourself, are contained in the Indian penal code), and that IS due to historical reasons. It just doesn't figure too highly in our sociopolitical superstructure, and can easily be abused by certain people called "Naxalites" (remember those fine thugrats?).
Democracy is a great thing, and is implementable everywhere, but the specifics must vary with region/culture. You cannot fit the square peg of the US constitution into the round hole of India. You need a round peg. I wouldn't expect that a developed and wealthy nation like the United States would need a special Constitutional amendment like "Right against exploitation", sine that can be covered in the legal system.
Re:Fiddle the cursor (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't you think that the group that works hardest to evade inspection is the group you most want to inspect?
Re:Fiddle the cursor (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, as an Indian - this is not Orwellian as it might appear. Just a case of some bureaucratic nut who just discovered key loggers coming up with these impractical ideas.
"Never, never blame anything on a conspiracy that can be explained by incompetence."