India To Intercept, Monitor, and Decrypt Citizens' Computers (venturebeat.com) 108
Several readers have shared a report: The Indian government has authorized 10 central agencies to intercept, monitor, and decrypt data on any computer, sending a shock wave through citizens and privacy watchdogs. Narendra Modi's government late Thursday broadened the scope of Section 69 of the nation's IT Act, 2000 to require a subscriber, service provider, or any person in charge of a computer to "extend all facilities and technical assistance to the agencies." Failure to comply with the agencies could result in seven years of imprisonment and an unspecified fine. In a clarification posted today, the Ministry of Home Affairs said each case of interception, monitoring, and decryption is to be approved by the competent authority, which is the Union Home Secretary.
Explaining the rationale behind the order, India's IT minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said that the measure was undertaken in the interests of national security. He added that some form of "tapping" has already been going on in the country for a number of years and that the new order would help bring structure to that process. "Always remember one thing," he said in a televised interview. "Even in the case of a particular individual, the interception order shall not be effective unless affirmed by the Home Secretary."
The Internet Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit organization that protects the online rights of citizens in India, cautioned that the order goes beyond telephone tapping. It includes looking at content streams and might even involve breaking encryption in some cases. "Imagine your search queries on Google over [a number of] years being demanded -- mixed with your WhatsApp metadata, who you talk to, when, and how much [and add] layers of data streams from emails + Facebook," it said. "To us this order is unconstitutional and in breach of the telephone tapping guidelines, the Privacy Judgement and the Aadhaar Judgement," it asserted.
Explaining the rationale behind the order, India's IT minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said that the measure was undertaken in the interests of national security. He added that some form of "tapping" has already been going on in the country for a number of years and that the new order would help bring structure to that process. "Always remember one thing," he said in a televised interview. "Even in the case of a particular individual, the interception order shall not be effective unless affirmed by the Home Secretary."
The Internet Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit organization that protects the online rights of citizens in India, cautioned that the order goes beyond telephone tapping. It includes looking at content streams and might even involve breaking encryption in some cases. "Imagine your search queries on Google over [a number of] years being demanded -- mixed with your WhatsApp metadata, who you talk to, when, and how much [and add] layers of data streams from emails + Facebook," it said. "To us this order is unconstitutional and in breach of the telephone tapping guidelines, the Privacy Judgement and the Aadhaar Judgement," it asserted.
Wouldn't happen in the US (Score:1, Flamebait)
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Not your AR15 from Walmart. I never said guns are scary either.
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So what does guarantee your rights, then?
Nothing.
People either care about them, or they don't. If they care about them, then there is MORE of a likelihood that they will be protected, but no guarantee. I know we're a nation of individuals, but it's the collective that decides the rights. Otherwise, they get eroded, slowly, bit by bit, and you don't get very many complaints.
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Your knee-jerk GUNZ IZZ SKEERY!!!! straw man is pathetic and intellectually about as deep as an August parking lot puddle in a shitty Florida strip mall parking lot.
So you make a strawman by claiming OP made a strawman? Bravo!
Your ideas are intriguing, citizen. Pray tell you have a newsletter a fellow citizen might subscribe to perchance?
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Re:Intercept a computer??? (Score:5, Funny)
Don't get your undershorts in a knot (Score:3)
It's just saying if an agency has a warrant then they can search your computer or intercept it's communications and you will need to provide a means for them to search it, punishable by law. It's about the same as in the US give or take. The change he is making is it's now requiring a warrant and codifying the penanty for non compliance. Previously this was all being done ad hoc. Now it's regulated and law.
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No unreasonable searches and seizures. Ergo warranted searches and seizures. Look up warranted in the dictionary.
That shouldn't be a problem (Score:2, Funny)
Considering how many Microsoft tech support centers they have in India.
If the average Indian IT worker is..... (Score:1, Troll)
....anything to go by then no-one need worry.
Those guys couldn't find their own butts using both hands, let alone be capable of what's in the article.
It'll just be thousands on Indians all trying to cheat from each other to learn how to do it.
Nothing to see here.
Stego time (Score:2, Insightful)
sounds like we need a renaissance in stegography. Nope not encrypted, nope no data there,
So, same as everywhere else? (Score:3, Insightful)
This is standard practice now. Its amazing that people once thought it was wrong that Stasi collected information about the citizens social interactions.
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So says the government.
The head of the stasi infamously declared he did it out of love for everyone. Go look it up, it was on television.
Me, I think that while the customarily "bad" governments (ie the USSR, a bunch of dictatorships in Africa, but also the US-backed right-wing dictatorships in Latin America) have ended or ceased to be relevant, the "good" governments are about to go bad because they're past their expiry dates. And they know it, whether they care to admit it or not. So they prepare by and fo
Re: So, same as everywhere else? (Score:1)
Don't know how the law works in India (Score:3)
IANAL, but is the burden of proof on the government to prove the existence of a:
"competent authority" /s
On the other hand, a "secure", cloud based backup/restore service that leaves no trace on a "rental" laptop except the latest blank OS, would seem to be a great investment opportunity.
Re:Don't know how the law works in India (Score:5, Insightful)
On the other hand, a "secure", cloud based backup/restore service that leaves no trace on a "rental" laptop except the latest blank OS, would seem to be a great investment opportunity.
"Citizen, you are under arrest for the crime of encryption. Your ISP detected the transfer of encrypted files passing through your Internet connection on three separate occasions last month. Kneel and put your hands behind your back, please."
If you think this won't happen - well, I think you're naive, but I sincerely hope you're right. Personally, I think we'll see it sooner rather than later, even in what we (sometimes ironically) call the free world.
I for one... (Score:3, Insightful)
... don't mind our overlords showing their true colours.
Go on, show the world you utterly hate and fear your own citizenry and will stoop to any depth at all to fuck over your own citizens. A biometric card to track everyone and snoop in everyone's data for no reason? Why yes, mister wallet inspector, do show us what you're made of.
Re: I for one... (Score:3, Interesting)
They don't fear the population. If push comes to shove, the government can easily destroy the population. They don't hate it either, they just want to keep it in check for at least one more decade while its existence is still needed.
time to revert back to the pre-industrail era (Score:2)
what the what now?
basically, this is a case of "do you own a 'computer'?, if so then we open up and read anything in what we deem to be a 'computer' any time we like"
I'm going back to floppy disks. or I would. except anything unreadable or not formatted to 1.44meg could be construed as "encrypted", and therefore if I don't hand over the "decryption keys" to a corrupt floppy disk, it's tantamount to 7 years jail time.
good job guys. shall we all start carrying round a little tube of anal lube as part of being
Just another brick in the wall (Score:5, Insightful)
What made, and to the extent we still have it, Makes America Great, is and always has been a promise of true liberty and freedom, however well fulfilled, to be your own person, to think your own private thoughts, to fulfill your own dreams, to seek happiness. This dream brings people to our nation who are beaten on suspicion of thinking thoughts deemed improper. When America champions this idea around the world, it gives ALL people (who can hear it) hope that one day they will live in a place that allows them to express themselves personally as they really are.
Every time I read about technology enabling oppression, suppression, tyranny, and conformity
We should be looking at these actions as examples of what NOT to do.. and yet they are increasingly harbingers of what our leadership WILL do here in America. We watch what happens abroad with horror, and then watch while people embrace and defend these horrors at home. I am baffled.
Troll On! my people.
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America was never great! Orange man bad!
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America was never great!
Not so. America was both great AND terrible. The problem with MAGA isn't that those things were never there. It's that it totally ignores that restoring many past greatnesses depends on reinstating many past sins.
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> The country that used nuclear weapons against POC is suddenly the good guys?
The country that sneak-bombed our troops that we are still digging out 70+ years later? Fuck you asshole. That was not racism, that was retaliation.
Go fuck your POC-marked face.
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Just happened in Australia.... (Score:3, Informative)
Well, Australia already had this terrible idea and turned it into law. Why not do it everywhere and citizens privacy be damned, globally.
Re: Just happened in Australia.... (Score:1)
And in Denmark a municipality is actively looking to track Peoples electricity and heating to make sure that they actually live in their homes. Technology is turning Democracies all over into shitholes anf all people care about is their new shiny gadget in their hand and Swedes take ng the full step first are allowing themselves to be implanted in droves and banning cash, Hungary puts into law allowing 400 hours of unpaid overtime for up to 3 years. Totalitarian forces are rubbing their hands in joy and lau
They have a lot of muslims there (Score:1)
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Blaming all the problems of the world on one segment of the population based on race, gender, sexual orientation, culture, etc, is a teltale sign of a simple and weak mind. Such minds simply cannot comprehend the complexity of the world we live in. They want the world to be simple enough to understand it, so they are hell-bent on making it simple.
But it's not. OK ? It's not. The world is what it is, not what you want it to be.
Would-be tyrants love simpletons though. Simpletons are easily scared by things th
Wow (Score:2)
. "Even in the case of a particular individual, the interception order shall not be effective unless affirmed by the Home Secretary."
That line could have been written by a 419 scammer. If it had the word "modality" in it I'd be 100% convinced.
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Absolutely the same thing I was thinking. Or worse, even the outsourced code development can be stolen. Just as bad as China, what they cannot invent, they will steal.
America needs to start embracing long-term planning, rather that "current quarter" thinking. Can't maintain any strategy with that short-term thinking and it will soon be our undoing if we don't figure out how to combat it. China plans long-term, we are planning pretty much nothing. It's like playing chess against a high-level player using a r
Good riddance (Score:2)
Good riddance to Tata and InfoSys.
This will never be used to benefit Indian companie (Score:2)
I have no doubt that the defense industry, among others, will be given winks and nods and get tipped off when foreign competitors are bidding against them, or when interesting IP is scooped up.
Thus ends the world's largest democratic society (Score:2)
With mandated e-currencies in the name of tax collection and total monitoring of electronic communications and transactions... that is pretty much the nuts and bolts of democracy all wrapped up in a totalitarian package. Hopefully there is enough democracy left in India to give the government a good swift kick to the curb, but it seems that totalitarians have gotten better at making the loss of Liberty sweet enough to swallow.
Taxes should never be so high as to require a government to make the nation itsel
Idiots at the Top (Score:2)
2. Backdoors forced into encryption algorithms, with the keys entrusted to the government
3. Keys leak into public domain
4. Public trust of encryption collapses
5. Ecommerce collapses
6. Banking system collapses
Understandable (Score:2)
"Explaining the rationale behind the order, India's IT minister, Ravi Shankar.."
There's the problem. He's more skilled with a sitar than with encryption.
Like most laws of this nature (Score:2)
You can bet your ass the " important " people in India have exceptions in place for this law.
Eg: Big Brother can spy on you, but are exempt from being spied upon.
Bizarre Statements From Politicians (Score:1)
Contempt for truth and knowledge https://www.huffingtonpost.in/... [huffingtonpost.in]
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Don't feed the trolls, asshat.
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