New law will let govt snoop on your PC

NEW DELHI: Your email or the personal contents of your computer could soon be under the government's scrutiny without your knowledge.

With Parliament on Tuesday passing a bill which stipulates life imprisonment for those indulging in cyber terrorism and giving the government endless power to "intercept or monitor any information through any computer resource," experts fear that "unauthorised interceptions could soon become common".

Calling for setting up of an independent authority to review complaints of unauthorised interceptions, cyber law expert Pavan Duggal told TOI that the bill was bound to infringe on civil liberties like right to privacy or right to anonymous communication with legitimate purposes, because no safeguards had been put in place to prevent such abuse.

Calling the bill "a hurried reaction", Duggal said, "The potential for misuse of these powers stipulated by the bill for political gains can't be ruled out."

There also appears to be no effective remedy or mechanism to appeal against unauthorised interception, Duggal said. "Once it becomes law, the government will have sovereign and blanket power to intercept or peep into any electronic communication of even legitimate citizens. Because the bill states that safeguards would be stipulated at a later date, it would clamp down on civil liberties right away. While we are concerned about national security, we don't want these interception mechanisms to become a handle for misuse," he added.

"There has to be a proper balance between contradictory subjects of interception and privacy. So safeguards are critical," the expert said. The Information Technology (Amendment) Bill 2008 also empowers the government with absolute power to block websites in national interest.

The government's move to bring in new provisions to tackle cyber terrorism comes after repeated instances of terrorists using the web to propagate mayhem and claim responsibility after every act.

For those indulging in cyber terrorism, the new legislation provides for stiff penalty of life imprisonment. The bill also says that dishonestly receiving stolen computer resource, identity theft, cheating by personation by using computer resource and violation of privacy will result in imprisonment upto three years apart from fine between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

Transmitting material containing sexually explicit acts in electronic form would be punishable by imprisonment of upto five years along with a fine of upto Rs 10 lakh.

Emphasising on the overriding power given to government, a senior IT official pointed out that Section 69 of the original Act had given the central government the power to intercept and monitor any information through computer systems
in national interest, permitting it to monitor any potentially cognisable offence.

ET

Some more info about Com Saketh Rajan by Jothindra

Jothindra a former administrative officer(IAS ?/ KAS ?) recounts his memories of
Com Saketh Rajan on his blog .

While it is a long post.. I have only cross posted the relevant parts..


Dec 9th , 2008

jotindra.blog.co.in

Notes from Kodagu

Come summer season, I recollect nostalgically of my 2 years stay in Kodagu, the little district in Karnataka. I was in the Administrative Service then. And one of the joys of it was being able to explore the places all over the state. One of the most memorable stints of my career was undoubtedly the one at Kodagu. The job was not strenuous as it is a very small district. And there was plenty of time to walk around the place.
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I’m used to seeing peacocks and herds of deer, why even elephants and bisons on the roadside itself. But it’s not the case here. I passed ‘Anekadu’(literally, elephant forest) between Suntikoppa and Madikeri a hundred times and yet didn’t get to see a deer! Maybe that speaks of the hunting instinct of the Kodavas.

And looking at the thick, wet forest reminded me of my once dear friend Saketh Rajan. What made him decide to give up a comfortable life to a life in the jungles? Could he not have tried to change the society through journalism instead of becoming a naxalite? What a journalist he could have been! I came to know him during the debate competitions. He used to represent Yuvaraja’s College, Mysore, and I, alongwith one B.N.S. Reddy , used to represent the Maharaja’s College. We were fascinated by his debating skills. What language, what clarity, what presentation Saketh had! He realized that he had erred in joining a course in Science and then decided to join Maharaja’s College with journalism as one of his subjects.

Inspite of becoming our junior, we grew to be close friends. He was so humble, so simply clad that for a longtime, we wondered how he had mastered the English language so well. Only later did we come to know that he was the son of a retired Army officer and the owner of a petrol bunk. After we came out of the college, we lost touch with each other. Only occasionally did we meet. But we came to know that he had changed a lot after his year’s stint at the All India Institute of Mass Communication in Delhi. He probably got in touch with the naxalites there. Maybe he thought that waging a war through Press was inadequate and so must have also joined the movement. This time he could not backtrack from the mistake he committed for he was playing a very dangerous game now. He had to go underground.

The last time I saw him was near the Ashoka Circle in Mysore. I saw him pushing a cycle. Some villagers were with him. We spoke for just a few moments exchanging greetings and I realized how drastically he’d changed. He was no longer the Saketh we knew. The tale has an interesting twist. He was very close to B.N.S.Reddy and one Lingaraj Gandhi. The latter is a Professor in the University of Mysore now. And the former-a top ranking Police officer! What a filmy ending it would have been if he had been on the assignment which ended with Saketh being shot dead in the forests around Shimoga a few years ago. Surely, strange are the ways of God!
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