Slashdot Mirror
Indian Police Demand Internet Monitoring In Bombay
h4rm0ny writes "Both the BBC and the Houston Chronicle are running stories about planned monitoring of customers at cyber cafes in Bombay. Cafe owners have responded by organising into a group to oppose the moves.
The police want cafes to demand photo id, a home address and maintain records of access for at least a year. The Great Deamons of Justification have been invoked - Terrorism, Paedophillia, Hackers and in this case Users of Adult Sites. On the cafe owner's part - they are countering with questions of liability for verifying customer details and the issues of privacy.
India remains a country with a very low percentage of the population having their own internet connection. Bombay's 3000 cafes are used by approximately 1.5 million people so these new laws would give the police much larger scope to monitor people's online behaviour than in other countries.
Other Indian cities are watching the results closely."
The police want cafes to demand photo id, a home address and maintain records of access for at least a year. The Great Deamons of Justification have been invoked - Terrorism, Paedophillia, Hackers and in this case Users of Adult Sites. On the cafe owner's part - they are countering with questions of liability for verifying customer details and the issues of privacy.
India remains a country with a very low percentage of the population having their own internet connection. Bombay's 3000 cafes are used by approximately 1.5 million people so these new laws would give the police much larger scope to monitor people's online behaviour than in other countries.
Other Indian cities are watching the results closely."
I went to India late last year for a visit and found out that two or three of the medium sized cities that I visited to my surprise had cable modems available to the general population. Pricing was at par with the US taking into account currency conversion rate and cost of living. Not many people subscribe though because computers are not common except with the tech savvy people.
I read this yesterday morning on the BBC news site. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3431645.stm compared to what China is involved in this is peanuts http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3434 115.stm
India's government and police don't work on much of a checks and balances system. So they can do whatever they want really. Last time I went to india I had to pay an extra $100 cash because I was taking in electronics and the customs police knew I was from the US. I didn't have an option of going to a supervisor...because the supervisor was in on a cut of the $100.
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