Mandatory Keyloggers in Mumbai's Cyber Cafes

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.'"

Comments

lets go after the innocent

[Mrs. Grundy]

Of course this is ridiculous because the only people that will be effected by it are innocent people. Criminals and (gasp) terrorists will simply find other ways of communicating. The cafe owners will lose business, and innocent folks will suffer a completely useless invasion of privacy so the government can say they are doing something without actually doing something that makes any difference.

Re:lets go after the innocent

[Bonobo_Unknown]

I predict the sudden rise of on-screen keypads, operated via the mouse.

Re:To those that buy online on a public computer..

[happyemoticon]

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.

Re:It's Time For A Global Revolution

[fishbowl]

>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

[RexRhino]

So the colonies should have bit the bullet and waited for the next king to come around? The colonies had their own governments, which for the most part had very weak ties to the central government in England (and England was several months sea voyage away). The primary government of the colonies wasn't being overthrown, the primary government of the colonies were actively participating in the overthrow of what they realized was a foreign power.

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

[Anonymous Coward]

Treason doth never prosper; what's the reason?
If it doth prosper, none dare call it treason.

Re:Fiddle the cursor

[QMO]

Yes, because that 3% is more likely to contain those people you most want to catch.

Don't you think that the group that works hardest to evade inspection is the group you most want to inspect?