Wednesday, March 28, 2012

India Waking Up To Encryption Realities

Indian companies are adopting many technological methods to streamline their production and efficiency. While these methods can bring cost economy and production efficiency yet these technologies must be used in such a manner that they do not violate the laws of India.

For instance, the virtualisation, cloud solutions and encryption usage in India is subject to many laws like the cyber law of India incorporated in the information technology act 2000 (IT Act 2000), privacy laws, data protection and data security laws, etc. Cyber law due diligence in India is now well established and websites, companies and individuals must ensure the same in their own interests.

According to Praveen Dalal, managing partner of Perry4Law and leading techno legal expert of Asia, we have no dedicated Encryption Laws in India. Since this is a very crucial issue, Indian Encryption Policy must be formulated as soon as possible. Realising that Encryption Policy of India is needed, India is now considering formulating the same, informs Dalal. The proposed Encryption Policy plans to increase the encryption strength from 40 bits to 128 Bits, informs Dalal.

The new encryption policy would be announced by the Department of Information Technology (DIT) and it intends to strengthen the online and cyber security standards in India. However, this move may make the law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies of India nervous as they are not comfortable with high encryption levels.

However, a Higher Encryption Level would strengthen E-Commerce in India as online sales, purchases and payments in India could then be made in a more “Secure” manner, suggests Praveen Dalal. For instance, Online Shopping in India has certain Legal and Cyber Security Issues that must be resolved before launching any Online Payment or E-Commerce Platform, informs Dalal.

India has so far failed to maintain a balance between national security, civil liberties and commercial requirements. Even a matter is pending before the Supreme Court of India where it would try to reconcile the Mobile Verification and National security Requirements in India, informs Dalal.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

E-Justice And Dispute Resolution In India Strengthened

Electronic courts and online disputes resolution (ODR) in India are two areas that can improve the grim situation of our judicial system. The judicial system of India, like all other judicial systems, is suffering from backlog of cases and excessive litigations. As a result justice to litigants in India is not ensured in a timely and appropriate manner.

It seems there is an urgent need to streamline the judicial system of India using a public private partnership (PPP) model. Techno legal expertise is available with private players in India who can streamline the judicial system of India.

The governmental will and expertise to use information and communication technology (ICT) to strengthen the judicial system of India is missing. For instance, e-courts in India have been ignored for more than nine years and till March 2012 we are still waiting for the first e-courts of India. The ground reality is that e-courts and ODR in India are still ignored by the legal and judicial system of India.

Unfortunately, by and large, the electronic delivery of justice in India has failed. There are many reasons why e-delivery of justice in India has failed but the main reason is lack of techno legal expertise to manage e-courts in India.

For instance, we have a single techno legal e-courts training and consultancy centre of India managed by Perry4Law and Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB). There is no second firm or company in India that deals in techno legal e-courts related issues except the one managed by Perry4Law and PTLB.

Perry4Law and PTLB have now taken very significant steps in this crucial direction. They have launched dedicated portals pertaining to electronic courts, e-judiciary, ODR India, online arbitration, etc.

With these dedicated platforms, e-justice and dispute resolution in India would be placed on par with other countries. In fact, these initiatives are so promising that foreign matters of dispute resolution and e-courts project implementations may be executed through these platforms.

For the time being, these websites are under active development. Keep a close watch on these websites to get your disputes resolved without going through the lengthy court and arbitration proceedings.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Cyber Law Due Diligence For Press And Media In India

Internet intermediaries in India are not willing to learn lessons from their past mistakes. From time to time objectionable contents have been appearing in both print and digital formats of press and media. This is despite that fact that such publication is criminal offence under various laws of India.

Recently, a nude picture that was published in Kolkata’s Telegraph edition caused a furor among the citizens, leading to a road blockage for over six hours. The same picture was also published in Hindustan Times that was subsequently taken down from the electronic version of the paper/website.

Adding another chapter to this episode, the West Bengal government has on Friday sent bulk SMS to various individuals, companies, newspapers and media houses directing them not to publish any further objectionable material in this regard.

According to Praveen Dalal, managing partner of ICT law firm Perry4Law and leading techno legal expert of Asia, this single episode attracts Civil and Criminal Liabilities on the part of those involved in the making, uploading, publication and circulation of the same in paper and electronic form. The Cyber Law of India prescribes stringent Due Diligence Requirements that paper based and electronic publishers must follow. If they do not follow Cyber Due Diligence, they can be Criminally Prosecuted by the Government, opines Praveen Dalal.

In fact, the Bengal government has already started the probe in this regard and the culprits would be brought to the book very soon. However, the way this episode has been handled by media shows great disregard to the laws of India, especially the cyber law of India.

Media is India is largely Self Regulated but the Indian Government has recently formulated the Press and Registration of Books and Publications Bill 2011 to regulated “Publication of Contents” informs Praveen Dalal. The Bill has been referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology for its inputs before it may be presented in the Parliament of India, informs Dalal.

Media must be vigil to follow the laws of India, especially the cyber law of India, to retain the self regulation privileges that it is enjoying. If casual and careless publications would continue, there would be no other option left for the government but to regulation their affairs in a more intrusive manner.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Online Payment Market Of India Is Growing

The banking, financial and regulatory environment in India is becoming very conducive for online payment market of India. Companies like PayPal have already realised the potential of online payment markets of China and India. PayPal is planning to make its presence in India and China more prominent.

Another reason why companies like PayPal are entering into Indian market is the strong growth of e-commerce in India. With the growth of e-commerce and e-governance in India, online payment market would also grow. For instance, electronic delivery of services in India would also result in a parallel growth of online payment platforms in India.

In fact, an electronic delivery of services bill of India 2011 has already been adopted by Indian government and it may become an applicable law very soon when the parliament of India clears the same. Add to this the initiatives of mobile governance in India. Very soon we may have an implementable m-governance policy of India. Also an integrated modern banking law for India is in pipeline that may strengthen online payments making in India.

While things are happening in the right direction yet there are some shortcomings as well. For instance, a majority of e-commerce payments are still made in an offline manner. The cash on delivery may harm e-commerce in India in the long run. A shift toward online payments is not only desirable but is also inevitable.

Similarly, e-commerce players, online payment companies and websites in India are still not aware of the key provisions of cyber law of India. E-commerce players and online payment management companies are still not aware about the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules 2011 of India.

Similarly, both e-commerce platforms and online payment companies are required to ensure cyber law due diligence in India. The cyber law due diligence for Indian companies is very stringent and there is no reason to take it lightly. In fact, cyber due diligence for foreign and Indian websites in India is an issue that is frequently agitated before Indian courts. Further, legal requirements of undertaking e-commerce in India must also be strictly followed.

While the opportunities for e-commerce and online payment companies are great yet the corresponding obligations are also equally troublesome. If e-commerce and online payment companies wish to make good profits they have to ensure sound compliance with Indian laws, especially the cyber law of India.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Cloud Computing In India Is Legally Risky

It is a severe jolt to freedom to speech and expression if critical news and views are either censored or they are removed from various search platforms, news, etc. Our latest news upon e-commerce and cloud computing topics were first appeared and later disappeared.

We have also reported the matter to a very good civil liberties protection platform in this regard known as Websites, Blogs and News Censorship by Google and India for their evaluation and reporting. The platform is a repository for many sorts of censorships and manipulations activities done by Indian government and Google.

In this article we are exploring the potential benefits and risks of using cloud computing in India. Legal risks of cloud computing in India are numerous and unless they are mitigated cloud computing in India cannot be successful.

Cloud computing is the buzz word these days in India. Cloud computing has many advantages over maintaining your own data centers and storage spaces. However, if the data is not of great quantity, cloud computing is not a viable option at all.

The data generated on Internet and computing world is tremendous in volume. The processing and management may be a costly affair at an organisational level. This is the reason why individuals and organisations prefer to use cloud computing services to reduce their costs and improve their efficiencies.

The benefits of cloud computing are correlated with the drawbacks associated with the same. For instance, cloud computing is a potential landmine for privacy violations. Similarly, cloud computing may also be responsible for data theft, data breaches, confidentiality breach, etc.

Obviously cloud computing without legal framework and procedural safeguards should not be adopted at all. This is exactly the problem of cloud computing in India. We have no dedicated cloud computing laws in India and cloud computing regulations in India. Despite may protests the legal framework for cloud computing in India is still missing.

Further, we have no dedicated privacy law or data protection law in India as well. Handing over of personal, secret and confidential information to law enforcement agencies of India without any judicial order is also possible as Indian laws does not requires a court warrant to be the prerequisite before such data and information can be parted away by an Internet intermediary or Internet service provider.

According to a recent research analysis by Perry4Law and Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB), Indian chief information officers (CIOs) and chief executive officers (CEOs) are not comfortable using cloud computing in the present situations. Many other organisations have also endorsed this analysis of Perry4Law and PTLB. Now even Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has endorsed these research results of Perry4Law and PTLB.

TRAI has accepted the suggestions of Perry4Law on telecom policy of India 2012. TRAI has clearly maintained that there must be a balance between privacy protection and law enforcement requirements vis-à-vis cloud computing usage in India.

So for all practical purposes, use of cloud computing in India is risky. India is still not ready for cloud computing and India should not use software as a service (SaaS) or cloud computing till suitable legal frameworks and procedural safeguards are at place.

Legal Risks Of Cloud Computing In India

Cloud computing is the buzz word these days in India. Cloud computing has many advantages over maintaining your own data centers and storage spaces. However, if the data is not of great quantity, cloud computing is not a viable option at all.

The data generated on Internet and computing world is tremendous in volume. The processing and management may be a costly affair at an organisational level. This is the reason why individuals and organisations prefer to use cloud computing services to reduce their costs and improve their efficiencies.

The benefits of cloud computing are correlated with the drawbacks associated with the same. For instance, cloud computing is a potential landmine for privacy violations. Similarly, cloud computing may also be responsible for data theft, data breaches, confidentiality breach, etc.

Obviously cloud computing without legal framework and procedural safeguards should not be adopted at all. This is exactly the problem of cloud computing in India. We have no dedicated cloud computing laws in India and cloud computing regulations in India. Despite may protests the legal framework for cloud computing in India is still missing.

Further, we have no dedicated privacy law or data protection law in India as well. Handing over of personal, secret and confidential information to law enforcement agencies of India without any judicial order is also possible as Indian laws does not requires a court warrant to be the prerequisite before such data and information can be parted away by an Internet intermediary or Internet service provider.

According to a recent research analysis by Perry4Law and Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB), Indian chief information officers (CIOs) and chief executive officers (CEOs) are not comfortable using cloud computing in the present situations. Many other organisations have also endorsed this analysis of Perry4Law and PTLB. Now even Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has endorsed these research results of Perry4Law and PTLB.

TRAI has accepted the suggestions of Perry4Law on telecom policy of India 2012. TRAI has clearly maintained that there must be a balance between privacy protection and law enforcement requirements vis-à-vis cloud computing usage in India.

So for all practical purposes, use of cloud computing in India is risky. India is still not ready for cloud computing and India should not use software as a service (SaaS) or cloud computing till suitable legal frameworks and procedural safeguards are at place.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

False Prosecution Of Websites In India Must Be Discouraged

Foreign companies and websites are increasingly finding themselves in the legal net for violating Indian laws. As per the recent trends predicted by Perry4Law and Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) the cyber litigations against foreign websites and companies in India would increase further.

However, not all cases filed against these foreign websites, social networking websites and foreign companies are legally sustainable. For instance, the criminal case filed by Vinay Rai is suffering from many irregularities. The chief among them is the fact that he did not contact the websites in question for removal of offending contents.

Similarly, the civil case filed against many websites and companies by Mufti Aijas Arshad Quasmi is also suffering from irregularities. Many parties to the case have been added without ascertaining whether they are actually liable or not.

However, what is really troublesome is the fact that the civil and criminal courts of India did not apply their mind to ascertain whether a prima facie case is made out against the accused social media websites, foreign websites and accused companies. Legal processes were issued against them without application of mind by the courts.

The only solace comes in the form that some of them have been pronounced to be not liable to be prosecution by the civil court and criminal court. While the Delhi High Court quashed the criminal trail against Yahoo the civil court dismissed the case filed against Microsoft as not maintainable. Even better is imposition of fine of Rs. 5000 upon Mufti Aijas Arshad Quasmi for making unwarranted accusations against Microsoft.

This entire harassment to Yahoo and Microsoft could have been avoided by simple application of mind by concerned courts while summoning them. If foreign websites violate Indian laws they must be severely prosecuted. However, if they are not violating any Indian law, such frivolous cases and complaints against foreign websites should be seriously discouraged by Indian judiciary.