Tl;dr The Delhi HC has issued notice in a petition filed by SnTHostings challenging the legality of Direction No. 20(3)/2022-CERT-In dated April 28, 2022 (‘2022 Directions’) by the The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (‘CERT-In’). SnTHostings provides hosting, Virtual Private Network (‘VPN’) and Virtual Private Server (‘VPS’
The SC-appointed committee on use of Pegasus has concluded that malware was found in 5 out of 29 phones submitted to it, but the use of Pegasus could not be confirmed. Furthermore, the Report is to remain in sealed covers in a move against public transparency and accountability.
Today, August 24, 2022, marks the 5th year anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court Right to Privacy judgement, a momentous day for the history of digital rights & freedom. Read on to know how the decision advanced jurisprudence on key issues & how its implementation has been far from perfect.
We wrote to the DoT to appreciate their proactiveness in publishing the blocking notifications under court orders and urged them to ensure that executive blocking orders are made publicly available.
Transfer petitions filed by the Union of India, in respect of challenges across High Courts to the IT Rules, 2021 were heard. The Supreme Court stayed proceedings in the IT Rules challenges before HCs, but not on any orders passed by the HCs in these IT Rules challenges
Indian law requires governments to be reviewed by a committee of high-level government officials. We have written to the Chairperson of the Review Committee, i.e. the Chief Justice of Rajasthan urging greater scrutiny of shutdown orders.
To have an informed debate about the legal e-surveillance regime and practices in India, we filed RTI Applications seeking related information in 2018. We have not received this information till date, but we will continue to pursue it.
Mr Tanul Thakur is the creator of the satirical website dowrycalculator.com. In 2018, the Union Government blocked the website without granting him a hearing or providing a copy of the order. Mr Thakur has challenged the blocking order.
News publishers were sent notices under the IT Rules, even after major parts of the IT Rules were stayed. The MIB said that news publishers have only offered this information “voluntarily”, i.e. that there is no compulsion to respond to them.
To assist challenges to IT Rules, we reached out to Oxford Pro Bono Publico (OPBP) - a research centre at the Oxford University, requesting research on laws in other countries on social media platforms, digital news media and OTT platforms. OPBP has published their research report in December 2021.