Blogposts

Legislative Brief

Legislative Brief on Digital Rights for Budget Session 2022

As the Budget Session of the Parliament commences, we have prepared our third legislative brief on digital rights to highlight some of the focus areas within the larger issues of technology policies and digital rights that call for the extensive deliberation in the houses of the Parliament.
03 February, 2022
7 min read
Tejasi PanjiarTejasi Panjiar
transparency

Digital Transparency: A Right to Information Report for January 2022

Since our last report for the month of December, IFF has filed 10 RTI requests and 2 first appeals. In this post, we give you an overview of the requests filed and an analysis of the responses we have received from the different public authorities.
02 February, 2022
4 min read
Gyan TripathiGyan Tripathi & Anushka JainAnushka Jain
accesstointernet

Gauhati HC allows IFF's intervention application in petition challenging the constitutionality of internet shutdown rules #KeepItOn

At a hearing dated January 31, 2022, IFF's intervention application challenging the Telecom Suspension Rules, 2017 has been allowed by the Gauhati High Court, and IFF has been impleaded in the case. IFF is now allowed to assist the Court with oral and written submissions in the proceedings.
01 February, 2022
4 min read
Tanmay SinghTanmay Singh & Anandita MishraAnandita Mishra
Project Panoptic

IFF explains DigiYatra: Turbulence ahead

In the second part of our series on the Ministry of Civil Aviation's DigiYatra Scheme, we analyse how the collected personal data may end up commercialised even as the Scheme fails to deliver on its promised convenience.
29 January, 2022
6 min read
Anushka JainAnushka Jain
freespeech

Revealed: Over two thousand news publishers furnished their details to the MIB, despite Bombay HC’s stay

IFF filed an RTI Application to find out whether the MIB has issued notices for information to news publishers, and to which publishers. The MIB has admitted that it has indeed issued two such notices, and that more than two thousand publishers have responded to these notices!
25 January, 2022
4 min read
Tanmay SinghTanmay Singh
compliance

#SocialMediaComplianceWatch: analysis of Social Media Compliance Reports of October, 2021

Social Media platforms have released their reports for Oct 2021 in compliance with Rule 4(1)(d), IT Rules 2021. They continue to suffer from the same shortcomings, which exhibits lack of effort on the part of the SSMIs and the govt. to further transparency and accountability in platform governance.
21 January, 2022
9 min read
Anandita MishraAnandita Mishra
Privacy

#PrivacyofthePeople: Alexa, Google, Siri, we hear for you?

Voice-enabled AI assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri reside not only on our smartphones but also in millions of bedrooms. The intimacy they enjoy presents a range of privacy risks that can be mitigated by a user centric, rights focussed, data protection law.
19 January, 2022
8 min read
Anandita MishraAnandita Mishra
Project Panoptic

Part 1: The dangers of DigiYatra & facial recognition enabled paperless air travel #SaveOurPrivacy

You may think that using your face as a boarding pass would make travelling so much better. However, can it have a downside as well? Read our explainer to know more.
18 January, 2022
6 min read
Anushka JainAnushka Jain
Bullibai

IFF writes to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT on the “Bulli Bai” and “Sulli Deals” Incidents

The Mumbai and Delhi Police have arrested the perpetrators of the fake online auction of Muslim women. But what took so long? We wrote to the Standing Committee with a few recommendations
17 January, 2022
8 min read
Shivangani MisraShivangani Misra & Anushka JainAnushka Jain
vulnerability

IFF explains: An Election Commission vulnerability that could expose your phone number!

A vulnerability in the ECI’s National Voters Service Portal website was exposed by an independent security researcher in December last year. The vulnerability allowed access to un-redacted, registered phone numbers of voters. The vulnerability was eventually patched by the ECI IT team.
15 January, 2022
7 min read
Tejasi PanjiarTejasi Panjiar & Rohin GargRohin Garg

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