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Making Voices Heard — by Shweta Mohandas — last modified Jun 27, 2022 04:18 PM
We are happy to announce the launch of our final report on the study ‘Making Voices Heard: Privacy, Inclusivity, and Accessibility of Voice Interfaces in India. The study was undertaken with support from the Mozilla Corporation.
Reclaiming AI Futures: Call for Contributions and Provocations — by Divij Joshi — last modified Nov 18, 2020 09:04 AM
CIS is pleased to share this call for contributions by Mozilla Fellow Divij Joshi. CIS will be working with Divij to edit, collate, and finalise this publication. This publication will add to Divij’s work as part of the AI observatory. The work is entirely funded by Divij Joshi.
Towards Algorithmic Transparency — by Radhika Radhakrishnan and Amber Sinha — last modified Jul 15, 2020 01:16 PM
This policy brief examines the issue of transparency as a key ethical component in the development, deployment, and use of Artificial Intelligence.
Announcement of a Three-Region Research Alliance on the Appropriate Use of Digital Identity — by Amber Sinha — last modified May 13, 2019 09:06 AM
Omidyar Network has recently announced its decision to invest in establishment of a three-region research alliance — to be co-led by the Institute for Technology & Society (ITS), Brazil, the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT) , Kenya, and the CIS, India — on the Appropriate Use of Digital Identity. As part of this Alliance, we at the CIS will look at the policy objectives of digital identity projects, how technological policy choices can be thought through to meet the objectives, and how legitimate uses of a digital identity framework may be evaluated.
FinTech in India: A Study of Privacy and Security Commitments — by Aayush Rathi and Shweta Mohandas — last modified May 02, 2019 11:20 AM
The unprecedented growth of the fintech space in India has concomitantly come with regulatory challenges around inter alia privacy and security concerns. This report studies the privacy policies of 48 fintech companies operating in India to better understand some of these concerns.
CIS Response to Draft E-Commerce Policy — by Amber Sinha — last modified Apr 26, 2019 06:40 AM
CIS is grateful for the opportunity to submit comments to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion on the draft national e-commerce policy. This response was authored by Amber Sinha, Arindrajit Basu, Elonnai Hickok and Vipul Kharbanda.
Internet Speech: Perspectives on Regulation and Policy Apr 05, 2019 from 10:00 AM to 05:00 PM — India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, — by Akriti Bopanna
The Centre for Internet & Society and the University of Munich (LMU), Germany are jointly organizing an international symposium at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi on April 5, 2019
ICANN Diversity Analysis — by Akriti Bopanna — last modified Aug 29, 2018 11:19 AM
The by-laws of The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) state that it is a non-profit public-benefit corporation which is responsible at the overall level, for the coordination of the “global internet's systems of unique identifiers, and in particular to ensure the stable and secure operation of the internet's unique identifier systems”. As key stakeholders of ICANN are spread across the world, much of the communication discussing the work of ICANN takes place over email. This analysis of the diversity of participation at the ICANN processes, through a study of their mailing lists, was undertaken by Paul Kurian and Akriti Bopanna.
Internet Shutdown Stories — by Ambika Tandon — last modified Sep 03, 2019 09:57 AM
The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) has published a collection of stories of the impact of internet shutdowns on people's lives in the country. This book seeks to give a glimpse into the lives of those directly affected by these internet shutdown experiments. When seen in a larger context, we hope that the stories in this book also demonstrate that access to the internet and freedom of speech is not just about an individual’s rights, but are also required for the collective good. This is a project funded by Facebook and MacArthur Foundation, and the stories were provided by 101 Reporters. Case studies from the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Telangana, West Bengal, Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland, and Uttar Pradesh have been highlighted in this compilation.
What’s up with WhatsApp? — by Aayush Rathi and Sunil Abraham — last modified Apr 23, 2018 04:45 PM
In 2016, WhatsApp Inc announced it was rolling out end-to-end encryption, but is the company doing what it claims to be doing?
Government gives free publicity worth 40k to Twitter and Facebook — by Akriti Bopanna — last modified Apr 27, 2018 09:52 AM
We conducted a 2 week survey of newspapers for links between government advertisement to social media giants. As citizens, we should be worried about the close nexus between the Indian government and digital behemoths such as Facebook, Google and Twitter. It has become apparent to us after a 2 week print media analysis that our Government has been providing free publicity worth Rs 40,000 to these entities. There are multiple issues with this as this article attempts at pointing out.
The Fundamental Right to Privacy - A Visual Guide — by Amber Sinha — last modified Feb 16, 2018 05:31 AM
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves, or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. This visual guide to the story of privacy law in India and the recent judgement of the Puttaswamy v. Union of India case is developed by Amber Sinha (research and content) and Pooja Saxena (design and conceptualisation).
The Fundamental Right to Privacy: An Analysis — by Amber Sinha — last modified Oct 04, 2017 11:19 AM
Last​ ​month’s​ ​judgment​ ​by​ ​the​ ​nine​ ​judge​ ​referral​ ​bench​ ​was​ ​an​ ​emphatic endorsement​ ​of​ ​the​ ​the​ ​constitutional​ ​right​ ​to​ ​privacy.​ ​In​ ​the​ ​course​ ​of​ ​a​ ​547​ ​page judgment,​ ​the​ ​bench​ ​affirmed​ ​the​ ​fundamental​ ​nature​ ​of​ ​the​ ​right​ ​to​ ​privacy reading​ ​it​ ​into​ ​the​ ​values​ ​of​ ​dignity​ ​and​ ​liberty.​ In the course of a few short papers, we will dissect the various aspects of the right to privacy as put forth by the nine judge constitutional bench in the Puttaswamy matter. The papers will focus on the sources, structure, scope, breadth, and future of privacy. Here are the first three papers, authored by Amber Sinha and edited by Elonnai Hickok.
CIS Statement on Right to Privacy Judgment — by Amber Sinha — last modified Aug 31, 2017 06:13 PM
In an emphatic endorsement of the right to privacy, a nine judge constitutional bench unanimously upheld a fundamental right to privacy. The events leading to this bench began during the hearings in the ongoing Aadhaar case, when in August 2015, Mukul Rohatgi, the then Attorney General stated that there is no constitutionally guaranteed right to privacy.
High Level Comparison and Analysis of the Use and Regulation of DNA Based Technology Bill 2017 — by Elonnai Hickok — last modified Aug 11, 2017 02:16 AM
This blog post seeks to provide a high level comparison of the 2017 and 2015 DNA Profiling Bill - calling out positive changes, remaining issues, and missing provisions.
(Updated) Information Security Practices of Aadhaar (or lack thereof): A documentation of public availability of Aadhaar Numbers with sensitive personal financial information — by Amber Sinha and Srinivas Kodali — last modified Mar 13, 2019 12:29 AM
Since its inception in 2009, the Aadhaar project has been shrouded in controversy due to various questions raised about privacy, technological issues, welfare exclusion, and security concerns. In this study, we document numerous instances of publicly available Aadhaar Numbers along with other personally identifiable information (PII) of individuals on government websites. This report highlights four government projects run by various government departments that have made sensitive personal financial information and Aadhaar numbers public on the project websites.
Net Neutrality Resources — by Prasad Krishna — last modified Apr 22, 2017 09:11 AM
Submissions by the Centre for Internet and Society to TRAI and DoT, 2015-2017.
Survey on Data Protection Regime — by Aditi Chaturvedi and Elonnai Hickok — last modified Feb 10, 2017 10:47 AM
We request you to take part in this survey aimed at understanding how various organisations view the changes in the Data Protection Regime in the European Union. Recently the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 was passed, which shall replace the present Data Protection Directive DPD 95/46/EC. This step is likely to impact the way of working for many organisations. We are grateful for your voluntary contribution to our research, and all information shared by you will be used for the purpose of research only. Questions that personally identify you are not mandatory and will be kept strictly confidential.
Comments on the Report of the Committee on Digital Payments (December 2016) — by Sumandro Chattapadhyay and Amber Sinha — last modified Jan 12, 2017 12:32 PM
The Committee on Digital Payments constituted by the Ministry of Finance and chaired by Ratan P. Watal, Principal Advisor, NITI Aayog, submitted its report on the "Medium Term Recommendations to Strengthen Digital Payments Ecosystem" on December 09, 2016. The report was made public on December 27, and comments were sought from the general public. Here are the comments submitted by the Centre for Internet and Society.
CIS Submission to TRAI Consultation Note on Model for Nation-wide Interoperable and Scalable Public Wi-Fi Networks — by Japreet Grewal, Pranesh Prakash, Sharath Chandra Ram, Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Sunil Abraham, Udbhav Tiwari and Amelia Andersdotter — last modified Dec 12, 2016 01:59 PM
​This submission presents responses by the CIS on the ​Consultation Note on Model for Nation-wide Interoperable and Scalable Public Wi-Fi Networks published by the TRAI on November 15, 2016. Our analysis of the solution proposed in the Note, in brief, is that there is no need of a solution for non-existing interoperability problem for authentication and payment services for accessing public Wi-Fi networks. The proposed solution in this Note only adds to over-regulation in this sector, and does not incentivise new investment in the sector, but only establishes UIDAI and NPCI as the monopoly service providers for authentication and payment services.
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We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to us at communications[at]cis-india[dot]org with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in.

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About Us

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfiguration of social processes and structures through the internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa.

Through its diverse initiatives, CIS explores, intervenes in, and advances contemporary discourse and regulatory practices around internet, technology, and society in India, and elsewhere.

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