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Habeas Data in India — by Vipul Kharbanda and Elonnai Hickok — last modified Dec 10, 2016 04:01 AM
Habeas Data is a latin word which can be loosely translated to mean “have the data”. The right has been primarily conceptualized, designed, ratified, and implemented by various nation-states in the background of a shared common history of decades of torture, terror, and other repressive practices under military juntas and other fascist regimes.
The Technology behind Big Data — by Geethanjali Jujjavarapu and Udbhav Tiwari — last modified Dec 04, 2016 09:53 AM
The authors undertakes a high-level literature review of the most commonly used technological tools and processes in the big data life cycle. The big data life cycle is a conceptual construct that can be used to study the various stages that typically occur in collecting, storing and analysing big data, along with the principles that can govern these processes.
Big Data in India: Benefits, Harms, and Human Rights - Workshop Report — by Vidushi Marda, Akash Deep Singh and Geethanjali Jujjavarapu — last modified Nov 18, 2016 12:58 PM
The Centre for Internet and Society held a one-day workshop on “Big Data in India: Benefits, Harms and Human Rights” at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on the 1st of October, 2016. This report is a compilation of the the issues discussed, ideas exchanged and challenges recognized during the workshop. The objective of the workshop was to discuss aspects of big data technologies in terms of harms, opportunities and human rights. The discussion was designed around an extensive study of current and potential future uses of big data for governance in India, that CIS has undertaken over the last year with support from the MacArthur Foundation.
RBI Directions on Account Aggregators — by Vipul Kharbanda and Elonnai Hickok — last modified Oct 21, 2016 03:25 PM
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Directions for account aggregator services in India seem to lay great emphasis on data security by allowing only direct access between institutions and do away with data scraping techniques.
Analysis of the Report of the Group of Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security and Implications for India — by Elonnai Hickok and Vipul Kharbanda — last modified Aug 11, 2016 09:58 AM
This paper analyses the report of the Group of Experts and and India’s compliance with its recommendations based on existing laws and policies. Given the global nature of these challenges and the need for nations to holistically address such challenges from a human rights and security perspective, CIS believes that the Group of Experts and similar international forums are useful and important forums for India to actively engage with.
CIS Submission to TRAI Consultation on Free Data — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Jul 01, 2016 04:04 PM
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) held a consultation on Free Data, for which CIS sent in the following comments.
Submission by the Centre for Internet and Society on Revisions to ICANN Expected Standards of Behavior — by Vidushi Marda — last modified Jun 30, 2016 06:07 AM
Prepared by Vidushi Marda, with inputs from Dr. Nirmita Narasimhan and Sunil Abraham.
Jurisdiction: The Taboo Topic at ICANN — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Jun 29, 2016 07:51 AM
The "IANA Transition" that is currently underway is a sham since it doesn't address the most important question: that of jurisdiction. This article explores why the issue of jurisdiction is the most important question, and why it remains unaddressed.
Smart City Policies and Standards: Overview of Projects, Data Policies, and Standards across Five International Smart Cities — by Kiran AB, Elonnai Hickok and Vanya Rakesh — last modified Jun 11, 2016 01:29 PM
This blog post aims to review five Smart Cities across the globe, namely Singapore, Dubai, New York City, London and Seoul, the Data Policies and Standards adopted. Also, the research seeks to point the similarities, differences and best practices in the development of smart cities across jurisdictions.
FAQ on the Aadhaar Project and the Bill — by Elonnai Hickok, Vanya Rakesh and Vipul Kharbanda — last modified Apr 13, 2016 02:06 PM
This FAQ attempts to address the key questions regarding the Aadhaar/UIDAI project and the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016 (henceforth, Bill). This is neither a comprehensive list of questions, nor does it contain fully developed answers. We will continue to add questions to this list, and edit/expand the answers, based on our ongoing research. We will be grateful to receive your comments, criticisms, evidences, edits, suggestions for new answers, and any other responses. These can either be shared as comments in the document hosted on Google Drive, or via tweets sent to the information policy team at @CIS_InfoPolicy.
Analysis of Aadhaar Act in the Context of A.P. Shah Committee Principles — by Vipul Kharbanda — last modified Mar 17, 2016 07:43 PM
Whilst there are a number of controversies relating to the Aadhaar Act including the fact that it was introduced in a manner so as to circumvent the majority of the opposition in the upper house of the Parliament and that it was rushed through the Lok Sabha in a mere eight days, in this paper we shall discuss the substantial aspects of the Act in relation to privacy concerns which have been raised by a number of experts. In October 2012, the Group of Experts on Privacy constituted by the Planning Commission under the chairmanship of Justice AP Shah Committee submitted its report which listed nine principles of privacy which all legislations, especially those dealing with personal should adhere to. In this paper, we shall discuss how the Aadhaar Act fares vis-à-vis these nine principles.
List of Recommendations on the Aadhaar Bill, 2016 - Letter Submitted to the Members of Parliament — by Amber Sinha, Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Sunil Abraham and Vanya Rakesh — last modified Mar 21, 2016 08:50 AM
On Friday, March 11, the Lok Sabha passed the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016. The Bill was introduced as a money bill and there was no public consultation to evaluate the provisions therein even though there are very serious ramifications for the Right to Privacy and the Right to Association and Assembly. Based on these concerns, and numerous others, we submitted an initial list of recommendations to the Members of Parliaments to highlight the aspects of the Bill that require immediate attention.
Flaws in the UIDAI Process — by Hans Varghese Mathews — last modified Mar 06, 2016 10:40 AM
The accuracy of biometric identification depends on the chance of a false positive: the probability that the identifiers of two persons will match. Individuals whose identifiers match might be termed duplicands. When very many people are to be identified success can be measured by the (low) proportion of duplicands. The Government of India is engaged upon biometrically identifying the entire population of India. An experiment performed at an early stage of the programme has allowed us to estimate the chance of a false positive: and from that to estimate the proportion of duplicands. For the current population of 1.2 billion the expected proportion of duplicands is 1/121, a ratio which is far too high.
Comments by the Centre for Internet and Society on the Report of the Committee on Medium Term Path on Financial Inclusion — by Vipul Kharbanda — last modified Mar 01, 2016 01:53 PM
Apart from item-specific suggestions, CIS would like to make one broad comment with regard to the suggestions dealing with linking of Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts. Aadhaar is increasingly being used by the government in various departments as a means to prevent fraud, however there is a serious dearth of evidence to suggest that Aadhaar linkage actually prevents leakages in government schemes. The same argument would be applicable when Aadhaar numbers are sought to be utilized to prevent leakages in the banking sector.
Facebook Shares 10 Key Facts about Free Basics. Here's What's Wrong with All 10 of Them. — by Sunil Abraham — last modified Dec 25, 2015 02:59 PM
Shweta Sengar of Catch News spoke to Sunil Abraham about the recent advertisement by Facebook titled "What Net Neutrality Activists won't Tell You or, the Top 10 Facts about Free Basics". Sunil argued against the validity of all the 'top 10 facts'.
Smart Cities in India: An Overview — by Vanya Rakesh — last modified Jan 11, 2016 01:30 AM
The Government of India is in the process of developing 100 smart cities in India which it sees as the key to the country's economic and social growth. This blog post gives an overview of the Smart Cities project currently underway in India. The smart cities mission in India is at a nascent stage and an evolving area for research. The Centre for Internet and Society will continue work in this area.
CIS's Position on Net Neutrality — by Sunil Abraham — last modified Dec 09, 2015 01:06 PM
As researchers committed to the principle of pluralism we rarely produce institutional positions. This is also because we tend to update our positions based on research outputs. But the lack of clarity around our position on network neutrality has led some stakeholders to believe that we are advocating for forbearance. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Please see below for the current articulation of our common institutional position.
Security: Privacy, Transparency and Technology — by Sunil Abraham — last modified Sep 15, 2015 10:53 AM
The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) has been involved in privacy and data protection research for the last five years. It has participated as a member of the Justice A.P. Shah Committee, which has influenced the draft Privacy Bill being authored by the Department of Personnel and Training. It has organised 11 multistakeholder roundtables across India over the last two years to discuss a shadow Privacy Bill drafted by CIS with the participation of privacy commissioners and data protection authorities from Europe and Canada.
DesiSec: Cybersecurity and Civil Society in India — by Laird Brown — last modified Jun 29, 2015 04:25 PM
As part of its project on mapping cyber security actors in South Asia and South East Asia, the Centre for Internet & Society conducted a series of interviews with cyber security actors. The interviews were compiled and edited into one documentary. The film produced by Purba Sarkar, edited by Aaron Joseph, and directed by Oxblood Ruffin features Malavika Jayaram, Nitin Pai, Namita Malhotra, Saikat Datta, Nishant Shah, Lawrence Liang, Anja Kovacs, Sikyong Lobsang Sangay and, Ravi Sharada Prasad.
DeitY says 143 URLs have been Blocked in 2015; Procedure for Blocking Content Remains Opaque and in Urgent Need of Transparency Measures — by Jyoti Panday — last modified Apr 30, 2015 07:37 AM
Across India on 30 December 2014, following an order issued by the Department of Telecom (DOT), Internet Service Providers (ISPs) blocked 32 websites including Vimeo, Dailymotion, GitHub and Pastebin.
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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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