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BANGALORE: The Centaur Hotels' website, centaurhotels.com, appears to have compromised personal information of its hotel guests, in what seems to be a case of poor internet security protocols implemented by the site. This allowed website visitors on Saturday to obtain and view details of passports, driving licences, pan numbers, credit cards, and other forms of personal identification provided by its guests. Centaur Hotels, a unit of the Hotel Corporation of India (HCI), is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Aviation Company of India that runs national carrier Air India. It runs a hotel near the Delhi international airport and another in Srinagar.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) said today the network data analysis system (NDAS) was a tool to gain lawful access only to its consumer services including BlackBerry Messenger, and does not enable access to highly secure corporate emails on its devices. RIM, in a statement, reiterated that there would be no change to its security model for corporate emails, clarifying after a newspaper earlier reported RIM had offered to install the tool at its premises in India to help tap data. RIM has said it was cooperating with the Indian government and was enabling mobile carriers to lawfully access data on BlackBerry Messenger. India had threatened to shut off BlackBerry Messenger and corporate email services unless it gains access to them, in a campaign driven by fears that unmonitored communication puts the country's security at risk.

Press Council of India (PCI) has issued revised guidelines for print and electronic media while reporting on HIV/AIDS. These guidelines, formulated in collaboration with UNAIDS and field activists, including those of Population Foundation of India and Centre for Advocacy and Research, would also enable health service providers and affected persons to interact with media persons reporting on the issue, a Haryana government spokesperson said here today.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has set an ambitious target of allotting UID numbers to two crore persons in Maharashtra by March 31. The State's population numbers over 10 crore. Early this week, the actual process of UID enrolment across the State has commenced. This process is being done by 15 companies which include IT majors such as Wipro and Spanco. State Bank of India, Union Bank, Indian Bank, and Bank of Maharashtra, have also tied up with UIDAI for issuing unique identity (UID) numbers. A UIDAI official on condition of anonymity told Business Line "For companies, the main driver for issuing maximum number of valid UIDs is a payment of Rs 50, which they will receive for every successful enrolment. Banks, through their UID drive, will get new customers whom they can sell financial products to, he said. UIDAI has also devised a system of incentives where if a company/bank manages to achieve 80 per cent of its target then it will receive 20 per cent additional payment. If the company/bank manages a 50 per cent target then they will get an additional 4 per cent payment.

Google Inc will not share the encryption keys of its email service with Indian security agencies as it would compromise the privacy rights of millions of Gmail users worldwide, a top company executive said. The Union home ministry, intelligence agencies and the telecom department are collectively exploring mandatory sharing of software by all communication service companies in India, a sensitive issue with global firms. Some firms have already been asked to comply and Canada's Research In Motion (RIM) is edging closer to January 31, 2011, deadline to hand over the encryption keys for its popular BlackBerry messaging services to intelligence agencies. "

With India planning a huge database of 1.5 crore criminals for matching with the hand or face sample of an accused, the criminals or terror mongers will find it much tougher to hide. A fingerprint or a face in a CCTV shot captured from a crime or terror scene anywhere in India would lead the law-enforcing authorities straight to the culprit at the click of a button. The home ministry is working on an ambitious project to collect the fingerprints, palm prints, faces and iris samples of all the arrested and convicted persons in the country and store these in a central database. This biometric data will be accessible to all the police units across the country for getting real-time results on the identity of a suspect. Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/home-ministry-plans-national-database-on-criminals/1/157679.html

"NEW DELHI: "Right to privacy," like other fundamental rights in the Constitution and statutory rights under various laws, will soon become a reality. Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily indicated that a bill in this regard would be introduced in the monsoon session. The Right to Privacy Bill (a copy is with The Hindu) is to provide for such a right to citizens of India and to regulate collection, maintenance, use and dissemination of their personal information. Talking to The Hindu, Mr. Moily said the bill also provided for penal action for violation of such right."

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, obtained phone records of a whistleblower professor's conversations with journalists without his consent or the sanction of a court or investigative agencies, to charge the faculty member with violating service rules. IIT Kharagpur obtained call details of conversations between computer science professor Rajeev Kumar and journalists from two leading English dailies, drawing allegations of violation of both law and privacy. Other than a customer, only government probe agencies and courts - and not employers in general - can demand call details or records from telecom service providers in India. Service providers also swear to ensure customer privacy in their license agreement with the government.

After months of uncertainty, the government on Monday gave its in-principle approval to National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), which will facilitate robust information sharing among law enforcement agencies to combat terror threat at home and abroad. Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/natgrid-gets-cabinet-approval-110816?cp

As the government tries to put a legal framework in place for phone-tapping, a 126-year-old law has come to its rescue. Sources in the law ministry say, thanks to a provision in the Indian Telegraph Act 1885 that allows government in public interest to intercept messages, a new law may not be required at all. However, a directive - instead of a new law - may not take care of some of issues on tapping that have constantly been raised by experts. For instance, India is one the few countries, where tapping can be carried out without a court warrant.

NEW DELHI: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is looking into a complaint of misuse of personal data while issuing 'Aadhaar' numbers to individuals, its first case of breach of privacy.

With registration process under the Unique Identity Card scheme (UID) 'Aadhar' ending by June in Mysore district, district authorities have initiated steps making the quoting of UID or enrolment identification (EID) number compulsory at various levels in the state government offices in the district. This seems contrary to what the Unique Identification Authority of India or the UIDAI had said earlier that it would be optional.

Chandigarh : "The State of Punjab is sitting over a list of around 1,600 proclaimed offenders, who are settled abroad in various countries including United States of America, United Kingdom and Canada", said Vikram Bajwa, President, Indian Overseas Congress, while addressing a press conference here today. Bajwa, along with Amarjit Kaur Bhinder, widow of bombed plane Kanishka's co-pilot SS Bhinder and his brother Kamaljit Singh Bhinder, addressed reporters in the wake of the forthcoming three-days Pravasi Divas, to be held in New Delhi from January 7. Bajwa said the Indian Overseas Congress has appealed to the Indian government and to the Government of Punjab as well, to upload the list of 1,600 proclaimed offenders on their websites, so that people who are settled abroad and are either falsely implicated in some cases or have been made POs by mistake, make seek legal remedies. "In absence of such information, what happens is that a NRI comes to India, and is detained at the airport. He receives the shock of his life, when he is told that he is a proclaimed offender in a case registered against him 10 years or 20 years ago. If the list is uploaded, at least the genuine people, who had to undergo such harassment, could seek legal remedies and come back to their motherland", Bajwa added.

"Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will soon establish data entry centres in all villages to collect details of citizens so that it can issue Aadhar cards with unique identification number. Officials of UIDAI and the Planning Commission conducted a review meeting in the Zilla Parishad conference hall over the progress of the Aadhar card programme in the district. They have urged public representatives including ZPTC and MPTC members to create awareness among the public over Aadhar cards which would provide unique identification number to every citizen of the country. UIDAI director Mr. Ravindra said applications for the cards would be available at all the ration shops and AP Online centres. According to him, people above 5 years of age were eligible to get the cards. "The scheme is very important for the downtrodden sections as Aadhar cards will enable them to get many benefits from the government," he said. "Corrections in the existing ration cards will also be possible with the entry of new data which is essential for issuing Aadhar cards," he added."

London, Dec. 19 : The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), Britain's privacy watchdog, has launched an investigation into claims that vital emails between senior executives and journalists on the News of the World have been "lost" while being transported to India."