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.

Planning to spend the summer at a favourite getaway? Make sure you plan your travel on your own as the Income Tax (I-T) department is keeping an eye on how much you are spending. About two months after a notice by the department asking all travel agents to provide ample details of passengers planning trips worth Rs 1 lakh or more, tour operators have been busy collecting the data of passengers, who have planned a holiday since the last financial year or are making bookings now. However, operators have now decided to appeal to the department to revoke the notice, as the data collection is labour intensive, requires a lot of time, and is chasing customers away from them. In short, they claim it is bad for business.

The Civial Aviation Ministry has set up a committee for assessment of body scanners from the point of view of effectiveness, privacy and health, government said today. Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi told the Lok Sabha that the government has not installed non-intrusive body scanners so far and security agencies are carrying out an assessment of body scanners. "The government has not installed non-intrusive body scanner. However, assessment of the body scanners from security point of view is being carried out by security agencies," he said in a written reply.

A US judge ordered Twitter to hand over data of three users in contact with the controversial website WikiLeaks, rejecting arguments the move violated freedom of speech and privacy. President Barack Obama's administration obtained a court order last year seeking information from the Twitter accounts as it considers action against WikiLeaks, which has released a flood of secret diplomatic documents. One of the accounts belongs to an Icelandic lawmaker, Birgitta Jonsdottir. Iceland's Foreign Ministry in January summoned the US ambassador to express "serious concern" about the Twitter order. Magistrate Judge Theresa Buchanan, based in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, rejected the argument made by the three Twitter users' that the order would have a "chilling effect" on freedom of speech. Read more: http://www.zeenews.com/news692795.html#ixzz1Gx5lH0D1

In a setback to veteran Congress leader and former governor of Andhra Pradesh N D Tiwari, the Supreme Court on Monday held that he has to undergo DNA test in a paternity case. However, it maintained that the test findings would not be made public until it is required to do so. A Bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha refused to stay the Delhi High Court order asking the 85-year-old leader to undergo DNA test and directed him to suggest by Friday the procedure preferred by him for the DNA test. Tiwari who has held the post of chief minister of undivided Uttar Pradesh and later of Uttarakhand contended that it would be a violation of his Right to Privacy and would cause him public humiliation if he is directed to undergo the DNA test.

Social-networking sites such as Facebook, or search engines such as Google, may face court action if they fail to obey planned EU data privacy rules, European Union justice chief Viviane Reding has said. Reding will propose an overhaul of the EU's 16-year-old laws on data protection in the coming months to enforce more safeguards on how personal information is used.

In an attempt to end humiliation of rape victims, the Union Health Ministry has decided to make the "finger test" or the per vaginal (PV) test optional. Till now, rape victims were being subjected to forensic examinations, including the degrading "finger test". The ministry has now made it clear that the PV test would be conducted only "if medically indicated" and with the "consent of the victim". In a letter to all central government hospitals, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has asked them to follow the new format without any delay. "The word finger testing sounds rude and is not used in the format now. The PV examination will be done only if the doctor feels that it is necessary and that too with the consent of the victim," said a senior official in the ministry. Health Ministry officials along with various experts, including gynaecologists, representatives from the Law and Justice department and forensic experts finalised the format last month. While the format has been simplified, certain descriptions like behavioural symptoms (shame, grief and depression), physical symptoms (pain and discomfort while walking), family history (father being alcoholic, family discord), parental/caretaker history (negligible parental support) have all been removed.

Industrialist Ratan Tata on Thursday accused the government of adopting a "lackadaisical" manner in protecting the right to privacy, citing his case as an apt example. "Today my concern is that government is not giving serious consideration and attention to the issue. There may be other CDs which can be leaked and brought into public domain. There is a lackadaisical approach on the part of the government," senior Advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Tata in the Supreme Court, contended. Tata's concerns prompted the Bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly to remark that though the government " have the right to tap but they also have the duty to protect it and ensure that it is not leaked". "They have to safeguard it (the tapes) effectively. In the fast-changing time and developing technology, privacy is virtually disappearing and is being diluted," the court observed.

NEW DELHI: Responding to concerns about breach of privacy due to intercepted phone calls being made public, government told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it has taken steps to devise ways to destroy taped conversations that are private

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre on a writ petition for a direction to the Centre to release all 5,800 conversations of Niira Radia tapped by government agencies. A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.S. Nijjar was hearing the petition filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation and posted the matter for further hearing on February 2, along with the petition filed by industrialist Ratan Tata on the same issue. The CPIL also wanted the court "to frame guidelines that protect public whistle-blowers." The petitioner said: "Public interest requires that the conversations in the Radia tapes be brought into the public domain so that the citizens' right to know is effectuated by informing them how every aspect of their government as well as institutions such as the media, are being subverted.

Amid a debate over phone-tapping and making conversations public without authorisation, the Telecom Ministry has proposed a penalty of up to Rs 2 crore on unlawfully tapping, as against the prevailing Rs 500. In a communique to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the Department of Telecom (DoT) has proposed a penalty between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 crore for breaches under different sections of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885. For breaching Section 26 of the Act, which prohibits telegraph officers or other officials from making away with or altering, unlawfully intercepting or disclosing messages, or divulging the purport of signals, maximum penalty has been proposed.

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.

Nineteen Eighty-Four may arrive sooner than you think. And, it will be the income-tax department that could take on the role of an Orwellian Big Brother should the government clear a far-reaching proposal to create a directorate of criminal investigation on the lines of a similar wing of the internal revenue service in the US. Under a blueprint currently being vetted by the I-T department, the directorate will house a centralised repository of data culled from telephone and Internet intercepts, banking and market transactions, cross-border deals and even your friendly neighbourhood ATM. To analyse this data and red-flag suspicious activities, the department will also acquire state-of-the-art forensic tools, including software to follow cash trails, track money laundering, conduct forensic audits, mine books and other texts, as well as plug into overseas servers and social networking sites.

In pursuance of a path-breaking order by a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court in December last, the Delhi Police are gearing up to upload First Information Reports on the Internet within 24 hours to facilitate supply of their copies to the accused or any person connected with the case. As directed, the FIR copies will be made available online by February 1. It is learnt that the police are at present working out the modalities for implementation of the court order. They are, however, yet to decide where exactly the FIRs will be posted and through what mechanism as the Cyber Highway project under which the police stations are to be interconnected is yet to be implemented. It could be either through a link on the Delhi Police official website or a separate one. Discussions in this regard are under way. Whatever the modalities, if the FIRs are made public through the Internet, even the complainants who on several occasions struggle to get a copy of the FIR would have quick access to it through the Internet.

The Union government on Thursday permitted carriage of video calls on 3G mobile networks subject to an undertaking by the operators that they would provide interception capability by July 31. The Tatas and the RCom have already launched the 3G service across various circles, while others, including Bharti and Vodafone, are likely to start the service soon. Those offering the service were asked to stop the service as security agencies were not able to intercept the video calls on real-time basis.