PrivacyIndia

The Income Tax department has decided to share it's PAN card database with the NATGRID -- a network aimed to initiate robust information sharing amongst law enforcement agencies to tackle terror threats at home and abroad. The department, after getting approval from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has however, stopped short of sharing the 'sensitive' and '

The ambitious project of one radio frequency identification (RFID) smart tag for all toll plazas across the country is likely to be tested on Delhi-Chandigarh stretch on NH-1 and this would be done on pilot basis. S The RFID based single tag for all tolled roads will be rolled out across the country by 2013. The RFID tag promises to improve vehicle clearance at toll plazas that often experience major traffic snarls since most of the vehicles use cash lanes. The new tags will come cheaper and are likely to shift most of the cash land users to tag users. "You have no option than to go for a technology that will improve traffic flow at toll plazas

MUMBAI: A local metropolitan magistrate's court on Tuesday restrained the media from either publishing or telecasting images related to the CCTV footage of the July 13 triple blasts. Magistrate N J Shende in his order observed, "If identity of the witnesses is disclosed to the public at large, it may hamper the smooth investigation of the case and may cause threat to such persons." "I am of the opinion, in view of the provisions enumerated under Section 44 (of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act), in order to safeguard the life of the people and witnesses, the application is allowed," said Shende.

"The Madras high court has held that assets details of IAS officers furnished to the government in a sealed cover can be made available under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Inspection of asset details of the officer concerned can be allowed as well, it further held. "

"KOLKATA: The government has set an August 15 deadline for Canada's Research In Motion to provide the country's intelligence agencies with the interception keys to enable real-time tracking of its popular BlackBerry messenger and corporate email services in readable format. The ultimatum comes after recent talks between the government and RIM over a satisfactory interception solution proved inconclusive. Ongoing talks have failed to throw up a solution for interception of Blackberry messenger, chat and corporate email services. "Since RIM had missed its earlier May 15, 2011 deadline, the company has been told to come up with an interception solution by August 15, failing which the government may have to consider suspension of the service," a top official privy to the talks said."

"Nearly 10 years after the Kargil Review Committee was set up to revamp the defence establishment of the country, the government on Monday constituted a high-powered task force under former Cabinet secretary Naresh Chandra to overhaul the national security apparatus. According to sources, the 11-member committee will review various contentious issues like the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), hacking e-mails, BlackBerry and privacy issues involved in the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) project. "

"Scotland Yard on Thursday night admitted that almost 4,000 people may have had their phones hacked by the News of the World's private investigator, placing further strain on the testimony of senior officers to Parliament that there were only a handful of victims. In a statement, deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers, indicated that the new investigation into the illegal eavesdropping of mobile phone messages was struggling to deal with the mass of evidence of wrongdoing contained in Glenn Mulcaire's notebooks."

"But an interaction on Friday between the city's top cops and citizens of Jayanagar, JP Nagar, Basavanagudi, Subramanyapura, Chamarajpet, Banashankari, Girinagar, KS Layout and adjoining areas in South Division police jurisdiction saw police commissioner, BG Jyothi Prakash Mirji, appealing to the residents to appoint watchmen and set up CCTVs to increase vigil on the streets - which is otherwise a policeman's role. And all this, through expenses borne by the residents who anyway pay taxes expecting those very policing services for their protection in return. "If people do this, and join hands with the police to decrease crime, then we can achieve it," Mirji said."

"BALANGIR: Chaos reigned supreme over the Unique Identification Card (UID) data procurement process in Balangir, with poor people queuing up eagerly hoping to be doled out more rations and old age pensions, only to be disappointed and irritated at the painstaking process of collecting their photographs, eye and thumb impressions. Even as BPL families left spaces meant for filling up PAN card number, DL, LPG card number, pension ID, health insurance number, etc., blank in the UID forms, they remained clueless about the purpose of the UID, trekking to the centres where the enumeration process for the multi-utility UID document is on, with the idea that they will be given immediate rewards like more rice under the Public Distribution System (PDS) or immediate jobs under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). Needless to say, the places were scenes of total chaos as villagers were seen losing their patience. Thay failed to understand the entire exercise and had little idea what the UID card is all about."

The Dahod district administration has given 10 days notice to all Fair Price Shop (FPS) owners to submit the details of 2.5 lakh biometric ration card holders. This comes after a scam was unearthed in the Public Distribution System in Panchmahals district, where 1.1 lakh bogus ration cards were found during a scrutiny recently. FPS owners have been increasingly making fake cards to get subsidised essential food supplies, according to District Supply Office.

" Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution has given top priority to Public Distribution System (PDS) reforms which include improvement of infrastructure for distribution and storage of PDS food grains. State Governments have been urged to take initiatives to computerize system and adopt best practices of management. Accordingly, States have taken several initiatives. As per information received from the States some of them are as under:"

"LONDON: Britain's internal spy agency MI5 tapped innocent people's phone numbers in secret surveillance mix-up, according to a government report. Officers from the Security Service -- mainly concerned with the UK's internal security -- and Serious Organised Crime Agency mistakenly tapped the wrong telephones in as many as 30 cases, says the report. However, on grounds of national security, none of the victims have been identified or told their phones were wrongly intercepted, the 'Daily Mail' reported. "

"The Supreme Court will take up on Tuesday Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata's plea on the right to privacy after the leakage of his telephonic conversations with corporate lobbyist Niira Radia tapped by the Income Tax Department. A bench headed by Justices G S Singhvi will examine the issues raised by Tata, including the questions of right to privacy and right to freedom of speech and expression as envisaged under the Constitution. Tata, in his petition, has said that several parts of the conversations were purely private in nature which were spoken casually and could not be taken seriously. He pleaded the online portals and the news media should be restrained from making his conversations public. "

" Men whose wives have relationships with other men can go ahead and file a criminal complaint against the 'other man'. The Bombay high court on Monday dismissed a petition that sought the deletion of offence of adultery from Indian law. A bench of Justices B H Marlapalle and U D Salvi upheld the Constitutional validity of provision of Section 497 of Indian Penal Code, which makes adultery punishable. The petition was filed by a Worli businessman against whom a complaint of adultery was filed last year. His counsel Nitin Pradhan argued that making adultery punishable was a violation of a person's fundamental rights like the right to life, right to privacy and the right to have sexual relationships with a person of one's choice in a changing society where there was greater acceptance of consensual relationships. "

" The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is planning to use bio-metric devices for attendance, on-site monitoring system for lifting of bins and GPS for garbage vehicle tracking to improve efficiency of the sanitary system. Reviewing the work of various GHMC wings on Monday, municipal commissioner MT Krishna Babu expressed displeasure with the present sanitary system, particularly garbage lifting and staff attendance."

Malaysia on Monday indefinitely postponed a massive exercise to fingerprint at least two million illegal foreign workers including many Indians in the country until all parties were ready for it. An amnesty scheme to encourage illegal migrant workers to come and register was to begin today but has been indefinitely postponed.

Banks have shot down a proposal from the National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid) to gain access to their confidential customer data.Their anxiety to guard customer information from the prying eyes of the Home Ministry's ambitious anti-terror project seems to have drawn the support of the Reserve Bank of India.

the managing committee of the group housing society now finds itself in the middle of another controversy: for making it mandatory for skilled workers to furnish their fingerprints before entering the complex. The managing committee has been warned by the police to stop the illegal practice. "We received an e-mail from two members of the society about the practice being carried out, following which we issued the warning. As per law, only government investigative agencies have the right to take fingerprints. We will look into the possibility of taking legal action once we receive a complaint from those whose fingerprints have been taken.

KOLKATA: The Indian government will shortly impose hefty penalties on business process outsourcing (BPO) firms that compromise on the data privacy of individual customers. It is likely to tighten the provisions linked to data privacy and data protection in the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, and is working closely with the US to emulate existing global best practices in the realm of data security and privacy, a senior official in the communications ministry told ET. There is a view in sections of the government that the present IT Act, 2000, does not adequately address data privacy concerns of individuals . And hence the need for more stringent legislation by way of penal provisions to effectively deal with companies passing on sensitive personal in-formation of individuals to third-parties without prior consent.