PrivacyIndia

If Mr Ratan Tata, Ms Barkha Dutt, Mr Vir Singhvi and others who figured in Radia tapes and Ms Niira Radia herself feel defamed by these revelations, they can test their right to reputation by suing the publishers. Certainly they do not have Article 21 protection here. That right is available for victims of crime but not to criminals or their helpers.

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. "

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has decided to construct, for the first time, exclusive women's toilets at public places in the city. Charminar and Birla Mandir are among several locations where these conveniences will be constructed. There will be no charge for use of the toilets. The decision has been welcomed by women's welfare organisations and the medical fraternity involved in women's health problems. But they have warned that unless the toilets are clean and hygienic, with sufficient water supply, privacy and security and are easily accessible, they will meet the same fate of disuse and decay as other public toilets in the city.

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."

The Commissionerate Task Force police on Tuesday arrested 13 persons and seized nine computers and a laptop from them on the charge that they were downloading obscene content and circulating them among the youth. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police M. Ravindranath Babu, the task force police team comprising Inspector K. Govindaraju and Sub-Inspector U. Rama Rao conducted raids on internet centres and cell points at Prakashnagar, Governorpet, Moghalrajapuram and Krishna Lanka areas on receiving complaints from local people. All the arrested persons were circulating the obscene content in chips used in mobile phones and computers.

" Internet giant Google said sorry to New Zealanders for collecting personal data from wireless networks for its "Street View" mapping service, in the latest in a series of apologies. The company said it did not realise until earlier this year that cars it was using to photograph public streets were also gathering information known as "payload data" sent over unsecured Wi-Fi systems. Unencrypted information sent on Wi-Fi systems that are not password-protected potentially contains personal information, including the content of emails. "

"acebook on Wednesday began making outside applications or websites detail what private information they want from people's online profiles. Websites or applications then must get permission from users for specific data, according to Bret Taylor of Facebook. "