PrivacyIndia

SRIKAKULAM: Department of Fisheries decided to complete process of enrolment of fishermen for the issue of biometric smart cards very soon in Srikakulam district. The department has so far collected photos, finger prints and signatures from 30,000 fishermen and remaining 20,000 will be covered in a phased manner. The department which introduced on-line system for the registration said there was good response from fishermen in the district. Biometric identity cards are compulsory to fishermen engaged in deep-sea fishing as part of beefing up coastal security. The identity card was going to be an important document for a fisherman, the officials said, adding that once the scheme was complete, Coast Guard personnel would not allow anyone to fish without the biometric identity card. The scheme for issuing biometric identity cards for fishermen in the State has been launched as part of a directive by the Ministry of Home Affairs' to keep vigil along the coasts in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008.

"The Indian Army will start DNA profiling of its soldiers this year for their identification in case of mutilation of bodies during an operation, attack or any kind of mishap. "We will begin DNA profiling of soldiers from this year as the profiling centre and data bank are almost ready," Lieutenant General Naresh Kumar, Commandant of Army Hospital Research and Referral, told PTI. Being set up at the Department of Forensic Medicine in Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, the centre will collect the blood samples of the troops who are involved in hazardous tasks, including fighting militancy, and store them in a DNA data bank. The DNA profiling centre is being established to help in identification of bodies mutilated beyond recognition. "Now that this centre and DNA data bank are almost ready to take off, we will be able to easily recognise the mutilated dead bodies that we get during war time, from an episode of avalanches or from blast sites." "

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre and the Telecom Ministry on a petition for a direction to frame guidelines for telephone tapping without infringing on the right to privacy of citizens. A Bench of Justice G. S. Singhvi and Justice A. K. Ganguly issued notice on the public interest litigation petition filed by advocate Ravinder Kumar, seeking direction that interceptions which were purely private in nature should be kept out of the ambit of tapping. The Bench directed the matter to be tagged with the petition filed by industrialist Ratan Tata, which alleged that publication of his private conversations with corporate lobbyist Nira Radia tapes had infringed his right to privacy.

The Department of Posts has extended the validity of its 'Proof of Address' (PoA) cards from one year to three years for applications received on or after January 1, 2011. The department began issuing PoA cards in May 2010 as authenticated proof of address attested by the Post Masters of the respective areas. So far, it has issued 15,421 cards across the State against 34,592 applications sold. Applications are available at all post offices on payment of Rs.10. The filled-in application form along with two passport size photographs will have to be submitted at the post-office covering the area. Fee of Rs.240 will be charged for issuing a fresh card, while the same for renewal will be Rs.140. Duplicate cards can be obtained on payment of Rs.90.

The Central Information Commission was stumped when a woman sought its direction to the CBI on her peculiar complaint that the British secret service has planted a bug inside her and was tracking her movements. But the CIC dismissed the plea of the woman from Nagpur observing that her problem seems to be more medical than lack of information. The woman had approached Central Information Commission (CIC) for a direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to get details of this chip and involvement of the secret service.

In a bid to establish proper identity of slum dwellers in Capital City, Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) is planning to conduct a biometric survey of people residing in slums. "We have already completed slum profiling of 377 slums in Bhubaneswar. We are in process of finalising the proposed biometric survey of slum dwellers living in the city," said BDA Vice-Chairman D. K. Singh here on a sidelines of a seminar on Friday. "The decision to conduct biometric survey is aimed at having actual position (number) of urban poor residing in the city. The survey would ensure that no duplication of identity takes place," Mr. Singh said. He said in future it would also help administration check bogus beneficiaries of various government schemes.

"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."

In the season of phonetaps, comes a startling admission by the Enforcement Directorate that while probing charges of money laundering, it intercepted phone conversations between members of the Singhania group, that runs Kanpur-based LML, and their lawyers. The tap was done just days before a court order was due in the case. The recorded conversations, said ED's counsel additional solicitor general Harin Rawal, raise questions regarding the Allahabad High Court order that stayed the ED probe. In their order, on June 9 last year, a vacation bench of Justice Rakesh Sharma and Justice Shyam Shankar Tiwari had called the ED's investigation "wholly without jurisdiction and contrary to the mandate of FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act)". In the first of his two opinions, on June 21, 2010 - which form the basis of the government's Special Leave Petition filed in the Supreme Court last September challenging the HC stay - Rawal said: "To put it briefly, a couple of days prior to the interim order being rendered by the Honourable Division Bench, a conversation is recorded that would clearly be a reasonable basis to believe that the Honourable Division Bench has passed an interim order on considerations which are other than legal or judicial."

"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."

o not be surprised if you are asked to furnish information under more than eight mandatory heads - demographic and biometric - when you go for registration under the Unique Identification (UID) number project in Himachal Pradesh. The state has tapped the UID project at its initial stage and combined it with its own food and civil supplies department project aimed for better delivery of services in future. Along with the eight mandatory questions under the UID project - name, residence, date of birth, photo, all 10 finger prints and iris image - the citizens will now also be asked to provide information about their status on ration cards, PAN cards, LPG connection and bank accounts. This additional information would be used exclusively by the state government for future planning and eliminating duplication in delivery of services by the food and civil supplies and consumer affairs department. The department is the nodal agency for monitoring the UID project in Himachal.

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.

Industrialist Ratan Tata has questioned in the Supreme Court the lackadaisical attitude of the Centre in allowing free distribution and publication of his private conversations with lobbyist Nira Radia recorded by the Directorate General of Income Tax without taking any steps to retrieve the stored material or to find out the source of leakage. Mr. Tata, who filed a writ petition alleging that the publication of the tapes had infringed his right to privacy, in his supplementary affidavit said that the power of the law enforcement agencies to record telephone conversations itself "constitutes a serious encroachment upon the right of privacy guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution." He made it clear that the present petition was not designed to somehow keep back from publication any conversation to which he allegedly was a party for any oblique purpose. It was filed to seek redress of a wholesale violation of the constitutional rights of a large number of persons, including the petitioner and including a host of corporate entities by the indiscriminate publication of wiretrap material procured by questionable means.

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.

"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. "

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.

"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."