“A lot of blame must be placed on amendments made in 2008 to the Act. The ambit of the laws was increased without debate.”
Source: The Times of India, 20-07-2013, 01:21:00
“You don’t know how your SIM card is being used. It could even be utilized by international syndicates for criminal activities. Indian telecom operators as well as the government are aware of these issues but in the absence of stringent information and technology laws, no one can be held responsible if the customer is duped,”
Source: Mail Today, 30th January, 2012
“Before 2009, government had limited powers of interception. After 26/11 they gave themselves wide-ranging powers to monitor and block content … Data privacy is non-existent in India.”
Source: The Economic Times 20-07-2013
“This is high time for the government for the review of the law. The government should amend the IT Act so as to narrow down its provisions as some of these violate our constitutional right of free speech.”
“We forget that the Internet does not forget. It is a huge data dragon with infinite memory and whatever you put on it is going to be there for a long time.”
Source: First Post 12-07-2013, 05:53:00
“India has been relatively laid back in terms of cyber security. it is only now that they have come up with a national cyber security policy which is nothing but a coalition of policy statements minus any action plan,”
Source: First Post 12-07-2013, 05:53:00
“The usage of social media sites by women in India is relatively low when compared to other nations. The major reason is the predominance of Indian men over women in the country. Furthermore, lack of cyber security mechanism deters females from using social networking site like Facebook.”
“These are nothing but an indication of a decadent society unable to keep pace with sweeping changes that technology is bringing across. We have all emerged as people of double standards. We don’t want anything untoward for ourselves but we do not mind hitting other people below their belt.”
Source: First Post 12-07-2013, 05:53:00
“The issue still remains that a minor doesn’t have the capacity to act under the Contract Act,…All agreements are contracts if they are made by the free consent of parties competent to contract, for a lawful consideration and with a lawful object, and are not hereby expressly declared to be void…..The agreement, if any party is minor, is void ab initio.”
Source: The Times of India, 1st August, 2013
“Any sort of anti-national activity could be carried out communicating through these applications by text messages, audio or video. In fact, free applications like WhatsApp, True Caller, Fring, Viber and many others have now replaced SMSs in communication. This makes the security apparatus more vulnerable,”
“There are still some sections of IT act which offenders can be booked under — like section 67 which deals with online obscenity which is a bailable offense, punishable with 3 years imprisonment and Rs 5 lakhs fine. Offenders can also be booked under section 66A of the IT Act and section 66E. However, all of these offences are bailable, clearly not acting as deterrence.”
Source: First Post 12-07-2013, 05:53:00
“harassment on social networking sites is emerging as one of the biggest problems in the online world. Six out of 10 people aren’t aware of what constitutes a cyber crime. As a result they aren’t reported. Neither the victims nor the abusers know what is an offence.”
Source: First Post 12-07-2013, 05:53:00
“The leakage of footage is a threat even from the natural security angle. If someone could leak these clips showing couples in compromising positions in the Delhi Metro, one can only imagine what kind of footage can be made available to cyber criminals and terrorists. Let this serve as a wake up call that India needs to do quite a lot in terms of beefing up its cyber security and also ensuring that unauthorized leakages don’t take place,”
Source: First Spot, 12th July, 2013
“At some level he is trying to mobilize public opinion. If he wants a trial by media, he should remember that it can be very harsh.”
“Irrespective of this website, his loyal fans will stay with him and his critics won’t hate him any less. And what I feel is that this website is not targeted at his fans at all. It is aimed at the journalists who can follow the case on his website and report what will eventually be his side of the story.”
Source: The Hindu 04-07-2013, 11:35:00
“The internet has provided the medium for people to give vent to their hidden sexual passion, dreams and fantasies. Irrespective of age, online sex is the means toward releasing of those sexual feelings,”
“Creating a false electronic record is an offence under the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code. Under Section 465, the offence would attract punishment up to two years’ imprisonment…”
Source: First post, 27-04-2013
“One should be vigilant against skimming/cloning while swiping cards at merchant outlets or petrol pumps”
Source: The Times of India 03-07-2013, 12:05:00
“For an authentic website, say abc.com, crooks may come up with ab.com or abc.co.in. One should be careful with the name and other details.”
Source: The Hindu 25th July, 2013
“This is high time for the government for the review of the law. The government should amend the IT Act so as to narrow down its provisions as some of these violate our constitutional right of free speech.”
“The law is so broad; it gives unbridled power to the authorities to register a case. It leaves everything to the subjective discretion of the law enforcement authorities.”
“66A is a black hole. It was drafted in very wide terms and is capable of distinctive interpretations, leaving a lot of discretion in the hands of the police”.
“Her husband used to give her excuses that he was going out on business tours. But instead he would meet friends and socialize. Finally, he was caught when on one of his ‘so called’ business tours, he tweeted: ‘having a great time with friends over beer, I am in town, come over and join me.’
“Tweets and status messages are usually taken up as secondary evidence. And they are as important as the primary ones,”
“This section is very broad and is capable of distinct interpretation by different entities. It could be called draconian due to the huge ambit of space that it covers. It speaks of sending information that is grossly offensive, menacing and information that causes annoyance.”
“There have not been any convictions so far under Section 66A, because its wording is vague. But the language that is used in the law is so “wide and broad” that it can be used by law enforcement agencies to target and harass people. Section 66A by its vagueness goes beyond the restrictions on free speech already in place under Article 19 of the Indian Constitution. The interpretation of an offence under the section is largely left to the discretion of the complainant and the law enforcement agencies.”
“Messages on a social networking can be used as electronic evidence under the IT Act”
“My suggestion to all users would be, be careful about what they write, abstain from posting anything that can be interpreted as defamatory without any proof.”
“When a person clicks on “Like” button on Facebook, it does not constitute an offence under Section 66A. Technically speaking, a person is only clicking the button of “Like” but is not per se either sending any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character. Neither is the said person sending any information which he knows to be false but which has been sent for the purposes of causing annoyance, inconvenience, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill-will.”
“Grossly offensive or has menacing character are vast terms. Legislation has left it to subjective disrection of the person”
“Section 66A has the potential of becoming a dangerous tool that can be used to gag legitimate free speech online.”
“This is high time for the government for the review of the law. The government should amend the IT Act so as to narrow down its provisions as some of these violate our constitutional right of free speech.”
“This (Act) has effectively become a tool in the hands of the mighty and the powerful to gag criticism.”Till such time as 66A is not clarified, and adequate parameters are not put in place to prevent its abuse, it will continue to be a tool of the mighty and could be used to muzzle free speech.”
“It has a huge number of legal, policy and regulatory issues, Is Bitcoin legal? Can it be enforced in any jurisdiction because no law in the world has been enacted which directly impacts Bitcoin? More significantly, in which jurisdiction will a dispute arise should there be a dispute pertaining to payments made by Bitcoin? It brings huge challenges.”
“It is important that the public is made aware of these things, since there could be severe consequence for these actions. The punishments range from a few years of imprisonment to penalty of a few lakh rupees. Here’s a list of a few things one must take care of in order to not get caught in the web of crime.”
“If our computers are hacked, we will not know the specific person against whom to make a charge. This could leave ordinary citizens high and dry.”
“By reducing the punishment, though the fine has increased, the government is sending the signal: ‘Please go ahead and hack’.”
“Such rules have proved to be ineffective and enjoy little support on the ground. It is also very difficult to implement them.”
“People fear negative media publicity and want to avoid harassment from police.”
“If our computers are hacked, we will not know the specific person against whom to make a charge. This could leave ordinary citizens high and dry.”
“I am not at all in favor of any new kind of censorship. This is so as it is neither necessary nor it can work. Technology has fast outstripped the capacity of the nations to regulate the same. Seen from another angle the Internet is a necessary evil and countries will have to learn and live by the same. Internet censorship is no remedy. A better remedy would be to educate the population of the country and to bring it to such level that it becomes capable of identifying and distinguishing between what is correct and what is not”
Source: Ketan
“The concern of corporate users and general users of BlackBerry is that if this is allowed, the government will become the single biggest repository of information,” said Pavan Duggal, a technology lawyer who practices before India’s Supreme Court. “And we have no idea how this information will be used and misused in the future.”
Source: The New York Times 27h September 2010
“I have seen a dramatic rise in matrimonial disputes in past 3-4 years. In about 70% of the cases, couples are citing social media output, matrimonial profiles, SMSes, photos and emails as electronic evidence,” said Pavan Duggal, an advocate in the Supreme Court and a cyber law expert.
Source: The Times of India, 26th June 2013
“Once the bill becomes an act, Section 67B will have a huge positive impact, primarily because India does not have a special legislation to tackle child pornography. To that extent, the new IT law is path-breaking”.
Source: The Times of India 16th February, 2009
“The Indian Information Technology Act, 2000, the only legislation available in India pertaining to use of computers, computer systems, computer networks, computer resources and communication devices, does not deal with domain name issues. So much so, that even the amendments to the Information Technology Act, 2000 have not dealt with any issue pertaining to domain name disputes,”
Source: The Economic Times, 5th May, 2010
“The proposed rules are worded in largely generic terms which will require a subjective interpretation. This means that an intermediary would be subject to the discretionary interpretation of the said rules by the law enforcement agencies and hence will have no clarity of how to ensure full compliance with the law. There are huge problems since the inherent nature and scope of businesses of various businesses that fall under the same definition, get the same medicine. We are giving the same medicine to all kinds of fruits which are different in nature.
“There lies a fundamentally flawed recognition of the reality of the internet today. There is no way a blogger can be equated to a telecom company. Neither can a cyber café be equated to a search engine. Nor can an online market place be equated to an ISP. If one reads these rules then it only achieves at doing this.”
Source: Rediff.com, March 10, 2011
“The section related to hacking under Section 66 of the Act was deleted by Parliament last month. The offence has also been made bailable thus making cyber crime a laissez faire. This might plug that loophole,”
Source: DNA 30th November, 2012
“The mechanism of data damages needs to be revisited. We need a regulator who would be able to recommend the measures to ensure robust growth for the industry.”
Source: Savvy June 2002
“we should have different set of laws and punishment for the Cyber criminals because the nature of a cyber criminal differs from a professional criminal”
Source: MOG.Net
“Cyber space is being used by individuals and groups to threaten international governments and terrorize citizens”
Source: e-commerce October, 2001