Nayantara Ranganathan – The Internet Democracy Project

Solving for data justice: A response to the draft Personal Data Protection Bill

Instead of understanding ‘data’ as a resource to be tapped, what if we employ other metaphors around data? How does that change our reading of the draft Personal Data Protection Bill? Data as bodies, data as labour, data as exhaust, data as distraction - so much turns on which metaphor we choose to give precedence to! Taking this as a starting point, a group of activists and researchers got together to understand what the draft Personal Data Protection Bill means for social movements and issues they might be embedded in, and in turn, how different movements can contribute their wisdom to strengthen the bill. This was jointly drafted by participants following two workshops organised in Bangalore and Delhi by the Internet Democracy Project in September 2018.

Report 18 October

Dots and connections - Internet explained through rangoli

Remember we had begun to use rangoli as a way to explain networking concepts? We have turned that exercise into a video now! Well, some parts of it - watch it here. With the support of Greenhost and the Totem Project, we made an explainer video that goes into what ‘internet’ means, how information travels … More

25 August

India’s data protection draft ignores key next-generation rights

(This article was first published in Asia Times. You can find the link to the original article here.) In the last week of July, two events happened in rapid succession: the release of India’s much-awaited draft data-protection legislation, and a breaking news story that Watson, IBM’s computing system that helps physicians recommend individualized cancer treatments, … More

21 August

Submission in response to the White Paper of the Committee of Experts on Data Protection Framework for India

The Government of India constituted a committee of experts to draft a data protection bill that would be put in place the data protection framework for India. The committee published a white paper and invited comments and feedback. The Internet Democracy Project made recommendations to the committee, drawing from the Report of the Committee of Experts headed by Justice AP Shah, and highlighting the need to center the data subjects, incorporate new articulation of rights and have strong implementation mechanisms. Read our submission here.

Report 13 February

India takes the lead in shaping global Net Neutrality principles

(Originally published on Asia Times. Link here.) While the US seems to be busy unraveling progressive net neutrality protections passed during the Obama administration, India’s Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is putting down roots for one of the strongest net neutrality frameworks in the world. In a detailed set of recommendations released earlier this … More

29 December

Rangoli as a way to explore networks

“Break it down.” “Lose the jargon.” “No, you may not borrow any more salt and pepper shakers and move them around!” Sound familiar? As digital rights advocates and activists, there are many occasions where we discuss networks — how the internet works, who are the entities involved in the delivery of a message, what’s the problem with … More

30 Nov 2017

Dialing for data protection: Our comments to TRAI Consultation Paper on Privacy, Security and Ownership of User Data in the Telecom Sector

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) invited comments for consultation paper no. 09/2017 on Privacy, Security and Ownership of User Data in the Telecom Sector. The Internet Democracy Project submitted comments to TRAI, asking the regulator to centre users’ rights over their data as part of the fundamental right to privacy, while balancing these rights with innovation in uses of data and also innovation in regulation. We also submitted that TRAI should not go as far as to recommend data protection requirements for ‘all players in the ecosystem’, as this goes beyond the TRAI’s mandate.

Report 17 Nov 2017

Can ‘safety apps’ ever be useful? Interview with creators of ‘No’, an app that seeks to be different

As the Internet Democracy Project’s research on women’s safety apps has shown, many such apps fail to measure up to the promises they make. But does that mean mobile phone apps have no role to play in making spaces safer for women? Some developers believe taking a different approach in designing one can lead to … More

09 Oct 2017

Our submission to TRAI consultation on network neutrality in favour of brightline rules

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued a consultation on Network Neutrality covering traffic management practices, transparency requirements, policy framework, appropriate regulatory mechanism and more. The Internet Democracy Project made a submission in support of brightline rules of network neutrality with exceptions for reasonable traffic management. Read the full report here.

Report 13 Apr 2017

Corporate actors must not facilitate human rights violations through new Chinese rules

Recent efforts by Verisign at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in response to China’s new draft Internet Domain Name Management Rules present a serious threat to the right to privacy and freedom of expression online. By facilitating the implementation of real name policies for domain name registration in China, the rules risk seriously encroaching on Internet users’ rights, and Verisign’s technical and policy proposals to comply with them don’t include any consideration of potential human rights impacts. There is a whole constellation of actors involved in making this policy possible, all of whom have a responsibility to respect human rights. More

02 Dec 2016