Oct 2015 30

Human Rights in the Age of Technology: A Conference to Discuss the Evolution of Privacy and Surveillance in India

India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

The roundtable was organised by the Centre for Internet and Society to facilitate discussions around the Public Interest Litigation questioning the data collection under the Unique Identity Project, the draft National Encryption Policy and the Supreme Court judgment in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India.

In the first session, Dr. Usha Ramanathan spoke about the conception and evolution of the UID project, and brought attention to its erroneous posturing as an ​‘identity’ project while in fact being an ​‘identification’ project, and the its dangers to the right to privacy.

Colonel (retd) Mathew Thomas, also a petitioner in the PIL against the UID project, presented on the lack of a legislative mandate and adequate data protection provisions, and other pitfalls of the UID project.

Amber Sinha delineated what the now withdrawn draft National Encryption Policy sought to do, and its consequences for privacy of communications and data.

The Internet Democracy Project participated in the roundtable.