Updated below: The Indian Express reports that Orkut has entered into an
agreement with the Enforcement Directore arm of the Mumbai Police: as per DCP Enforcement Directorate Sanjay Mohite, Orkut will share IP details of those who post “objectionable content” on Orkut and blogs. Apparently, all it will take is for DCP Mohite to send an email to Orkut.
In a separate story, IE also reports that the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) has asked the Supreme Court of India to expand the list of federal crimes to include cyber terrorism. As per the agency, “The rapidity … of adoption of new technologies and innovative … planning and execution of cross-border crimes by organised crime-terrorist nexus has outpaced the speed with which law enforcement agencies at the state level have been able to ‘modernise'”
We know how ineffective and poorly executed the blocking of blogs last year was – the government may have blamed ISPs for poor execution, but several of the sites on that list weren’t even relevant. How does the Police define “Objectionable Content”? Policing content online is a monumental task, and this deal between Orkut and the Mumbai Police is reminiscient of China. This post though dated, quotes discussions between U.S. House of Representatives and Google, Microsoft and Cisco: it’s an interesting read.
Update: Response from a Google spokesperson by email, quoted verbatim:
Google Legal team met with the police from various states and offered a special priority reporting tool that will enable them to have a direct line of contact with Google. The feedback has been very positive.
Google has very high standards for user privacy and a clear privacy policy. When dealing with requests from authorities, we are very careful to balance the interests of our users while still being as cooperative in the investigation and prosecution of crimes as possible.
What is important to note is that this new reporting tool does not affect the way we treat users’ data
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