In the last few years, data has been likened, aside from the hackneyed comparison to ‘oil’, to any number of tangible entities such as mineral deposits, dividend deposits, and even the Alaskan Permanent Fund. Metaphors as a tool could re-entrench existing power asymmetries or resist them,…
Internet Governance/Advocacy
2023
As procurers of all the civic tech that surrounds us, municipal authorities today find themselves in a unique position — they have become the custodians of personal and aggregate data generated by the world’s largest human concentrations. Rich or poor, large or small, democratic, autocratic, or…
2022
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has published a draft version of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 (hereinafter the Bill) for public comments to be submitted by January 2, 2023. The current draft of the personal data protection bill marks the fourth…
2022
The public release of ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot by OpenAI, in November 2022, percolated the public consciousness with the disruptive potential, both incredible and iniquitous, of emerging general purpose AI technologies. In the following months, AI has dominated the public discourse and…
2022
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has proposed amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. With an aim to increase platform accountability, the proposed amendments focus heavily on stemming the…
2022
The National Health Authority (NHA) recently released its Data Sharing Guidelines draft for PM-JAY. The NHA invited responses and comments from the public and as such IT for Change duly sent in its recommendations. While the NHA's proposal is certainly a step in the right direction, there are a…
2022
Cross-border data flows are the most hotly contested issue globally in terms of digital trade. IT for Change proposes a new framework to govern cross-border data flows, 'Data Flow with Data Right', which in our view should assure developing countries that their concerns, especially economic and…
2021
Just Net Coalition, along with more than 170 civil society groups addressed an Open Letter to the UN Secretary General urging him to shelve plans for a High Level Multistakeholder Body which, if set up, can be expected to become the default apex global digital governance and policy body. This…
2021
The draft Digital Markets Act envisages the obligations of data sharing by large gatekeeper platforms along with ex-ante oversight by the regulator of such platforms, in the EU. This regulation is framed as a part of the Digital Services Act Package, being discussed by the EU to regulate the…
2021
The new Intermediary Guidelines (IL Guidelines), require messaging platforms that have over 50 lakh registered users (such as WhatsApp) “enable the identification of the first originator of the information”.
The challenge from WhatsApp is that this impinges on an individual’s…
IT for Change's Response to the Public Consultation on India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA)
2021
IT for Change responded to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare public consultation white paper for the India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA). The key points of our submission are summarized below.
The full submission may be found here.
IDEA will prevent…2021
IT for Change responded to the call from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs for public consultation on the proposed amendments to the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020.
Read the full submission here.In light of the growing recognition of the dominance of certain platforms in…
2021
Karnataka’s Open Data Policy opens up a Pandora’s box of concerns for public interest and citizen rights
Last week, the Government of Karnataka (GoK) notified its Open Data Policy (ODP) to open up government-held personal and non-personal datasets for “innovation, co-creation and research”.…2021
IT for Change's research series on Intelligence Infrastructures interrogates essential digital infrastructures that underpin the economy, society, and governance, putting the spotlight on the need for democratic control of these building blocks of tomorrow. Policies must straddle a people-…
2021
Anita Gurumurthy was a part of the IGF 2021 Main Session: Digital Cooperation- Quo vadis? on December 8, 2021 where she gave a statement on the role IGF can play in digital cooperation.
Read it here.This session was for assessing Internet governance approaches and mechanisms and…