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Indian government to intercept, monitor, and decrypt citizens’ computers

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Re: Indian government to intercept, monitor, and decrypt citizens’ computers

#61
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And when those phenomena are fought, it is on the basis of the Constitution.

The success of fighting it only works as well as 'where does public opinion on the issue currently lie'. The constitutionality of a law is a political red herring. My favorite example of this is gay marriage. All the way between 1776 and 2015 it was illegal - yet somehow, magically, in 2015, banning it became unconstitutional. Did the Constitution change in 2015, without us noticing? Did the lawyers advocating for it…

This. I recently read a book that explored the history of the Supreme Court and some of its major decisions. I walked away with one thing: the Constitution can mean virtually anything to anyone. It really does come down to the social winds of that particular time.

Re: Indian government to intercept, monitor, and decrypt citizens’ computers

#62
post #40
post #37

And here is the natural born right to privacy that Americans have, as well as the rest of the world in my own opinion: Bill of Rights, amendment 4: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the…

It's a nice right in theory, but in reality, stop-and-frisk, border control, parallel construction, 'I smelled weed in the car', 'I had a hunch', 'the drug dog gave me a signal', 'we got an anonymous tip (from an illegal search, via parallel construction)' all exist, and are regularly employed in the United States. They also tend to be disproportionately targeted at particular, inconvenient, segments of the populatio…

Ultimately, all people are just hypocrites, even you. It doesn't matter what lip-service you pay to any ethical system. When push comes to shove all people are just horrible POSs.

Re: Indian government to intercept, monitor, and decrypt citizens’ computers

#63
post #2

The first few lines of the story make it clear that there is not (necessarily) some physical seizing of computers going on here; it is the data that are being intercepted, monitored, and decrypted.

Doesn't "any computer" means personal devices that citizens own and agencies can ask you to hand over keys and password?

Re: Indian government to intercept, monitor, and decrypt citizens’ computers

#64
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And when those phenomena are fought, it is on the basis of the Constitution.

The success of fighting it only works as well as 'where does public opinion on the issue currently lie'. The constitutionality of a law is a political red herring. My favorite example of this is gay marriage. All the way between 1776 and 2015 it was illegal - yet somehow, magically, in 2015, banning it became unconstitutional. Did the Constitution change in 2015, without us noticing? Did the lawyers advocating for it…

"All the way between 1776 and 2015 it was illegal..."

The legality of SSM was decided by individual states. While not 'sanctified' (up to religions ... for those who cared) or 'state-certified' (for those who cared), millions of same-sex relationships existed during those two centuries. Most of them un-persecuted.

I don't see any prohibition in my reading of the Constitution, which I'm pretty sure was designed to protect individual liberties from the powers of the State. Of course, there have always been so-called 'citizens' fond of their own liberty to deprive others of theirs.

Re: Indian government to intercept, monitor, and decrypt citizens’ computers

#65
This is basically part of a smear campaign against the government in power (NDA). The law was designed under the previous government and has been in existence before this government came to power. Nothing new was introduced since 2008.

As far as constitutional protections go, Indians have a right to privacy which has been held up in the courts as recently as this year. This has been affirmed several times in the recent past. So, no, India does not have weak protections for its citizens.

Finally, India is a place where mere WhatsApp forwards on the basis of rumors or made up stories cause people to go out and riot. Communal violence can be instigated using such means. So such laws are essential to track down the perpetrators.

NSA, CIA also silently spy on Americans without much oversight in the name of security. In fact it is done at a mass scale.

Re: Indian government to intercept, monitor, and decrypt citizens’ computers

#66
post #30

In less than decade both USA and EU will take lessons from these developing experiments (India, China, Russia, Australia) and will introduce the same locally. At first societies will be educated to stigmatise any resistance and ease the law change. Hiding data from govt will be like tax evasion or act of terrorism.

Nah. There has been pretty strong backlash against FB. GDPR is (as imperfect as it is) a thing. I don't see the West going down that road, disregarding catastrophic failure modes.

Re: Indian government to intercept, monitor, and decrypt citizens’ computers

#67
post #59

First, it was Aadhaar and now this. Somehow Indian Govt wants to track every citizen and build their dictatorship.

> build their dictatorship.

I highly doubt any Indian government wants or even thinks they can do this.

India in all its diversity, consists of a huge number of separate factions. The Government only works due to a mutual compromise from enough factions to form a coalition. Also, the Indian judiciary and parliament hold genuine power and exercise it too.

It is nearly impossible for a single person to gain enough momentum to even start being dictatorial.

Admittedly, Modi's government has consolidated more power in one person than most of India's past governments. But, even then it only in comparison to the nearly dysfunctional mega coalitions of the INC.

Re: Indian government to intercept, monitor, and decrypt citizens’ computers

#68
post #59

First, it was Aadhaar and now this. Somehow Indian Govt wants to track every citizen and build their dictatorship.

Under a dictatorship, people don't have the right to choose. People chose a specific party to represent them in 2014 and in 2018 that party lost several state elections. This is far from how a dictatorship works. Your assertion is factually incorrect.

Re: Indian government to intercept, monitor, and decrypt citizens’ computers

#69
post #40
post #37

And here is the natural born right to privacy that Americans have, as well as the rest of the world in my own opinion: Bill of Rights, amendment 4: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the…

It's a nice right in theory, but in reality, stop-and-frisk, border control, parallel construction, 'I smelled weed in the car', 'I had a hunch', 'the drug dog gave me a signal', 'we got an anonymous tip (from an illegal search, via parallel construction)' all exist, and are regularly employed in the United States. They also tend to be disproportionately targeted at particular, inconvenient, segments of the populatio…

Yup, the Fourth Amendment's drug exception. Credited to Rehnquist and almost literally taught as such when I was a 1L.

Re: Indian government to intercept, monitor, and decrypt citizens’ computers

#70

This is basically part of a smear campaign against the government in power (NDA). The law was designed under the previous government and has been in existence before this government came to power. Nothing new was introduced since 2008. As far as constitutional protections go, Indians have a right to privacy which has been held up in the courts as recently as this year. This has been affirmed several times in the rece…

Privacy Law is in the draft status ...
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