Free Software Movement of India condemns the Ministry of Home Affairs notification issued on December 20, permitting 10 security agencies to intercept, monitor and decrypt information "generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource". Under this notification, which seems to involve an expansion in the power of the authorities concerned, not only communication but also data on devices is vulnerable to monitoring and decryption.

The Supreme Court of India on September 26 pronounced its judgement on the validity of the Aadhaar project, upholding it in a 4:1 verdict. While the Free Software Movement of India notes that certain blatant misuses of the project have been identified and struck down, at the same time, the larger infrastructure has been broadly left intact. 

Press statment

May 5, 18

To
Dr. AB Pandey,
CEO,
UIDAI.

Subject: Security of the Aadhaar personal data and ECMP Software

Dear Sir,
    

The recent controversy over the profiling of millions by consulting firm Cambridge Analytica using the 'stolen' data of Facebook users has come to India with the IT Minister giving belligerent statements about summoning Mark Zuckerberg. The issue yet again demonstrates the risks of the business model of companies like Facebook, which harvest user data in large quantities without any accountability.

Free Software Movement of India welcomes the unanimous ruling of the nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court declaring privacy to be a fundamental right under the Constitution. The ruling is especially important considering the fact that the reference to the bench on this matter came during hearings on the Aadhaar scheme, which the government has been forcing on the Indian people. This is despite a number of concerns from various quarters about the scheme, especially on the issues of privacy and risks to informational security.

STOP INTERNET CENSORSHIP - STOP BLOCKING WAY BACK MACHINE

3, August 2017

In a move that can only be seen as regressive, the Government of India has blocked access to the website ‘archive.org’, also called ‘Wayback Machine’. No official reason has been given for this block.

The District Magistrate of Indore had issued an order (order/2956/RADM/2016, Indore/Date 14/11/2016 under Section 144) banning criticism on social media such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc., on exchange of old currency that is “objectionable” or can “cause incitement”. The order is attached here.