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Using the cyber space for spreading extremist ideologies or gaining valuable informations for the purpose of terrorist activities have become a trend now a days. Since the 9/11 incidence, all most all countries are developing stringent laws to close any single hole through which extremists can pour in the venomous principles in the cyber space. But could the laws really achieve their purposes? Probably no. The examples of Mumbai attack, London tube attack, the serial blasts that happened in 2008 in many cities in India may prove how laws fail to curb the situation effectively. No wander, extremism can be born in a group discussion in social networking site, in a blog, in open access religious sites . What we get to learn from this? It is not the machine, neither the public site which was probably opened to give thousands of netizens chance to express their views, neither the email service providers who provide their service for genuine reasons which could be made liable, but the human minds which got rotten due to the smell of destruction in the name of protecting some rights. I see government of India’s decision to tighten the ropes on the privacy of individual net browsers through the new Information Technology (reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules,2011 , as a double edged weapon thus. This and the other proposed rules empower the government to seek personal data from the “trusted” sites and even the cyber cafes which promise to give enough privacy to the users.
One of the very prominent example could be found in today’s report about Headley prosecution case (see Headley e-mail casts light on ugly world of Shiv Sena fixers by Swami & Gaikwad, http://www.hindu.com/2011/05/26/stories/2011052667061400.htm). No, the news report doesn’t say anything on these laws or rules. But what seemed important to me is, how valuable one’s personal data could be when it comes to prosecute extremists and their aids, who may never know in which trap they are being pulled into. It was long before 9/11 US tragedy that many parts of India were receiving even more dangerous terrorist attacks. It compelled the government and the security personnel to have a strict vigil on accommodations which housed ‘outsiders’ as tenants, paying guests and even guests. Well, some had felt that their privacy rights had been infringed, some felt such vigilance was good. But the ultimate result was, common people became more aware about extremists and how they might become aids to extremism without their knowledge. May be these rules regarding digital vigilance could bring more debates , but at the same time, the physical space anti-terrorism vigils probably would suggest that it is better to have a careful caretaker even when in the cyber space.
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”, 26th May,,2011, published in http://cybervictims.blogspot.com/
