‘Location tracking’ of every Indian mobile user by 2014 (opens in new tab)

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51 pointsvilgax12y ago7 comments

7 comments

The timing of this particular news couldn't be better. The Govt. Of India needs to really think this through in light of the latest PRISM NSA leaks. The infrastructure to set up something of the scale of the CMS would be quite a challenge considering the number of cell phone users per square kilometer. NATGRID which has been in news for some time , however not known by many does come at the intersection of the civil liberties / privacy versus national security debate. The CMS like the NATGRID would need to have a well defined access control mechanism to ensure who has access to sensitive info on citizens. I am not sure where does NATGRID stand in terms of its completion which was supposed to be done in multiple phases. NATGRID would integrate and consolidate info n data from multiple central , state databases which would include banks , credit card transactions , Indian Railways , Airline Reservation records , income tax , hotel bookings etc. CMS is in my opinion probably a subset of NATGRID. Neverthless even if its in interest of National Security, the level of breach of individal privacy needs to be thought through by the govt. From a tech and economic devleopment perspective govt initiatives like these are good for India. However , I do hope the govt takes into consideration the critical concerns and issues that arise with systems such as CMS and NATGRID else we could see an another " Snowden" rise in India and widespread dissent among the citizens who are seemingly losing patience with the govt more than ever in the recent times.

rockyj12y ago

While I would like to agree with you but the fact of the matter is no one cares about this stuff in India at the ground level. The govt. is already collecting bio-metric data of the billion plus population, apart from a few, no one protested against it. Heck, only a few asked how they will store this data and keep it secure. When more than half of the population is worried about their next meal or a place to sleep, it does not care about privacy.

sks12y ago

I think even those who are not worried about their next meal are not going to protest this. India has seen so many terror attacks labeled as intelligence failure that any move to beef up the intelligence infrastructure may even be welcomed. The sad thing is that the probability of this data being misused for political reasons is so much higher in India than in the USA.

2 more replies

Sven712y ago

If they want to save lives, they are better of putting their dwindling resources, into repairing their roads and improving enforcement of traffic laws.

Just to get a sense of the numbers, more people are likely to die on Indian roads every year, than the sum total of deaths in the Afganisthan+Iraq wars since 2001.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_collisions_in_India

sukuriant12y ago

How bad is that, actually, per capita? India is a very, very, VERY populated place, on a scale unheard of in the United States or UK

[edit] I thought more about it; and China isn't as bad I'm sure. At least, the internet teaches me that Indian traffic is something noteworthy and Chinese traffic isn't.

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