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<font face="Verdana">The below is the press release that was earlier
released by a group of Indian security experts. These kinds of
concerns of data safety not just reg personal concerns but also,
as importantly, larger social and polical ones will increasingly
become mainstay. <br>
<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Verdana"><br>
Indian InfoSec Consortium Press Release
<br>
<br>
*Issue of trust on American companies in wake of disclosures by
<br>
Edward Snowden*
<br>
<br>
It is shocking that in a country like India which is called
worlds
<br>
software superpower, Election Commission instead of an Indian
<br>
Company has chosen a foreign company like Google, which has
colluded
<br>
with American Intelligence agencies like NSA( National Security
<br>
Agency) for Global Cyber spying, to provide electoral
registration
<br>
and facilitation services by providing them the whole database
of
<br>
registered voters in India.
<br>
<br>
This will pose a unprecedented security risk to India, as this
data
<br>
is bound to be surely misused by Google and American agencies
for
<br>
cyber espionage and other surveillance operations by United
States.
<br>
<br>
It has been absolutely clear after the Edward Snowden (NSA
<br>
contractor) leaks in recent months that National Security
Agency of
<br>
United states has been conducting Cyber espionage and technical
<br>
surveillance across the world through every single means of
<br>
resources and data available.
<br>
<br>
American Companies including Google have been assisting NSA to
<br>
conduct cyber espionage and surveillance operations by
providing
<br>
complete access to personal data of their users available on
their
<br>
servers. Above facts which are in the public domain and have
also
<br>
been on record accepted by Presidents of United States of
America
<br>
<br>
<b class="moz-txt-star"><span class="moz-txt-tag">*</span>Possible
Threat to India and misuse of data<span class="moz-txt-tag">*</span></b>
<br>
<br>
Not only has EC decided to make the existing voter database
<br>
available to Google but they have also reportedly tied up with
them
<br>
to provide online voter registration services. As we are aware
that
<br>
online voter registration form includes personal details like
Name,
<br>
address, Phone numbers, email ids age and family details but to
<br>
bring it to your notice it will also result in reviling cyber
<br>
identities of voters to Google like the surfing history, online
<br>
activities, email and social media accounts and ip addresses
too.
<br>
<br>
*This huge amount of personal information that can be easily
used to
<br>
survey upon the targets as per the wishes of American agencies
and
<br>
the break into their systems if necessary*.
<br>
<br>
Google may not only use this information for their
advertisements
<br>
programs which are based on such user details but can also
conduct
<br>
other activities like electoral surveys for American agencies
which
<br>
may at some stage be used to, alter, affect or formulate public
<br>
opinions in India.
<br>
<br>
Google’s recent survey on most searched political personalities
in
<br>
India is one such example, which can surely result in changing
<br>
public perceptions and opinions of electorate.
<br>
<br>
*In light of the above concerns the INDIAN INFOSEC CONSORTIUM
<br>
requests EC to put this tie-up immediately on hold and ensure
that
<br>
no data of any kind is transferred to Google or any other
foreign
<br>
company. For any further steps IIC recommends EC to seek
Security
<br>
clearance from designated cyber security agencies.*
<br>
<br>
*We are also offering to provide indigenous solution for online
<br>
voter registration service free of cost in Election commission
of
<br>
India may so desire.*
<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://trak.in/tags/business/2014/01/06/ec-tie-up-google-threat-national-security-infosec-consortium/">http://trak.in/tags/business/2014/01/06/ec-tie-up-google-threat-national-security-infosec-consortium/</a>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</font>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On Thursday 09 January 2014 10:02 PM,
Guru गुरु wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:52CECF00.3080902@ITforChange.net" type="cite">
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<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<p class="body" style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 0px;
margin-bottom: 20px; color: rgb(59, 58, 57); font-family:
Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size:
14.399999618530273px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px;
orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"The (Indian Election)
Commission had earlier signed a non-disclosure agreement with
Google" <span class="moz-smiley-s5"><span> :-D </span></span><br>
regards<br>
Guru<br>
</p>
<p class="body" style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 0px;
margin-bottom: 20px; color: rgb(59, 58, 57); font-family:
Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size:
14.399999618530273px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px;
orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Election Commission
has decided not to pursue its proposed tie-up with internet
giant Google after concerns over national security were raised
from several quarters, including major parties. The U.S-based
Google had earlier this week made a formal presentation to the
Election Commission proposing a tie-up with it for voter
facilitation services ahead of Lok Sabha elections.</p>
<p class="body" style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 0px;
margin-bottom: 20px; color: rgb(59, 58, 57); font-family:
Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size:
14.399999618530273px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px;
orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Commission, in its
meeting in New Delhi on Thursday which was attended by Chief
Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath and Election Commissioners
H.S. Brahma and S.N.A. Zaidi, deliberated on the issue and
decided not to go ahead. “After due consideration, the
Commission has decided not to pursue it any further,” said an EC
official. The EC said Google had proposed to provide electoral
look up services for citizens to help in Commission’s efforts
for better electoral information services.</p>
<p class="body" style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 0px;
margin-bottom: 20px; color: rgb(59, 58, 57); font-family:
Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size:
14.399999618530273px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px;
orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Commission had
earlier signed a non-disclosure agreement with Google but had
not shared or handed over any data to the internet giant so far
and was deliberating on the tie-up with it for using its search
engines for voter facilitation. Congress and BJP besides some
cyberspace experts had voiced concerns over the proposed tie-up,
saying stakeholders should have been consulted before a
decision. The Congress legal cell has written to the Chief
Election Commissioner raising security concerns over the
proposed tie-up and hoped it will not have any effect on the
electoral process and national security. BJP also expressed
concerns and said the issue could have been discussed first at
an all-party meeting by EC.</p>
<p class="body" style="outline: 0px; margin-top: 0px;
margin-bottom: 20px; color: rgb(59, 58, 57); font-family:
Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size:
14.399999618530273px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px;
orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Questioning the EC’s
move, a group of cyber security experts had written to the panel
amid concerns over sharing of vital data pertaining to Indians
to a foreign company. The concerns also come at a time when
eyebrows have been raised over leaking of vital data of Indians
to United States intelligence agencies as exposed by Edward
Snowden.<br>
</p>
<br>
source -
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<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ec-aborts-tieup-with-google-over-security-concerns/article5557857.ece?homepage=true">http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ec-aborts-tieup-with-google-over-security-concerns/article5557857.ece?homepage=true</a>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
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<pre>Gurumurthy Kasinathan
Director, IT for Change
<i>In Special Consultative Status with the United Nations ECOSOC</i>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.itforchange.net/">www.ITforChange.Net</a> | Cell:91 9845437730 | Tel:91 80 26654134, 26536890
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Subject_Teacher_Forum">http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Subject_Teacher_Forum</a>
<img alt="" moz-do-not-send="false" src="cid:part5.03080505.02020006@itforchange.net" name="graphics1" border="0" height="90" width="132"></pre>
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</blockquote>
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