[governance] EC aborts tie-up with Google over security concerns
Suresh Ramasubramanian
suresh at hserus.net
Thu Jan 9 18:29:47 EST 2014
No idea who the individual members of this 'consortium' are, amd the first I heard of it. There is an over fourteen year old mailing list called India-infosec which has most security practitioners in India, but that list certainly wasn't involved in creating this note below. The english would be far better, just to start with,
Plenty of fairly tall claims / not very much understanding of the specific issues in the snowden case, too, when you dig a bit deeper
--srs (iPad)
> On 09-Jan-2014, at 22:31, parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:
>
> 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.
>
>
>
> Indian InfoSec Consortium Press Release
>
> *Issue of trust on American companies in wake of disclosures by
> Edward Snowden*
>
> It is shocking that in a country like India which is called worlds
> software superpower, Election Commission instead of an Indian
> Company has chosen a foreign company like Google, which has colluded
> with American Intelligence agencies like NSA( National Security
> Agency) for Global Cyber spying, to provide electoral registration
> and facilitation services by providing them the whole database of
> registered voters in India.
>
> This will pose a unprecedented security risk to India, as this data
> is bound to be surely misused by Google and American agencies for
> cyber espionage and other surveillance operations by United States.
>
> It has been absolutely clear after the Edward Snowden (NSA
> contractor) leaks in recent months that National Security Agency of
> United states has been conducting Cyber espionage and technical
> surveillance across the world through every single means of
> resources and data available.
>
> American Companies including Google have been assisting NSA to
> conduct cyber espionage and surveillance operations by providing
> complete access to personal data of their users available on their
> servers. Above facts which are in the public domain and have also
> been on record accepted by Presidents of United States of America
>
> *Possible Threat to India and misuse of data*
>
> Not only has EC decided to make the existing voter database
> available to Google but they have also reportedly tied up with them
> to provide online voter registration services. As we are aware that
> online voter registration form includes personal details like Name,
> address, Phone numbers, email ids age and family details but to
> bring it to your notice it will also result in reviling cyber
> identities of voters to Google like the surfing history, online
> activities, email and social media accounts and ip addresses too.
>
> *This huge amount of personal information that can be easily used to
> survey upon the targets as per the wishes of American agencies and
> the break into their systems if necessary*.
>
> Google may not only use this information for their advertisements
> programs which are based on such user details but can also conduct
> other activities like electoral surveys for American agencies which
> may at some stage be used to, alter, affect or formulate public
> opinions in India.
>
> Google’s recent survey on most searched political personalities in
> India is one such example, which can surely result in changing
> public perceptions and opinions of electorate.
>
> *In light of the above concerns the INDIAN INFOSEC CONSORTIUM
> requests EC to put this tie-up immediately on hold and ensure that
> no data of any kind is transferred to Google or any other foreign
> company. For any further steps IIC recommends EC to seek Security
> clearance from designated cyber security agencies.*
>
> *We are also offering to provide indigenous solution for online
> voter registration service free of cost in Election commission of
> India may so desire.*
>
> http://trak.in/tags/business/2014/01/06/ec-tie-up-google-threat-national-security-infosec-consortium/
>
>
>> On Thursday 09 January 2014 10:02 PM, Guru गुरु wrote:
>> "The (Indian Election) Commission had earlier signed a non-disclosure agreement with Google" :-D
>> regards
>> Guru
>> 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.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> source - http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ec-aborts-tieup-with-google-over-security-concerns/article5557857.ece?homepage=true
>> --
>> Gurumurthy Kasinathan
>> Director, IT for Change
>> In Special Consultative Status with the United Nations ECOSOC
>> www.ITforChange.Net | Cell:91 9845437730 | Tel:91 80 26654134, 26536890
>> http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Subject_Teacher_Forum
>> <graphics1>
>
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