Unfortunately, ISPs in the country at the time were giving notice to their users that all media streaming activities were punishable offences – including viewing!Īs you can see, there are legal fine lines involved in the matter and you certainly don’t want to get caught on a technicality here. These include the distribution, exhibition or sale of copyright material. Although technically streaming isn’t illegal, it might be if the site offering such services is on the list of banned sites.Ī high court judge in India in 2016 ruled that there was no offence in viewing media being streamed, but rather in other areas associated with the activity. Media streaming and P2P file sharing in the country is a little bit more of a hazy area. This means that the government is giving authorization for such activities in violation of the law.ĭubious Legislation Regarding Media Streaming This information on its own is already alarming, but even more so given that the Indian Supreme Court has recognised the right to privacy as a fundamental right. The agencies authorized are not just those concerned with national security, but also overseeing tax investigation, narcotics, financial crime and others. Not only can these agencies now monitor and intercept, but officially they can even decrypt any information thus obtained. This is a move towards the mass surveillance activities undertaken in China to supervise the activities of its citizens. The government has allowed 10 federal agencies the right to intercept and monitor information from any computer. This has now been legalized to an extent thanks to official authorization given. The Government’s Surveillance Activities Are Legal!īecause of its attempts to block access to many websites, it has always been assumed that India was carrying out some forms of covert surveillance on its own citizens. Penalties for violating this law are severe and go past the usual fines, allowing for prison sentences of up to three years if caught. The government has also formalized the ban on many other websites with a blanket law which prohibits citizens from trying to visit any site on a specific list. Warning message to users in India when trying to access a site banned by the governmentįor example, in 2011 and as recently as 2016 there have been temporary bans on Facebook in the country which were implemented without any warning. While you may be right in thinking that these sites were perhaps illegal or immoral in some way, such as pornographic sites, that hasn’t always been the case. If somehow data is lost or stolen during transmission, that encryption will prevent anyone else from being able to read and use the information.įor a long time, India has attempted to block access to a large (and increasing number of) websites.
While all this is going on, VPNs also help by encrypting your data. What you’re showing to the outside world is essentially your representation online – the VPN server. Your point of origin is masked, along with many other details of your own device and internet connection. By routing your data connection through secure VPN servers, you adopt the physical characteristics of those servers in some way. The main objectives are still the same though – privacy and security. However, they are also priced for the consumer market – more affordably so. Part of this is due to the fact that consumer VPNs are significantly easier to access and use. We mainly look at VPNs from an individual consumer or small business context. This allows them to offer off-site employees to access confidential information safely. In a major business context, most VPNs are built and run by the companies themselves, or customized by special service providers. They can be used by both businesses and individual consumers. They help users increase digital privacy while adding additional layers of security at the same time. Virtual Private Network, or VPN, are private networks of servers.
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