UPDATED: July 16, 2021 22:02 IST
Illustration by Siddhant Jumde
It was a moment of celebration for advocates of free speech when the Supreme Court, on March 24, 2015, struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. The provision, first tabled in the Lok Sabha in December 2006 to deal with cyber crimes against women, was written into the statute in December 2008 soon after the terror attacks in Mumbai (November 26, 2008). This was during a session of Parliament that prioritised other laws such as the National Investigation Agency Act and Unlawful Activities Prevention (Amendment) Act linked to an apparent aim to investigate and prosecute offences affecting India’s security.
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Many snooping questions: Official response to Pegasus must be clearer. Plus, system of authorising surveillance is flawed July 19, 2021, 9:48 PM IST
By Apar Gupta and Vrinda Bhandari
That spyware was installed in mobile phones of some Indian citizens – those targeted included journalists, politicians, activists, ministers and even a Supreme Court judge – is not really disputable.
Reports on such surveillance are credible for multiple reasons. First, they are a part of an international collaborative investigation by Paris-based media non-profit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International. Second, these findings have been vetted by 16 media entities from across the world. Finally, the technical analysis on smartphones that confirms the presence of the spyware and its methodology was undertaken by the reputed Citizen Lab, housed at the University of Toronto.