Google’s transparency report for July-Dec 2012

ICMS, or Indian Central Monitoring System, has been implemented by the Government of India from April this year in a very hush-hush manner. Although most of us would be glad that the government actually managed to implement something, a whole bunch of cyber activists, freedom of speech crusaders (and emo teens who fill online private journals with their inner most feelings), have gotten their knickers in a mighty big twist.

ICMS, an ‘intelligence’ (yeah, right) initiative, is designed to make your dreams of entering the Big Boss house come true. While you may not get to be on national TV or rub shoulders with a movie star, you certainly will be watched 24×7. With the help of ICMS the Government of India has the means to tap your phone, read your text messages, go through your emails, your chat logs and even monitor your video calls; and you thought your parents were snoopy?

Despite a lack of official statements on the matter, the sentiment among government supporters on social media is that ICMS is for purposes of ensuring national security. In all practicality, the idea of cracking down on terrorists and other-anti nationals by monitoring the virtual and (to an extent) social life of private citizens seems to be a romantic notion at best.

How, in a country with a population of 1.25 billion, where there are more cell phones than toilets, does this government propose to effectively monitor every single person with a communication device and actually find evidence of ongoing illegalites?

Meanwhile, does anyone recall how the government has conveniently chosen to ignore warnings from intelligence agencies about terror attacks in Mumbai, Hyderabad etc? But then, why would they believe a seasoned sleuth as opposed to listening into (mostly irrelevant) conversations themselves, right?

According to Google’s Transparency Report for July-December 2012, requests for removal of content by the Government of India had increased a staggering 90% from the previous Transparency Report of January-June 2012. What is interesting is that 33% of these requests were about defamation, 13% about religious defamation and 4% about hate speech, only 1% these requests from the government had anything to with national security.

Did someone say nefarious intentions?

In the face of a disproportionate distribution of wealth, brutal poverty, malnutrition and a lack of universally accessible educational and medical services, the Government of India has been kind enough to provide for a round the clock monitoring system that’s estimated to cost (drum roll, please) Four Billion Rupees. So sweet, no?

Due to the lack of statements on ICMS from official types, one is left to wonder why they wish to turn India into a day care centre where children who complain about unfair lunch menus are promptly put into a corner and given a time-out. Perhaps the Government of India is becoming increasingly concerned about anti-government protests that spring up every now and then and are only further fuelled by direct citizen-to-citizen connectivity on social media. No one really knows.

But all said and done, ICMS will certainly help mummies monitor the internet histories of their 42 year old toddlers.

The lack of privacy laws in India along with the implementation of ICMS is a cause for great concern. The government’s newfound powers of snooping clubbed with its golden child, Aadhaar, could effectively give your legislators complete control over your identity – for better or for worse.

But don’t you worry, children. Your fair and just government will only utilize this law to punish evil traitors such as Aseem Trivedi, Ravi Srinivasan, Ambikesh Mahapatra and the two women who were locked-up for criticising the Mumbai bandh over Bal Thackrey’s demise; and then everything will be just fine in India.

ICMS could turn out to be the best thing that has ever happened to this country; it could fix all the troubles we citizens face – because unless you have free will, how can you possibly decide if something that’s happening to you is very, very wrong?