We take a lot of things for granted online. At the same time, for the most part, we tend to leave our ideals conveniently offline. How rational is it to have a different set of values and principles when looking at everything through the prism of Internet? How do we preserve and protect our democratic…
Jing Yuechen, the founder of an Internet start-up here in the Chinese capital, has no interest in overthrowing the Communist Party. But these days she finds herself cursing the nation’s smothering cyberpolice as she tries — and fails — to browse photo-sharing websites like Flickr and struggles to stay in touch with the Facebook friends…
The European Commission is mulling a new law requiring telecoms companies to store communications data of EU citizens as part of its efforts to fight terrorism, after a top court struck down the previous one on privacy concerns. The deadly Islamist attacks in Paris on Jan. 7-9 have focused European Union leaders’ minds on how…
In the early 1970’s when Vinton Grey Cerf processed the first packet data of information to be transferred from one computer to another it was the first step towards the establishment of what we today know as “World Wide Web” or “www.” Molded by the ever evolving leaps and bounds the internet is what we…
Laws that lacked teeth to take stringent action against culprits have been encouraging human trafficking, Justice (retired) K.G. Balakrishnan, the chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, has said. He was speaking after inaugurating an international seminar on ‘Measures to combat Human Trafficking: International and National Perspectives’ organised by the Paralegal Training and Institutional Centre…
U.S. lawmakers in both houses of Congress introduced on Thursday a bill to protect and promote the rights of the international lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The International Human Rights Defense Act, spearheaded by Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Rep. Alan Lowenthal of California, both Democrats, would appoint a special envoy within…
An international human rights watchdog has expressed concern over a recent AP High court judgment pertaining to Dalit deaths. In its 2015 annual report released on January 29, Thursday, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has compiled various incidents that had taken place in 2014 which portray the treatment meted out to minorities in India. In…
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government should bring public officials, police, and military personnel who commit serious rights abuses to justice, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday in the release of its World Report 2015. The government, elected in May 2014, should act to fulfil its campaign commitments to implement laws promoting women’s rights, improve access to health…
The head of Russia’s delegation to Europe’s human rights watchdog says the country will suspend its involvement after losing its right to vote. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Wednesday voted to renew sanctions against Russia, which includes stripping its voting rights, over the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The decision is expected…
If you think that good code is a plain, expressionless and elegant string of characters that is, at its best, utterly anonymous, think again. New research suggests that programmers have ways of writing code, which can be used as a digital fingerprints. Whether it’s how they space out code using spaces and tabs, naming conventions with capitals…