Government Starts Closing in on Cyber Cafes - Owners & Users Flustered With all the Surveillance
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If you remember, WATBlog had come up with a few pointers for the Indian Government on how to effectively eye on every single online activity being carried out, on this soil, and also to track them down directly to the person responsible. Thanks to a lot of enthusiasm from our regular readers, we also managed to conjure up a healthy discussion on various privacy concerns that the citizens might start facing, once regulations regarding public internet surfing are put into place.
It looks like the authorities are dead serious in their efforts to curb cyber terrorism, the way they deem fit. The police have already started moving in quite a few cities in the country. As Times of India reports, the cyber café owners in Amritsar have already started to issue identity cards to their users. According to their devised system, details of every new user are duly noted down, along with the required proofs, as prescribed by the police. However, as WATBlog had pointed out before too, it is very cumbersome and difficult to maintain a business if even your regular customers are asked to furnish ID cards on every visit. This problem made the café owners come up with I-cards of their own that are issued to their more regular customers who shall not need to furnish their PAN card (or any other important proof, as a matter of fact) every time they visit. Now, all the café owners need to do is maintain a computerized record of their customers’ details and match them up with the serial numbers of their own!
According to the reports and as already speculated, it is still very cumbersome for the cyber café owners to install CCTVs and also maintain the required tapes. What also adds to the woes is the fact that women are very reluctant to get photographed, in the first place, and if they also need to be video taped, the prospect doesn’t sound to go too good with the business. What Shivani Mehra also correctly points out is that when the users are notified that their I-Cards’ photocopies might be furnished to the police, it makes them more apprehensive.
What I can foresee is that such a scenario might actually encourage law breakers to figure out ways of anonymous surfing and then allow others to use the service at a premium, conjuring up another illegal market, in the process. Not many would pause from using such a service because they do not have anything to lose and in cases of urgency, you would normally not care to remember to carry that oh-so-important ID card of yours.
In the midst of it all, the authorities in Malda, West Bengal, have already asked for details of every single cyber café in the district and have also issued prohibitory orders in a few places. It is surprising to find that the police are more active in smaller towns than the larger ones, in their efforts to curb cyber crime.
It will be interesting to be a spectator to all the commotion. Already, the job of educating the cyber café owners in the risks of cyber crime and way to prevent the same is a daunting enough task. I guess, after citizen journalism, what we shall be looking at is citizen policing! 
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Actually that is great idea…about the citizen policing. I always say, that the moment citizens become more vigilant and they start participating in the efforts to curb crime, it is going act as a detterent.
A reason why I think that the police are more active in smaller cities is because for one the city being smaller the numer of cafes will be lesser and easier to track or maybe they think that the terrorists are operating from smaller cities and towns.
As far as government is concerned, has it ever heeded to sane advice…not only the government but all politicians… the moment they start heeding sane advice…India will be different.