I'm actually quite fed up with people portraying India negatively. Oprah Winfrey has done this and I am surprised at how this seems to be the consensus with the media.
Yes India has some issues with policy and infrastructure, however they are trying to sort this problem out. Have you heard of the 4g network that's a work in progress?
If you actually read the article you would know that non Indian wrote it.
"It’s a police state here in Delhi. Just finding a place with public Wi-Fi is a serious effort, and then they copy my passport."
Now hold on since when was India, Delhi. Do you even know what a police state is?
"Some want only a government-issued ID. Some insist upon an ID with a photograph. And there are some who have a fascination for your passport or driving licence – nothing else will do. I mean, just to check a mail, which will take 5 minutes, you have to fill in a form (particulars in a register) and submit a copy of a “proper” ID"
I live in the UK. I'm 27 years old and when I go to the buy cigarettes. I am asked for Id, only photo id will do. I have no driving licence so am forced to use my passport. Same thing happens when I buy alcohol and at bars clubs. Having to give my id to an arrogant bouncer who can blatantly tell I'm over 18 is greatly annoying.
Every internet café I have ever been to in the U.K has CCTV. the owners of the internet café also has to keep a record of all sites visited. Maybe India should take this big brother approach.
> If you actually read the article you would know that non Indian wrote it.
Dead wrong. Jawed Anwar wrote it, a ToI columnist. He just quoted Soghoian's tweet and used that as linkbait. I posted this article on HN, without the question mark as heading, because this is one headline where Betteridge's law would not apply.
Virtually no cafe's (by which I mean I know of none and have heard of none) do what the Police are asking in your first link. It is completely optional, and indeed may break other laws such as the Data Protection Act if not done properly and with notice to the user.
With regards to the second link, that law is a fair way off and already faces quite stiff opposition. Similar but less intrusive laws already in place which require ISPs to retain certain logs if requested have not yet proved too onerous (and have not been abused on a large scale), and certainly don't interfere directly with most peoples use of the net, at home or in public spaces like internet cafes. This isn't to say that I support the existing laws, I don't, but they are in no way of the same type, scale or intrusiveness as the situation described in the article.
As opposed to India, where you know, we just asked RIM and Google to give us ability to snoop on all mails.
Or where we block sites at the drop of a hat, did you miss the recent instructions where the govt and their lap dogs went after social media? The new 'evil'?
At what point will you decide that for every flaw of theirs you can point out, there is also a tradition of civil rights and organizations fighting against infringements of those rights.
In the US, UK and many other countries biometric ID systems were shot down because of the huge issues they raised for civil rights.
India? We have a few people arguing against it and the rest of the country for it.
Whats worse, a lot of us are willful in our ignorance.
The article appears in an Indian paper, why single out U.S. as the country to compare to?
Also, just because other countries have other restrictions (wrong or otherwise), that doesn't justify such restrictions in India.
P.S. Avoid typing in all caps. It comes off as rude.