Information Technology (Ammendment) Bill passed in Lok Sabha

Information Technology (Ammendment) Bill passed in Lok Sabha yesterday. PRSindia has done a brief review of the bill

The main aim for the Information Technology Act of 2000 was to bring legal legitimacy to electronic transactions by bringing in rules regarding digital certificates. The current bill goes beyond that to specify electronic contracts, cyber tribunal, pornography, wiretapping and exonerating the intermediaries of computer systems.

Section 10A is added so that the end user license agreements, web site terms and service agreements would be considered almost equivalent to paper contracts.

Section 43A is added so that the corporates or firms who handle sensitive data and are negligent in security security practices will be fined. Here the definition of best security policies and sensitive data is left for the government to decide by talking with other professional bodies.

There is a lot of details on resolving cyber disputes using Cyber-Appellatte tribunal.

Section 67 prohibits almost everything that can be considered lascivious in nature. Looks like this extends to writing as well.

Section 67A explicitly prohibits publishing of sexually explicit acts.

Section 69(1) is modified to allow government to get all information from intermediaries and wiretap in cases that affect national security.

CERT-IN gets official heads-up to be the nodal agency for protecting critical information infrastructure in Section 70A.

Section 79(I) exonerates intermediaries from legal liability if they are nice and follow government regulations and demands.

Section 79A providers for examiner of electronic evidence that can give expert opinion on any electronic evidence produced in court. For the trivial ones that involve some kind of crypto, the remaining evidence set is so difficult to verify. You don't need to be an expert to know this.