Lok Sabha OK's IT Act Amendment, 2006 Bill

[gopu]

The Government has made publishing and transmitting obscene material in electronic form besides other e-commerce frauds a punishable offence under the amended IT Bill, which was passed yesterday by the Lok Sabha. The IT (Amendment) Bill, 2006, adds further to the existing Information Technology Act, 2000, to deal with new forms of cyber crimes.

The Bill also proposed for a Cyber Appellate Tribunal and enabling the authentication of electronic records by any electronic signature technique. The Central government will decide the number of members of the tribunal later.

The amended Bill also gives the Central government powers to issue directives for intercepting, monitoring or decryption of any information through computer.

It also enables the government to intercept computer communication in any investigation. However, telephones and letters may be intercepted only in national interest.

However, a glaring glitch in the IT Act was that absence of any guidelines on the issue of breach of privacy. The Act gives no information on how personal information may be collected, processed, shared and used.