Mumbai Police's Social Media Monitoring Lab secretive and acting illegally?

ldquoWe shall only monitor not censor Our aim is to bridge the gap between the publicrsquos expectations and delivery of police services and maintain public orderrdquo On 17 March 2013 when Satyapal Singh Mumbairsquos former Commissioner of Police reassured the citizenry at the launch of the Social Media Monitoring Lab there was reason for optimism given the fact that rumours on Facebook Twitter and WhatsApp can wreak havoc in a city still bearing the scars of perhaps the worst communal violence in IndiaGoing a step further then AddlCP Protection had said that ldquomonitoringrdquo was a bad word the police was essentially trying to keep a tab on the pulse of the people in order to scale up deployment requirements and intervene betterThe stated goal is valid though the means to achieve that are of contentious legitimacy because of the open declaration of maintaining surveillance In such a scenario transparency and legal safeguards are mandatory to ensure adherence to the law and constitution to prevent misuse of power and abuse of authority And itrsquos here that the Lab is found to be severely wantingItrsquos provenance itself is worrisome Reliance Foundation has bankrolled it and trained the 20 odd officers manning it round the clock That a private entity that too one run by a business house not exactly renowned for its ethical practises should be colluding with the government in surveillance activities and accessing a humongous amount of very personal information and data is dangerous and potentially illegal If the police indeed felt the need to operate such a lab the state government should have made suitable budgetary allocationsThis concern pales in significance when one considers the labrsquos modus operandi and recent instances of evident illegalitySecurity and cyber experts have repeatedly warned of the inherent pitfalls of searching for potential miscreants and terrorists by trawling through large amounts of data in this case the conversations people are having over the Internet It is like looking for a needle in a haystack and often the wrong guy gets caught in the dragnet And knowing that they are being tracked the real lawbreakers will be more guarded in their approach and innocents will be inhibited in conversing freely Thatrsquos what is called the ldquochilling effectrdquo on freedom of expression and itrsquos a form of censorshipThe most egregious flaw in the labrsquos method is not how it goes on a website blocking spree like it did in the immediate aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons controversy in January in one fell swoop reportedly 650 posts across different social media platforms were taken down but Dhananjay Kulkarni Mumbai Police spokesperson admitted that every ldquocontroversialrdquo post the monitors ldquocame acrossrdquo The exact numbers were not disclosed and till date the police havenrsquot come clear on whether it followed the Blocking Rules provided for in the Information Technology Act And if that wasnrsquot enough they were also on the lookout for the Internet Protocol IP addresses of the computers and devices from which those posts have been made that is tracking each individual who had posted that contentThe real flaw is in the overtly aggressive and secretive approach At a Rajya Sabha Committeersquos hearing in October last year Jt CP Sadanand Date who was heading the Cyber Crime Branch asserted that legal provisions regarding blocking of websites and protection of privacy were in fact impediments to policing and maintenance of law and order He was candid in his support for bypassing even violating them if need be Date also emphasised upon the need for total secrecy for reasons of ldquonational securityrdquo It isnrsquot clear if the need for secrecy is so much that therersquos no information about this lab in the Mumbai Policersquos website It is a part of the Cyber Crime Cell thatrsquos all the public is told There is no way to even demand specific accountability for one doesnrsquot know who the personnel are or who are issuing ordersSo the cops justify monitoring WhatsApp messages in order to smell danger and prevent communal flareups All fine provided there is compliance with the laws on phonetapping which mandate that permissions be secured from different authorities and that only certain authorised agencies take such action As of now therersquos no information if the Lab has been notified as one of those agencies or if all the mandatory clearances are takenA 21 January incident makes this shroud of secrecy appear more sinister TwoCirclesnet a news and opinion website received a notice from the UP Police directing it to take down a ldquofake baseless and defamatoryrdquo article which ldquoviolated the dignity of the police departmentrdquo That article in question was a 5 May 2011 report dateline Mumbai on female recruits at the Kolhapur Police Training Academy being sexually exploited by some trainer officers Two legitimate questions arise here Why did an almost fouryearsold report suddenly attract attention And can the Mumbai or Maharashtra police authorities claim with certitude that they had no hand in thisTill date there has been neither acknowledgement nor redress of these grave concerns of police accountabilitySaurav Datta is associated with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Delhi which works towards better policing You can follow him on Twitter SauravDatta29