Thread by @nixxin

India's home minister Amit Shah wants to revive NATGRID. There are reports that govt wants to link social media accounts to it.

I went through Parliament Q's and found lots of dope on it. medianama.com/2019/09/223-in…

Thread follows

What is NATGRID? NATGRID is the national intelligence grid, to link 21 public and private databases together (airlines, SEBI, trains etc), and make this data available to intelligence agencies.

It's a different kind of privatisation of surveillance. Get data from everyone

Was decided to set up NATGRID in 2009. delayed every year. Not easy. they probably underestimated the tech challenge: imagine correlating data in multiple databases, with different fields. But it's also why linking Aadhaar was important: it deduplicates identity across databases.

We don't know if banking data is a part of it. In 2014, RBI had said no

Also, who gets access to this data. These 10 intelligence agencies. What checks and balances? We don't know.

Can it access data in real-time? Unlikely. In 2015, MoS for Home, said NATGRID“does not have mandate to have real-time access to all citizens’ details in regard to passport,driving license, telephone records,credit card details, bank records and so on”

Things can change, though

There seem to be some basic documentation (but not checks) in NATGRID: while giving access to data, the NATGRID system documents elements like “why the information is required”, “who is asking”, “the purpose for which it will used” etc.
medianama.com/2019/09/223-in…

Also, we don't know too much about NATGRID because it isn't under RTI. It initially was, and Talish Ray, who was at sflc.in then, got some info in 2011: sflc.in/unravelling-na…

Everything else is now from news reports and Parliament questions

Btw, the India today story says NATGRID can be operationalized by end of the year or March 2019. Frankly, it's been delayed so often that I'm doubtful. In fact, MP's have even asked in Parliament about whether it has been shelved.

Now the issues with NATGRID: it's a system that enables mass surveillance, Taking data from public and private databases. I remember reading once that the plan is to connect over 900 databases in phase 2.

Indian security agencies are not accountable to parliament, and are exempted under the draft data protection bill. Protection of citizen rights here will not happen without accountability of agencies. India needs a law to regulate surveillance agencies.