Thread by @internetfreedom

IFF advocates for your constitutional rights in a digital India. Every month, here's what we do: Release a transparency report & increase our accountability to the IFF community.

In Sept '21, we filed 26 RTI requests + 3 First Appeals. Highlights in 🧵 👇🏽
internetfreedom.in/digital-transp…

The RTI Act is an important legal tool that helps us ask for transparency and accountability from the authorities. We use it to extract information about various ongoing policies and projects. On our radar this month: #facialrecognition, #netneutrality, #censorship & #freespeech.

Did you know?

❗️The Govt. of Assam plans to install AI based facial recognition attendance system across 48000 govt. schools.

❗️The Ministry of Law & Justice plans to link your Voter ID with Aadhaar, incorrectly assuming that this passes the #Puttaswamy proportionality tests.

A database of research scholars in IITs is in process! 👥

Names, addresses, nationalities, contact info, academic departments, PhD registration numbers (and more) are being collected from PhD scholars — this is without a clear legal basis or strong privacy + security standards.

Finally, we also asked a question that's been on all of our minds: What is the expenditure incurred by the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity on government advertisements to different newspapers and media houses in India? #taxpayermoney

We're waiting for answers 🗣

Join us in the mission to make India's digital future more equitable. Help us ask the right questions, and go to the courts for your constitutional rights.

Invest in your digital rights. Invest in IFF.

internetfreedom.in/donate/