Before stepping into a cyber cafe in future, be sure to carry valid photo identification or be prepared to be photographed by the cyber cafe owner.
Be forewarned that the history of your visits to websites will be recorded and handed over to the police on demand and to a governmental agency every month. If the computer user is a child, he or she will have to be accompanied by an adult who carries a photo identification card.
When the Information Technology (Guidelines for Cyber Cafe) Rules 2011, the draft of which has been put in the public domain, are gazetted, using a computer in a cyber cafe will be a high-security task.
The guidelines, which are aimed to fight terrorism and extremist activities, have been drafted by the Department of Information Technology of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.
The guidelines insist that: “The cyber café shall record and maintain the required information of each user in the log register for a minimum period of one year. Also, cyber café may maintain an online version of the log register.”
They ask the cyber cafe owner to take a series of steps to check that the user does not indulge in illegal activities. Some of these steps include: the cubicles shall not exceed 4.5 feet in height; minors, when using computers inside a cubicle, should be accompanied by parents or guardians; computer screens, other than those in the cubicles, should face outward.
Police inspection
The guidelines have this clause: “An officer, not below the rank of police inspector as authorised by the licensing agency, is authorised to check or inspect cyber café and the computer resource or network established therein at any time for the compliance of these rules. The cyber café owner shall provide every related document, registers and any necessary information to the inspecting officer on demand.”
The cyber cafe “shall prepare a monthly report of the log register showing date-wise details on the usage of the computer resource and submit a hard and soft copy” to the authorised agency.
“Cyber café shall incorporate sufficient measures, to ensure that the identity of user availing or accessing the services of the cyber café through any means is established.” The computers should be “equipped with the safety/filtering software so as to the avoid access to the websites relating to pornography, obscenity, terrorism and other objectionable materials.”
Restrictions harsh
Commenting on the rules, Anvar Sadat, executive director, IT@School project, who has authored books on the IT Act and cybercrimes, said the restrictions were too harsh and that many of them were impracticable.
In this digital age, he noted, such restriction on cyber cafes and computer users would impede e-governance as the cyber cafes were the last resort for people filing a host of applications and for paying bills.
The restrictions could turn out to be counter-productive. Allowing police inspectors to check cyber cafes any time they wanted would lead to a situation anyone could visualise, he said.
The IT Department has sought the public's feedback to the rules. Comments could be emailed to grai@mit.gov.in
