Information Society Watch

April 7, 2007, Mumbai Mirror

The Mumbai city police is planning to install a software to monitor all cyber cafes in the city and maintain a database of users. This primary aim of this move is to deter offenders who operate in cyber space. The manufacturers of the software envisage a server installed at the police headquarters, connected to the main server of every cyber cafe in the city, wherein, each time a user logs on to any computer in a cyber cafe, data including the user’s name, address, identity proof, photograph, log-in and log-out time would automatically be transferred to the police server via the cafe’s main server. The software is also capable recording of the keys punched by a user while surfing the Net. While the police maintain that it could be a useful device to pinpoint offenders, the potential exists for this tool to also be used for surveillance purposes as well.

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