Iron fist over Bangalore cyber cafes from now on

In an intensified regulation of cyber cafes across the city, the police have begun raiding these establishments in at least three police divisions of Bangalore.

In September alone, 728 cyber cafes were raided in north (275), west (205) and south (248) police divisions of the city. Among these, more than 95% were found violating the guidelines laid down in accordance with the 2011-amended Information Technology Act 2000.

However, no cases have been booked, but the city police have issued notices to the cyber cafes. Henceforth, the police would conduct once-a-month raids. If found not complying with the guidelines in accordance with the amended Information Technology Act, the cyber cafe owner would be booked with heavy fines. Besides, the computers and the shop would be seized to initiate detailed investigations into any possible misuse from that particular establishment.

This intense drive has been initiated after the city police detected an increased misuse of the internet. Miscreants and anti-social elements were found to be using cyber cafes to play mischief with innocent persons and even issue online threats to government officials, including some senior police officials.

The latest iron-hand move by the city police also finds relevance in the fact that the internet is also the medium for terror elements to do their “research” and “get brainwashed” by searching intimidating material posted on various websites.

Confirming the raids, joint commissioner of police (West), Pronab Mohanty, said, “As per the cyber rules, the police have to conduct periodic checks. It was supposed to be done all these days, but since it was not, we started it and it will be continued once a month to keep watch on the anti-social activities on the internet.”

He said: “If the cyber cafes fail to follow guidelines after we issue notice, we will seize the cyber cafes under section 102 of CrPc. If any offence has been done through the cyber cafe then we have the power to book cases.” Legal expert on cyber crime and advocate, Byatha N Jagadeesha, said, “It is the responsibility of each cyber cafe owner to monitor everything. They need to maintain records as they assign computers to them. They will have to monitor manually instead of doing it after the customer walks out.”

However, cyber owners have problems of monitoring the activities of their customers. First, they fear they would lose out on business as monitoring would force them to go to some other cyber cafe. Second, it is practically impossible for them to monitor them continuously. “The police have asked us to keep monitoring websites the customers visit. But the customers while walking out delete the history and it becomes difficult for us to monitor,” said owner of Sri Sai Enterprises in Mutyalanagar, Shreyas SN.

“The police have issued notices to us to follow the guidelines; they have asked us to install CCTV cameras, but they are expensive and we have asked for one month’s time,” he said, adding that while it is easy to monitor minors online, it is very difficult to keep an eye on adult customers.

Owner of KG Nagar-located Emardis The 1 Cafe, Varun M, said, “Some people do not have ID cards (as specified in the guidelines). If we ask them and restrict his usage, we will lose out on business. Also most people who visit us are locals. We cannot ask them to provide ID cards and keep tab on them all the time.”

There are solutions to these problems, but for those to be used in India, it could take a while.

“In the US and Western countries, the government uses some surveillance softwares to monitor sites visited by customers in cyber cafes, besides private individuals using their laptops or desktops. But there is lot of opposition to that because of privacy issues. Some have raised objections on the basis of human rights violation. If it is done in India, the same problems would arise, said legal expert on cyber crimes Jagadeesh.