Pranesh Prakash @pranesh Oct 3, 2023
Some tech advice for activists & journalists in India:
1. Do not use biometrics to unlock your phone/laptop. Use a strong passphrase.
2. Use full-disk encryption to encrypt the data on your device.
3. Know that you are under no obligation to share your passphrases w/ the police
4. Switch off your device before you hand it over to anyone else. (Don't put it on suspend; turn it off.)
I strongly believe press associations & media groups should be conducting workshops on security for journos. (PS, I'm available to consult on practical digital security.)
I was very careful with how I worded that (having argued against crypto-fantasists in the past). Most people, including lawyers I've come to realize, don't know that you are under no obligation to give up your password or to unlock your device for the police.
If you're an accused, then you have a *constitutional right against self-incrimination* under Art. 20(3). You cannot legally be required to reveal any potentially incriminating info to the police. This isn't being "above the law", it *is the law*. (This is also a right u/ IHRL.)
Pegasus is India’s Watergate moment https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/pegasus-is-indias-watergate-moment/article35434074.ece Adv Pranesh Prakash July 21, 2021 Intelligence gathering needs to be professionalised, parliamentary oversight introduced, and liberties and law protected
“If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology.” Those words of Sen. Frank Church, who led one of two committees on intelligence and surveillance reform established in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, are just as relevant in India today given the revelations of extensive surveillance — it is unclear by whom, but signs point to the Indian government — by the use of spyware on people’s phones . While there is much to be said about the international regulation of the unaccountable sale of spyware by shadowy entities such as the NSO Group, it is equally, if not more important to ensure that surveillance in India is made accountable.