Lok Sabha passes IT Act Amendment Bill

NEW DELHI: Publishing and transmitting obscene material in electronic form besides other e-commerce frauds will now be punishable under the amended IT Bill, which was today passed by the Lok Sabha.

The Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2006, adds provisions to the existing Information Technology Act, 2000, to deal with new forms of cyber crimes like publicising sexually explicit material in electronic form, video voyeurism and breach of confidentiality and leakage of data by intermediary and e-commerce frauds.

The Bill proposes a Cyber Appellate Tribunal and enabling the authentication of electronic records by any electronic signature technique. According to the Bill, the Central government has to decide the number of members of the tribunal later.

The amended Bill also gives the Central government powers to issue directives for intercepting, monitoring or decryption of any information through computer.

It also enables the government to intercept computer communication in any investigation. However, telephones and letters may be intercepted only in national interest.

However, neither the IT Act nor any other law covers how personal information may be collected, processed, shared and used. Also, while the Bill provides compensation for unlawful loss or gain arising from unauthorised use of data, it does not address the issue of breach of privacy.