Draft rules on Intermediary Liability released by the Ministry of IT

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As alluded to in the 100 day roadmap announced by the Minister for the Telecom and IT, draft rules on intermediary liability have been released by the Ministry of Information Technology and are open for public comment. There are three sets of rules which seek to flesh out the legal requirements under sections 43A and 79(2) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. With regard to section 43A, the draft rules are termed as, “Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal information) Rules, 2011”. These rules seek to create privacy safeguards requiring persons collecting personal information to create privacy policies. These rules will govern the collection, utilization and the dissemination of personally identifiable data.

With regard to section 79(2) we first have the, “Information Technology (Due diligence observed by intermediaries guidelines) Rules, 2011.” These rules when in force will require intermediaries to publish a terms of service as well as to act only in the capacity of an intermediary. Some provisions are also made to introduce a notice and takedown regime to ensure the intermediary is within the bounds of the safe harbor expection from liability. The second set of draft rules with regard to section 79(2) are the, “Information Technology (Guidelines for Cyber Cafe) Rules, 2011.” They mandate the licensing of cyber cafes as well as cyber cafe to abide by the licensing conditions of maintaining a log register for the customers.

Comments are invited on all three till 28.02.2011 and can be sent by email to: grai@mit.gov.in To ensure wider access we are attaching a copy of all three regulations below.

Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal information) Rules, 2011

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Information Technology (Due diligence observed by intermediaries guidelines) Rules, 2011

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Information Technology (Guidelines for Cyber Cafe) Rules, 2011

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