A new bill proposed in the Illinois State Senate looks to completely wipe out any form of anonymity on the internet by requiring that the operators of basically any website on the entire internet take down any comment that isn’t attached to an IP, address, and real name-verified poster. It’s called the Internet Posting Removal Act and was introduced on February 13th by Illinois General Assembly veteran Ira I. Silverstein [D]. New bill proposed in the Illinois State Senate looks to completely wipe out any form of anonymity on the internet by requiring that the operators of basically any website on the entire internet take down any comment that isn’t attached to an IP, address, and real name-verified poster. Creates the Internet Posting Removal Act. Provides that a web site administrator shall, upon request, remove any posted comments posted by an anonymous poster unless the anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or her IP address, legal name, and home address are accurate. Effective 90 days after becoming law. Not wanting to leave any bases uncovered, Silverstein includes that an “Anonymous Poster” means “any individual who posts a message on a web site including social networks, blogs, forums, message boards, or any other discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.” Beyond the obvious questions about self-verification of IP addresses (?) and home addresses (wow), the logistics of this thing are mind-boggling at best. Any comment on any site that has commenting? That would not just include sites like CNN.com, Mashable, WebProNews and others. This could be taken to mean any type of social media like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or large online communities like reddit and 4chan. (McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, 1995): Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical minority views… Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority… It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation… at the hand of an intolerant society. “These long-standing rights to anonymity and the protections it affords are critically important for the Internet. As the Supreme Court has recognized the Internet offers a new and powerful democratic forum in which anyone can become a “pamphleteer” or “a town crier with a voice that resonates farther than it could from any soapbox,”
Category Archives: Regulatory Compliance
EMPLOYERS’ OBLIGATIONS UNDER VARIOUS LABOUR LAWS INDIA
Labour Laws though quite old but still there are number of confusing issues come up while dealing with these laws. It is expected from every Manager in industry to comply with these laws to avoid any short and long term problem. Non compliance may be on account of ignorance may create lot of problems for industry and sometime at top level executive i.e. at Board of Directors. The need to be in touch with these developments is not a matter of choice, but it is imperative to those who are interested in the field of industrial relations, in order to keep themselves abreast of the latest developments. These laws have been further developed with judgements of High Courts and Supreme Court. We in the Chamber has selected few laws to deliberate upon through expert faculty to clear the confusion. Factories Act - (Definition of Manufacturing Process, worker, factory, process of registration, working hours, leave and holidays and welfare measures) ii) Industrial Disputes Act – (Definitions, Strikes and Lock-outs, Lay-Off & Retrenchment and Closure, Backwages); and iii) Contract Labour – Act, Rules and other Acts applicable to Contract Labour with reference to recent judgements of Supreme Court and High Courts.
Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Bill
The Draft Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Bill, 2011 seeks to establish a regulatory mechanism to enforce disclosure, fair practice and accountability norms in the real estate sector, and to provide adjudication machinery for speedy dispute redressal. Currently, the real estate and housing sector is largely unregulated and opaque, with consumers often unable to procure complete information, or enforce accountability against builders and developers in the absence of effective regulation. The sector, in recent years, has also emerged as a source of black money and corruptions in the economy. The Bill is expected to ensure greater accountability towards consumers, bring transparency and fairness in transactions and reduce frauds and delays significantly. The Bill is also intended to promote regulated and orderly growth through efficiency, professionalism and standardization. Registration of Real Estate Project As per Section 3 of the Bill, No promoter shall develop any immovable property or make any construction on the land exceeding 4000 square meters without registering the real estate project and obtaining the certificate of registration from the Real Estate Regulatory Authority. Each phase of the same project shall be required to registered separately. The promoter shall apply for the registration along with the authenticated copy of all the approval & sanction obtained from the competent authority as may be applicable for the real estate project and promoter’s declaration stating that followings: • The promoter has clear & marketable title over the land • The Land is free from all encumbrances or the case may be, of the encumbrances on such land. • The project shall be completed as per the projections • Seventy percent of the amount realized for the real estate project would be deposited in a separate project account for meeting the only cost of the project. • Agree to submit any further documents as may be prescribed or required by Authority. The Authority shall complete the procedure of the scrutiny of the application within 30 days. No application shall be rejected unless the applicant has been given an opportunity of being heard. The authority shall, after registration, issue a Login Id and password to the applicant to create his web page and to fill therein the details of the project. The registration to the promoter should not be renewed more than two years. Upon lapse of the registration or cancellation of the registration under this Act or if the promoter fails to complete the project as per the registration, the Authority in consultation with Government may take the appropriate steps including the carrying out the development works by competent authority or by the association of allottees or in any other ways. The Authority shall pass the appropriate orders against the defaulting promoters such as directing him to return the money with interest, damages and inscribing his in the list of defaulters on its website. OBLIGATION OF PROMOTERS The promoter shall enter all the following details of the proposed project : • Details of the sanction accorded by competent authority • Details of the registration granted by authority • True disclosure of the title of the land • Full disclosure of the entity of the promoter and its registration details • Periodically updating the list of the booking on the basis of the agreement to sell • Performa of agreement to sell • The number and carpet area of each unit for sale in the project • The plan development works • The name and addresses of real estate agents • The name and address of the architect, engineers and other persons associated with project. • No advertisement and prospectus shall be issued unless filed with authority. • The promoter shall be responsible to make available the allottee all the documents such as approval of government, title to the land etc. • The promoter takes steps for the formation of an association or society of the allottees. • Obtain the completion certificate of the project • To strictly adhere to the approved plans and project specifications. The promoter shall rectify the defects in the development or services if brought to his notice within a year. • The promoter shall effectively transfer the title in favour of the allottee upon completion of the project. • The promoter shall return the amount with interest if he is unable to give possession of the property. Real Estate Appellate Tribunal Any person or appropriate government or competent authority aggrieved by any direction or order of the Authority may prefer an appeal to the Appellate Tribunal within a period of thirty days. The appeal shall be disposed of within a period of ninety days from the date of filing. Where any such appeal could not be disposed of within a period of ninety days, the Appellate Tribunal shall record reasons in writing for not disposing of the appeal within that period.
Data Security Law India
Protection of data is paramount in an IT environment particularly for outsourcing Industry. Loss of sensitive information and customer proprietary data leads to huge financial losses and loss of reputation and disruption or closure of business. Customers lose confidence even if a small threat is detected in the system. Indian IT sector and KPO sector is primarily dependent on the global outsourcing model, confidentiality breach or data theft can seriously undermine customer confidence and adversely affect Indian IT Industry. In view of this new Section 43A in the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 is a welcome addition. This section provides clear directions in personal data protection and affords restitution to the damaged party. It will help shore global confidence in Indian statutes due to the visibility it provides in the instances of negligent or intentional acts by Indian IT firms.
According to the act if an organisation dealing in proprietary data is found negligent in implementing and maintaining reasonable data security measures, it will be held responsible for any data loss or damage and will be liable to pay compensation to the affected party. This includes any company and includes a firm, sole proprietorship or other association of individuals engaged in commercial or professional activities.
The definition in the act states – “reasonable security practices and procedures” means security practices and procedures designed to protect such information from unauthorised access, damage, use, modification, disclosure or impairment, as may be specified in an agreement between the parties or as may be specified in any law for the time being in force and in the absence of such agreement or any law, such reasonable security practices and procedures, as may be prescribed by the Central Government in consultation with such professional bodies or associations as it may deem fit.”
It is mandatory for an external independent accreditation agency to conduct periodical audits in data security operations along with provision of certificates like that of financial operations of an organisation will help in strict compliance.
Law of Customer Service of Banks India
The RBI took the following decisions for improving Customer Service of Banks at the Annual Conference of Banking Ombudsmen held in the Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai on Sep 5, 2011:
Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) will standardise most important terms and conditions (MITC) for at least ten important banking transactions and circulate among banks for adaptation.
Banks would initiate the process of providing one view of all bank accounts of a customer including deposits, loans, etc., with the help of available technology, such as, core banking solution. Banks would be complete the process within one year.
Banks would convey to the Reserve Bank, a consensus view on the recommendations of the Damodaran Committee Report on Customer Service in Banks that could be immediately implemented.
To create awareness about the Banking Ombudsman Scheme, the Banking Ombudsmen will annually share with local media, information regarding complaints received and resolved, including important cases and awards given.
A series of town-hall events will be organised by banks to generate awareness about customer service in banks. Bank customers, bank officials and Banking Ombudsmen will participate in these events.
The Reserve Bank/IBA would examine the issues pertaining to monetary compensation for mental harassment suffered by bank customers. Issues that may receive attention in the analysis would be:
Whether only actual loss should be considered for compensation
Whether mental harassment issues can be codified for compensation and whether compensation should be capped
Whether the policies of the banks’ boards on compensation should include mental harassment as a ground for compensation
Banks should issue tax deduction at source (TDS) certificates duly completed in all respects to the account holders and despatch it to their mailing address.
In case of ATM/Internet based banking transactions, in the event of any monetary dispute involving the customer and the bank, the onus should be on the bank to prove the customer’s negligence or mistake. Customer must be compensated for the losses arising out of customers’ non-authorised
transactions.
Banks’ should initiate steps to incorporate in their code of ‘Fair Practices to the Customers’ the following items -
Insurance of some reasonable amount on their customers’ credit and debit card transactions
Providing periodical loan statements to small borrowers
Borrowers should be conveyed information on the annualised all-in cost (Annual Effective Rate) on their loan accounts.
Banks must not recover pre-payment charges in floating rate loans. Banks may also offer long-term fixed rate housing loans to their customers and address their asset liability mismatch (ALM) issues by recourse to the Interest Rate Swaps (IRS) market. Floating rate loans pass on the interest rate risk from banks which are much better placed to manage it to borrowers and, thus, banks only substitute interest rate risk with potential credit risk. The bank will, however, be free to recover / charge appropriate pre-payment penalties in the
case of fixed rate loans.
