Anonymous brings down TRAI website, after 1 millon email IDs made Public

TRAI has offered over 10,50,000 email IDs of users all across India to Spammers and advertisers on a platter.  The very successful Save the Internet campaign which was created to gather support Net Neutrality campaign may have attracted tremendous response from Indian users, however, people who sent emails based on this campaign will now have to suffer at the hands of spammers, marketers and advertisers for a very long time to come.

Screenshot of email ids published by TRAI

For spammers,  advertiser or marketers – these email addresses (along with names) are a huge goldmine. These are active email addresses and demographic of these users is well known. People who know Net Neutrality and were part of Save The Internet campaign were mostly professionals and even entrepreneurs and CXO’s. Getting their email IDs and that too in range of over one million is huge. The spammers have to just skim through the html files and pdf files that have been uploaded to TRAI website and create a list and start bombarding these emails with spam messages.

Of all the organizations, a body like TRAI should do it is unbelievable. They are telecom regulatory body, they need to understand the consequences of such a step. Unfortunately, the folks over at TRAI seem to be out of their mind to make these email IDs public.

While now, after reading the backlash, they may remove it from the site, but the damage is now already done. This list of over 1 million email IDs will now get circulated all across the internet and will be available to anyone and everyone to be taken advantage of.

And, it may not be just spammers, these email IDs could also be used by anti-social elements for things we cannot comprehend right now!

If at all TRAI wanted to make the statements public, they just needed to obfuscate the email addresses (which most forums do), and problem would have been solved. But TRAI, did not give a moments thought before uploading that list!

And now hacker group Anonymous India has brought down Indian telecom regulator Trai's official website following the public release of email IDs .

In a series of tweets, Anonymous India claimed responsibility for bringing down trai.gov.in and also warned that the site will soon be hacked. It looks like the group has launched a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack on the website to make it inaccessible.

Sources: TOI, trak.in

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Net neutrality: Airtel CEO sends letter to Employee and Customers

In the eye of the storm over net neutrality, Bharti Airtel said it will always provide same treatment to every website and application irrespective of whether they are on its toll free platform or not.



Launched last week, Airtel Zero is an open-marketing platform that allows customers to access certain mobile apps for free with charges being borne by the app makers.



The company has drawn flak on social media for violating the concept of net neutrality.



"Over the last few days you may have seen a lot of conversation on Airtel Zero. It has been painted as a move that violates net neutrality and we have been very concerned at the incorrect information that has been carried by some quarters in the media as well as in social media," Bharti Airtel MD and CEO (India and South Asia) Gopal Vittal said in a letter to its employees.



"I wanted to take this opportunity to clear the air and reiterate that we are completely committed to net neutrality," he added.



Vittal said the platform is open to all app developers, content providers and internet sites on an equal basis and same rate card is offered to all.



"There is no difference between this and toll free voice such as 1-800," he said.



Vittal said every website, content or application will always be given the same treatment on its network whether they are on the toll free platform or not.



"As a company we do not ever block or provide any differential speeds to any website. We have never done it and will never do it. We believe customers are the reason we are in business," he said.



The head of country's largest telecom operator said there has been a deliberate effort by some quarters to confuse people that it will offer differential speeds or differential access for different sites.



"This is untrue. After all we earn revenue from data. If there are more customers who are on the internet the better it is for our business. Our revenues are not dependent on which sites they visit because we charge on the basis of consumption of mega bytes not which site they visited," he added.



The debate over net neutrality has gained momentum after Airtel announced the marketing platform. Due to the outrage over social media, e-commerce major Flipkart has withdrawn from Airtel Zero.



Meanwhile, Cleartrip, NDTV and Times Group have logged out from internet.org platform of Facebook, where Reliance Communication is a partner.



Today Mr. Vittal has sent a personal mail to the company's customers explaining that its controversial zero-rating plan called Airtel Zero does not violate the principle of net neutrality.

The following is the full text of his mail to Airtel customers:

Dear Customer

Over the last few days you may have seen a lot of conversation on our toll free platform Airtel Zero. It has been painted as a move that violates net neutrality and we have been very concerned at the incorrect information that has been carried by some quarters in the media as well as in social media. I wanted to take this opportunity to clear the air and reiterate that we are completely committed to net neutrality. Let me clarify.

Our vision is to have every Indian on the internet. There are millions of Indians who think that the internet is expensive and do not know what it can do for them. We believe that every Indian has the right to be on the internet. We know that if we allow them to experience the joys of the internet they will join the digital revolution.

Airtel Zero is a technology platform that connects application providers to their customers for free. The platform allows any content or application provider to enroll on it so that their customers can visit these sites for free. Instead of charging customers we charge the providers who choose to get on to the platform.

Our platform is open to all application developers, content providers and internet sites on an equal basis. The same rate card is offered to all these providers on a totally non discriminatory basis.

There is no difference between this and toll free voice such as 1-800. When a company selling an insurance product enrols into the toll free voice platform, customers who call the number are not charged but when they call a normal number they are charged. Calls are not blocked or given preferential treatment else our whole business would be jeopardized. Toll free voice helps the business owner engage with their customer. At the same time it provides the customer the benefit of reaching the business for free. Toll free voice is not a product or a tariff plan, it is merely a technology platform. We are simply taking the same concept of toll free voice to the world of data. As a result it is for the application developer and their customer to decide how data charges will be paid for. If the application developer is on the platform they pay for the data and their customer does not. If the developer is not on the platform the customer pays for data as they do now. Companies are free to choose whether they want to be on the platform or not. This does not change access to the content in any way whatsoever. Customers are free to choose which web site they want to visit, whether it is toll free or not. If they visit a toll free site they are not charged for data. If they visit any other site normal data charges apply.

Finally every web site, content or application will always be given the same treatment on our network whether they are on the toll free platform or not. As a company we do not ever block, throttle or provide any differential speeds to any web site. We have never done it and will never do it. We believe customers are the reason we are in business. As a result we will always do what is right for our customers.

There has been a deliberate effort by some quarters to confuse people that we will offer differential speeds or differential access for different sites. This is untrue. After all we earn revenues from data. If there are more customers who are on the Internet the better it is for our business. Our revenues are not dependent on which sites they visit because we charge on the basis of consumption of mega bytes not which site they visited.

In sum our platform is a technology platform and is open to all application developers and their customers. Our platform only provides a choice of how the data that is consumed is paid for by any of the two - the application provider or their customer. Whether any application provider enrolls on the platform or not is entirely their choice. All we have is a technology. We do not have a product or tariff plan that we have launched. We simply have a platform. And every application developer and their customer is free to choose in an entirely neutral way what they want to do.

In conclusion, we stand fully committed to net neutrality to ensure the goals of the Prime Minister`s vision of digital India are met.

Regards,

Gopal Vittal

MD & CEO

Bharti Airtel Ltd.

India & South Asia



This comes almost a week after Flipkart pulled out of its talks with Airtel on joining its zero-rating plan, following a social media backlash against the e-commerce firm. Airtel itself has been under sustained attack from net neutrality advocates.

Some net neutrality advocates say Airtel Zero discriminates against smaller firms who might not be able to pay to get on to the platform. Customers would likely move to services that they can access for free. Flipkart CEO Sachin Bansal said there were risks of Airtel Zero going against net neutrality principles in the long run.



But some experts also say it is possible to regulate zero-rating plans in a way that it does not discriminate against small players.



Source: TOI

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Net Neutrality

What is net neutrality?

If net neutrality was to be defined in a single line it would go like this:

“The premise of net neutrality is that all data on the Internet should be treated equally.”

Expanding on the above, a more comprehensive definition would be:



“Net neutrality means that Internet service providers (like Airtel, Reliance etc. who are responsible for our broadband and mobile Internet connections) shouldn’t be allowed to give preferential treatment to select websites, online services or apps. These ISPs should also not be allowed to discriminate against any websites, online services or apps.”

Net neutrality means Internet that allows everyone to communicate freely. It means a service provider should allow access to all content and applications regardless of the source and no websites or pages should be blocked, as long as they aren’t illegal. All websites can co-exist without hampering others. All websites are accessible at the same speed and no particular website of application is favored. For instance – like electricity, common for all. Net neutrality also means all web sites and content creators are treated equal, and you no one have to pay extra for faster Internet speed to a particular site/service.



This means that ISPs can’t ask some websites, online services or apps to pay extra in order to make it easier for consumers to access them. For instance, Airtel shouldn’t be allowed to take money from Flipkart and then let Airtel broadband and mobile Internet customers load the Flipkart website faster, or scrap all data charges when the Flipkart app is being used.



Conversely, an ISP shouldn’t be allowed to penalize websites, online services or apps because they haven’t paid extra charges. Continuing the same example from above, Airtel shouldn’t be allowed to put competing e-commerce websites like Snapdeal or Amazon at a disadvantage by giving Flipkart a boost just because Flipkart paid up. Also, while currently this discrimination may only come to life in the form of advantages given to companies that pay the ISP, it’s not very difficult to imagine a time when certain websites and apps are made unusable or entirely blocked on certain networks just because they didn’t pay up.

Why should you bother or what will happen if there is no net neutrality?

To put it out straight, if there is no net neutrality, the Internet won’t function as we’ve known it too. It will mean Internet Service Providers (ISP) will be able to charge companies like YouTube or Netflix as they consume more bandwidth, and eventually the load of the extra sum will be pushed to the consumers. Similarly, ISPs can then create slow as well as fast Internet lanes, which will mean all websites cannot be accessed at the same speed and one can do so only on paying an additional sum. For instance, currently, I have a standard data package and access all the content at the same speed, irrespective of whether its an international website or Indian. Similarly, ISPs can also charge extra for the free calls you make using services like WhatsApp, Skype and others, and eventually the load of additional payable sum by the OTT players will be pushed onto consumers.



Net Neutrality is extremely important for small business owners, startups and entrepreneurs, who can simply launch their businesses online, advertise the products and sell them openly, without any discrimination. It is essential for innovation and creating job opportunities. Big companies like Google, Twitter and several others are born out of net neutrality. With increasing Internet penetration in India and given that we are becoming a breeding ground for startups and entrepreneurs, the lack of net neutrality should worry us greatly. Besides, it is very important for freedom of speech, so that one can voice their opinion without the fear of being blocked or banned.

Even though everybody and their grandmother supports net neutrality, is there a contrarian viewpoint?

As it always happens in a debate, net neutrality is being both derided and defended by different parties. And even though it may appear like net neutrality has received universal support, it is important to understand the other side of the debate as well.

But first, let’s take a quick look at why net neutrality is being defended:

1. Without net neutrality, it would be very easy for ISPs to mould the browsing habits of its users with the help of pricing slabs, different speeds for different sites and other methods. So, if Airtel wanted its users to visit Flipkart, it would make it exceedingly easy and advantageous to do so and put competing sites on the back foot which would clearly be an anti-competition move.

2. Net neutrality also ensures that small, new companies can compete against established big names on the Internet fairly. If net neutrality did not exist then big companies would shackle their competition with the implicit ability to be able pay more to the ISPs to ensure better service, something that most start-ups wouldn’t be able to do.

3. Now, this scenario may lie at the furthest end of the slippery slope, but here it is: since the absence of net neutrality could mean that an ISP will get money from companies, that relationship may be enough to compel the ISP to mute online criticism against one of its paying partners.

4. Another scenario that exists without net neutrality is that the Internet becomes a stratified mess and you’ll be forced to choose packages of websites and services like you do with your DTH subscription. If you want unrestricted access to the Internet, the ISPs could force you to pay through the nose.

5. The anti-net neutrality arguments become even more vociferous when it comes to VoIP and messaging apps like WhatsApp and Viber. Since these services directly affect the telcos’ bottomline, there is the significant possibility that the companies behind these apps will have to register for licenses in order to conduct operations in India. This means that unless the companies behind messaging and VoIP apps decide to pay the government for licenses, you won’t be able to use them.

These are only a few of the many arguments that net neutrality proponents put forward in defence of keeping the Internet neutral. However, when we get to the debate against net neutrality, the focus of the arguments is markedly different. While the pro net neutrality talking points almost always have the consumer as their focal point, the other side of the debate seems to be focused on the telecom operators and how a ‘neutral’ Internet ensures financial doom. In fact, TRAI recently published a consultation paper that almost exclusively focuses on how many VoIP services, apps and websites are taking undue advantage of the infrastructure set up by telcos who spent bucketloads of money setting it all up. It’s a long paper but even if you just skim through it, this theme jumps out at you.

A graph from the TRAI policy paper that shows drop in SMS use. 

The fact is that in order to support dismantling net neutrality, you have to believe in the telcos’ claim that without earning revenue from VoIP services and websites like YouTube, they will be forced to either pass on huge costs to the consumer or to accept massive losses.

A graph from the TRAI policy paper showing dropping growth of voice calls over mobile & increasing growth of VoIP. 

Apart from the arguments that are in line with the above, let’s take a look at some of the other talking points put forward against net neutrality:

1. ISPs argue that they can increase the overall efficiency of their networks if they’re allowed to ‘actively’ manage them. This means that ISPs can decide how to shape Internet traffic so that heavy Internet users don’t affect the experience of light users. ISPs also claim that this will allow them to give preference to certain types of online services that are necessary and should be prioritized, such as communication channels used by hospitals or emergency response services during a disaster.

2. ISPs also argue that adopting a blanket net neutrality policy will give rise to security risks and increase piracy and cyber crime. ISPs claim that the only way they can help the government to police the Internet better is if they can manage it.

3. One of the more ideological arguments against net neutrality is that it will give too much power to the government organisation that will be responsible for enforcing net neutrality. Some net neutrality detractors have argued that it’s better for user privacy and competition if the ISPs themselves manage the Internet rather than letting a governmental body have control.

It may be simplistic to say so but it does appear that the anti-net neutrality stance basically boils down to one point: You should implicitly trust the ISPs because they will always have your best interests at heart. Now, whether you agree with that statement should tell you where you stand on the net neutrality debate.

There is, however, one aspect of the telcos services, which goes against net neutrality, that appears worth considering, especially in a country like India. I am specifically talking about a service like Internet.org which could work as a great tool to increase Internet penetration in rural areas and places where Internet use is often looked at as a luxury. Under the Internet.org service, Reliance mobile users will be able to access 38 websites for free, including popular ones like Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Wikipedia, NDTV, Aaj Tak, BBC, Cricinfo, Bing and OLX. Yes, it does seem like that list was drawn arbitrarily but it can’t be denied that these are very popular websites. I cannot in good conscience say that someone who couldn’t afford to use the Internet shouldn’t get to do so in whatever capacity. Do I wish services like Internet.org offered more choice or even let users pick the websites that they’d want to access for free? Yes, that would be ideal but I’m also aware of the economic realities. If the scope of services like Internet.org is focused towards increasing rural Internet penetration and awareness, then I can’t really argue against it, not when I have easy access to the Internet at relatively decent speeds while many others don’t.

The debate over whether services like Internet.org flagrantly violate net neutrality and their efficacy in helping bridge the digital divide in Internet starved areas of the country has been wonderfully talked about over at Medianama.  

How activists have been fighting for it in the west?

Net neutrality isn’t something new and many activists have been battling to achieve it in the west.



In 2010, FCC had passed an order to prevent broadband Internet service providers from blocking or meddling with the traffic on the Web. Known as the ‘Open Internet Order’, it ensured the Internet remained a level playing field for all.



However, in 2014, the court said the FCC lacked the authority to do so and enforce rules. This means, telecom companies who were earlier forced to follow the rules pf net neutrality started adopting unruly ways. This also paved way for ISPs to monitor data on their networks and also allowing governments to ban or block data. Besides banning or blocking data, we also jad the high profile Netflix-Comcast tussle.



Recently, FCC has approved “net neutrality” rules that prevent Internet providers such as Comcast and Verizon from slowing or blocking Web traffic or from creating Internet fast lanes that content providers such as Netflix must pay for. European Union member states have also been striving for net neutrality.

No more a thing of the west – Net neutrality in India

Taking the recent events into account, its time net neutrality is imposed in India too.



Since the past couple of years, the instances of Internet censorship in India have increased manifold. In 2011, India adopted the new ‘IT Rules 2011’ that supplemented the IT Act 2000. These rules made it mandatory for Internet intermediaries to remove objectionable content within 36 hours of receiving complaint. But the terms included were vague and open to interpretations. These rules received sharp criticism, but they have prevailed. In 2011, government also drew flak as it asked major sites like Google, Facebook and Yahoo to ‘pre-screen’ content and remove any objectionable, defamatory content from going live.Government requests for banning content has also been on rise over the past couple of years.

On the other hand, with the increasing popularity of instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber and others, telcos had started making noise against the accelerated adoption of these services. Throughout last year, they’ve have been quite vocal about their dislike for over-the-top (OTT) services, who have been cannibalizing their main revenue streams – calls and SMSes.



There was buzz around a fee being imposed on popular OTT services, but the matter fizzled out soon after TRAI rejected telcos’ proposal to do so. In a bid to make up for the losing revenue, Airtel decided to play evil Santa on Christmas 2014 and announced an extra charge on making VoIP calls. The Twitterati had gone all out condeming Airtel for the act, and the service provider had to soon retract its decision. Net neutrality got yet another blow in India with the recent announcements from Reliance and Airtel.



In India, Facebook has teamed up with Reliance Communications in an effort to bring Internet.org to smartphone as well as feature phone users. But at the Mobile World Congress, telecom service providers such as Vodafone, Airtel and Telenor have made their discomfort clear when it comes to offering free Internet services over expensive telecom networks.



In order to compete with Reliance, Airtel announced Zero marketing platform allowing customers to access apps of participating app developers at zero data charges. Now, you may be wondering what is wrong if someone wants to offer free Internet? Free internet sounds tempting, but you need to be aware that you are only getting free access to services/apps which have struck a deal with the telcos. App developers and services who are flush with funds, will not find it an issue to pay telcos for data charges incurred by users. But this can leave app developers, specially start ups, who cannot afford Airtel or Reliance’s data rates at a definite disadvantage.



In India, the concept of net neutrality doesn’t exist legally. However, ISPs try to moderately not violate any laws. They’ve approached Trai for the losing revenues and are awaiting Trai’s decision on regulation IM app by OTT players. Most decisions here are made by DoT and Trai. However, it would be a good move to get things legally on paper, while Internet access in India is still at its infancy.



You can read the entire TRAI consultation paper here.

Source: Digit, FirstPost, netneutrality.in

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WhatsApp Calling feature now Available on Android, coming soon for iOS and WP users

If you've been sitting, wishing and waiting for your Android handset to let you make free data-based calls, then today's your lucky day. Android users can finally make voice calls on WhatsApp. The feature was there from the version 2.11.528 but thanks to a quiet but major internal update which made it possible for all users to get the most awaited feature. The feature has been teased for months, with the update hitting select users a month ago. Now, however, it seems it's available to all, with the latest version of WhatsApp offering a new, cleaner layout, with three tabs for Calls, Chats, and Contacts. As you'd expect, you simply click the Calls tab and select a contact to start talking.

The company has not yet confirmed about the Update officially. I think WhatsApp will let everyone know about the feature through their official blog.

Voice calling for the app should also be coming to iOS and Windows Phone in the near future. It should also be noted that these are app-to-app voice calls, unlike previous version of WhatsApp which have allowed users to call contacts by simply switching to their smartphone's regular mobile services.

So how does it work? 

I gave it a whirl over here in Kolkata(India), calling my friends Shreya Roy (Kolkata) and Sayan Chakrabarti in Manipal, Karnataka. Though the quality was clear, there were a couple of technical glitches. On one call, there was a delay of a couple of seconds, and on another, Arijit complained about an annoying echo, while RJ Varun Da (Power FM) said the WhatsApp voice calling feature is working better that any other VoIP services he use on 2G network. Received a call from Prodosh Dutta and the sound clarity was good. However, there are some problems, those small problems could be early teething problems, and similar issues are typical with other VOIP services. 

While calling my friends I found that those using Windows Phone, Symbian S40/S60 or iOS could not be reached.

While writing this the current version of WhatsApp is 2.12.19 

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A survey on how people use Internet

A survey on how people use Internet

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