IT rules seriously undermine privacy, IFF says in rebuttal to govt’s FAQs

The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) has published a 12-point fact-check of the government’s FAQs on Part II of the Information Technology Rules, 2021, which it released on Monday. The rules themselves were notified in February and came into effect on May 26. Part II of the IT Rules deal with due diligence by an intermediary and the government’s grievance redressal mechanism.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said the FAQs were meant to “bring clarity” on the rules and “explain the nuances of the due diligence” that intermediaries must follow, but IFF said many claims were presented as facts in the document.

The first of these was MeitY’s claim that it had invited public comments on the draft rules in December 2018, and adopted the rules based on the comments and suggestions it received.