Advocate (Dr.) Prashant Mali's Blog

W hatsapp is an instant text messaging application, as of October 2020 it is used by more than 2 billion users in more than 180 countries. Its use has become so prevalent that it has become a primary mode of communication for many individuals. Many parties now use Whatsapp even for business purposes, such as communicating with clients, sending documents or even negotiating contracts. As a cyber lawyer, one of the questions I get asked frequently is whether Whatsapp messages can be adduced as evidence in court.  Some clients think that because of its “informal” nature, Whatsapp messages would not be admissible as evidence. However, this assumption is inaccurate since there have been many instances where the Indian Courts have allowed Whatsapp messages to be adduced as evidence.   In January 2021, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had observed that WhatsApp messages will have no evidentiary value unless they are certified as per Section 65B of  the Indian Evidence Act (Rake...

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has passed an important ruling in which it states that if hackers fraudulently withdraw money from a person’s bank account, the bank, would be responsible for the loss, not the customer. The Commission blamed the bank for a mistake within their system while passing the judgment in one of the case in which the victim alleged that the money was withdrawn from her account by a hacker. The victim believed that the hacking was done due to a mistake in the bank’s electronic banking system. It was observed by the commission that the bank could not present any such evidence, which showed that the credit card of the victim was stolen after which the commission ordered the bank to compensate the victim. In one of the other cases, Jesna Jose, the complainant who lives abroad, will also receive around Rs 80,000 in interest and compensation. Jose had submitted the complaint before the district consumer forum in 2009. She said she procured...

Insta Loan fraud & mobile apps These Insta Loan applications are developed in such a way that on installing these apps they get access to the contacts, mobile information and other data on the device. These applications collect the Id proofs, PAN card, KYC documents, and bank account details of the customers. They check the genuineness of the documents and disburse small amounts in the form of a loan to their bank accounts by debiting the processing charges and GST ie, 25-30 per cent in advance. Loans are given for either seven days or 15 days. After the due date, the company categorises the customers into various buckets - S-0, S-1, S-2, S-3, M2, M3, X etc. The customers in a lower bucket get a decent treatment but as the bucket category goes up the treatment gets harsher. The call centres of the company abuse the customers in filthy language and threaten them with dire consequences. They even go to the extent of accessing the contacts of the customers from their phone and start a...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the combination of algorithms designed with the purpose of creating devices that present capabilities similar to those of the human being. A type of technology that is beginning to be present in everyday life in the most common applications, even for home use such as Siri and Alexa cell phone assistants, or facial recognition applications such as those used by the Argentine government in systems such as ANSES (National Administration of Social Security “Administración Nacional de la Seguridad Social”) and the AFIP (Federal Administration of Public Revenue “Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos”). Authors Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, two academic classics of Computer Science, defined the “types” of artificial intelligence according to their application in the following categories: – Systems that “think” like humans (e.g., artificial neural networks). – Systems that act like humans (e.g., robots). – Systems that learn and generate new knowledge (...

FIR - What is?  The first information report is a report giving information of the commission of a cognizable crime,  which may be made by the complainant (the term “Complainant” has been used herein the popular  sense) or by any other person knowing about the commission of such an offence. It is intended to set  the criminal law in motion.  A First Information Report is the most important document and forms the basis of the case for  prosecution. The word „First Information Report‟ has not been defined in the CrPC. By practice it has  come to mean the information disclosing commission of a cognizable offence and recorded under Sec.  154 CrPC.   The principal object of FIR is only to make a complaint to the police officer to set the criminal law in  motion while the secondary objective is to obtain early information of an alleged criminal activity and  to record the circumstances before there is time for such circumstances to b...

Brazilian LGPD & European GDPR Compared  Brazilian LGPD & European GDPR Compared  Brazilian General Data Protection Law ( Lei Geral de Protecao de Dados  or LGPD) , a law with many similarities to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) is now effective.  On April 29 of this year, Brazil’s President issued Provisional Measure 959 that, amongst other things, postponed the effective date of the LGPD, which was originally set to be effective August 2020, to May 3, 2021.  Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies amended the measure so that the LGPD would take effect in December 2020.  The Senate then decided that any postponement was void because the effective date had already been decided by Congress.  The amended measure was sent to the President for his signature, providing him with the date of September 17, 2020 to sign the measure, which would make the law effective as of the original effective date, or veto it.  The Pres...

What’s Changed in the CPRA?  The California Privacy Rights Act of 2020   The California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA) is the law now. With some exceptions, the CPRA expands privacy protections afforded under the current California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), giving consumers more rights over their personal information and requiring greater transparency and obligations from businesses. Beyond new rights, the CPRA establishes a privacy enforcement agency - the California Privacy Protection Agency - that would be the first of its kind state agency dedicated to privacy enforcement. The CPRA also reaches areas of digital privacy untouched by the CCPA, including dark patterns, behavioral advertising, and profiling. In addition to these remarkable changes, the CPRA significantly amends existing rights and responsibilities presently enforced under the CCPA. The CPRA’s amendments serve to clarify ambiguous areas of the CCPA and, if passed, will better align the law’s text ...