It's about time all restaurants and cafes in India got rid of their public WiFi connections - forget having to keep a register where they ask you to write a few personal details and sign, to let you use their complimentary Internet connection: under a final set of rules on CyberCafe regulations, they'll have to register as a Cybercafe with a "Registration Agency", maintain detailed logs, and compulsorily put up a board asking you not to surf pornography. All because, under the IT Act, a "Cyber Cafe means any facility from where access to the Internet is offered by any person on the ordinary course of business to the members of the public". Oops. Under these rules, all "CyberCafe's" will have to: - Identification: Keep a scan or a photocopy of an identification document duly authenticated by the user and authorised representative of cyber cafe for a year, and "may be photographed using a web camera for establishing the identity of the user"; the web camera photograph then has to be authenticated by a the user and an authorised representative of the cyber cafe, logged and maintained for a year. Under the draft rules, this wasn't mandatory, and was only to be used when a user was not able to satisfactorily establish his/her identity, but under the final rules, it is. - Logs: The Cyber Cafe has to maintain a log of users with the following details - Name, Address, Gender, Contact Number, Type and detail of identification document, Date,…
