[sixstringbudha]

> As an Indian citizen, my only hope is that foreign tech companies resist the crippling moves by the executive...

As an India citizen, why are you not hoping that Indian developers and government grow competent enough to built software with quality that is at par with foreign software?

As an Indian citizen, I find this deeply troubling. We have a lot of software developers here, but what is the dynamics by which government software turn out to be crappy? (Btw, I think irctc raily ticket booking is a work of art) I think instead of pushing against the laws, we should be pushing for more quality in software used by the government. Make the development of such software to be open, and reviewable..

[bopbop]

I think the parent comment answers this quite comprehensively - because (it would appear the parent comment believes) Indian companies will work more closely with the Indian government for more oppressive surveillance of its people.

The big multinationals are harder to push around.

I'd imagine, providing Google doesn't get too much negative feedback from it's upcoming censored China search engine, they'll likely make a censored version for India if they see it as a big enough market. Hey presto, the worst of both worlds!

[wtmt]

> I think the parent comment answers this quite comprehensively - because (it would appear the parent comment believes) Indian companies will work more closely with the Indian government for more oppressive surveillance of its people.

> The big multinationals are harder to push around.

Thanks, that was what I was hinting at, without providing details. Fin Tech companies have also, in the recent times, fought in the Supreme Court for the biometric based resident ID scheme called Aadhaar because they stand to benefit from tracking people and their transactions. ISPs in India have also shown that any John Doe orders to block several sites are implemented without any questions whatsoever. Indian companies, in my knowledge, do obey government orders without question (as long as it doesn't affect their profits too much) than foreign companies would. We have seen the resistance from others, like with Blackberry being asked to provide interception by the Indian government several years ago and other instances (like the recent instance of WhatsApp being asked to control the spread of fake news and allow the tapping of conversations).

> I'd imagine, providing Google doesn't get too much negative feedback from it's upcoming censored China search engine, they'll likely make a censored version for India if they see it as a big enough market. Hey presto, the worst of both worlds!

I hope it doesn't come to that, and in reality, this won't be so easy to get done in India like it is in China.

[sixstringbudha]

> Indian companies will work more closely with the Indian government for more oppressive surveillance of its people.

And having the source open and reviewable does not help with that? The problem with depending on is - this might not be apparent in a short term - is that it allows foreign control over the matters here.

Basically what you are asking is something like asking to be ruled by a foreign power. Because local rulers might pushed around easily by pushed around by local corruption and influence.

Basically there is potential for oppression either way. Do you prefer it to be by your own people or foreign powers?

>likely make a censored version for India if they see it as a big enough market. Hey presto, the worst of both worlds!

I don't know because It looks like that is the worst of the both worlds to me..

[wtmt]

> And having the source open and reviewable does not help with that? The problem with depending on is - this might not be apparent in a short term - is that it allows foreign control over the matters here.

The Indian government is in no mood to keep anything open and reviewable, or open to take feedback on. Look at all the data leaks because of Aadhaar and its linkages with various things. There is no openness or even admission of gaps. So I don't see this attitude changing in the near future, even if the parties ruling the country change in the coming years. Please look at the data leaks due to Aadhaar linkage and the responses from UIDAI and the state government arms so far.

> Basically what you are asking is something like asking to be ruled by a foreign power. Because local rulers might pushed around easily by pushed around by local corruption and influence.

> Basically there is potential for oppression either way. Do you prefer it to be by your own people or foreign powers?

I'll answer these together. Based on all the data leaks seen, how poorly government websites and data stores are managed, how government officials respond to security issues with denial first (and filing cases against security researchers for responsible disclosure), and how government officials also routinely use Gmail for communications, my guess is that any data that a technology strong country like the U.S. or China desires is already in their hands or is just an arm's reach away. So my concern with the internal powers having more control is very much valid and upsetting for me, more so when local corporates are also interested in tracking and profiling people, building things with a lot of sensitive data that can be easily demanded and obtained by the government.