Tag: cyber crime against women

cyber crime against women, Cyber Law August 17, 2025August 17, 2025

Parties to digital communication: Know who is the addressee and whether she is a victim too. By Dr.Debarati Halder

Image owned by Debarati Halder

Introduction

Often we get to hear about digital arrest, stalking, workplace sexual harassment related communication, online bomb hoax and so on. If we analyse the nature of the above mentioned offences, we may see some are targeted to specific individuals (like threatening or hurling intimidating comments, bullying), some are targeted towards the State (consider bomb hoax cases where the sender generally shares information about places where bomb is kept or place which may fall within the vicinity of the bomb blast). If we look at the communications thus received, we may see that the recipient is the victim and the sender is the accused. But this does not mean that it is only the sender who may be considered as the sole accused or the recipient is the only victim. Criminal cases on offensive digital communication may often fail due to huge lack of understanding about the concepts of recipients and senders and the other concerned stakeholders in this regard.

Let us now analyse two case studies:

In April, 2025 Thiruvananthapuram airport received bomb threat via email. Reportedly several hotels in Kerala, a popular tourist destination for its natural scenic beauty in the south western coastal region in India, received emails containing bomb threats.
In a news report published in August, 2025, Mumbai police rescued a 61 year old woman who was reportedly subjected to digital arrest and transferred large sums of money to fraudsters.

The recipient in the first case was the airport. In the second case, the woman is the recipient of communications that made her to believe that if she does not transfer the amount, she would be in legal trouble. While in the latter case, the victim is a single female recipient, in the former, the mail would have been received by an individual who may have been handling the official mail id of the airport, which is a government entity. But in this case, the individual who opened the mail and read the mail is not the actual recipient. As the mail was received by the airport authorities in its official email id, legally, the recipient would be the Thiruvananthapuram airport authority.

Addressee as explained by Information Technology Act, 2000(amended by 2008)

Who now becomes the addressee- ‘victim’? a clear reading of S.2(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008) would clear doubts in this regard.

This provision defines the term addressee in the following words:

“Addressee means a person who is intended by the originator to receive the electronic record but does not include any intermediary.”

Essentially the origin of the concept of addressee here can be attributed to Indian Contract Act, 1872 which throws light on completion of communication of a proposal under S.4 : it says

The communication of a proposal is complete when it comes to the knowledge of the person to whom it is made. The communication of an acceptance is complete, — as against the proposer, when it is put in a course of transmission to him, so as to be out of the power of the acceptor; as against the acceptor, when it comes to the knowledge of the proposer. The communication of a revocation is complete, — as against the person who makes it, when it is put into a course of transmission to the person to whom it is made, so as to be out of the power of the person who makes it; as against the person to whom it is made, when it comes to his knowledge.

The acceptor is the one who receives the communication and has authority to act upon the acceptance or rejection of the proposal made through the communication. This “acceptor” is the recipient and the addressee of the communication.

The term “Addressee” under the S2(b) of the Information Communication Act (Amended in 2008) shall therefore include the direct recipient who can take action on the communication him/herself, or the recipient who may act on the communication on behalf of the organization as he may have been authorized to take any decision. Addressee also necessarily include the organization that has received the communication through its email address or any other communication handle that are operated by authorized stakeholder.

Noticeably, intermediary would not be considered as an addressee even though it provides services to receive, store send messages on electronic platforms.

When addressee becomes a victim?

Addressee therefore can become a victim of offensive communication if the said communication carries threat, hatred, intimidation, misleading or fraudulent in nature or is a part of defamatory statement. Addressee him/her/itself can also have locus standi in the courts for seeking justice if the communication falls within the parameter of offensive communication. In cases where the addressee is a minor or have a juridical personality, the parents, guardians and authorized stakeholders /officers can have locus standi. But there remains an exception: if the addressee is a minor and is subjected online sexual offences or offensive communication that creates threat, hatred etc, he/she can also directly lodge complaints with the criminal justice machineries. The courts in such cases may allow the parents and guardians to assist and represent her in specific cases.

In all the above cases, addressee however also retains the right to be rescued/rehabilitated/compensated directly for the offensive communications received by him/her/it.

Concluding remarks

Please note: if you are addressee who may have received any offensive communication, or you may be knowing an addressee who wants to communicate to reporting authorities of criminal justice machinery or grievance redressal cells, please contact the nearest police station or lodge your complaints through www.cybercrimes.gov.nic and do not communicate directly with the sender of the offensive communication.

Please note: If you want to use this content, please cite it as Halder Debarati (August, 2025). Parties to digital communication: know who is the addressee and whether she is a victim too. Published in https://internetlegalstudies.com/2025/08/17/parties-to-digital-communication-know-who-is-the-addressee-and-whether-she-is-a-victim-too-by-dr-debarati-halder/ on 17-08-2025

Can we have TRUST on “trusted” partners? 2025 Women’s day speaks a different story by Dr.Debarati Halder

Image courtesy : Dr.Debarati Halder

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.19930.04802

Internet is indeed a vast ocean of knowledge now which brings authentic news, bad news, sad news and fake news all at once from trusted, not so trusted and not trusted sources. After artificial intelligence and machine intelligence have taken over the responsibility of mapping and bridging minds for fostering human relationships for networking, to dating to commercial partnership purposes, we got to see heavy volume of breach of TRUST from trusted partners. Indeed, this has given rise to numbers of cybercrimes and women and children are worst affected.

My this month’s case study therefore includes the unfortunate “breach of trust” case of a European woman in India by her Instagram male friend in the early weeks of March, 2025. News reports suggested that while the whole world was busy discussing about “For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment” for UN women’s day, and women’s right month, a British woman complained to a local Delhi police station about alleged rape by a man who asked her to come to Delhi for a meet. While the case would have been primarily focusing on physical rape that is addressed by S.63 (rape) and 64 (punishment for rape), Indian laws, especially Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008) still do not have specific law to address communication for the purpose of committing sexual offences in physical space.

What kind of online offence is created in this case?

A brief over view of the newspaper reports may suggest that the communication between the accused and the victim did not elevate to the scale of offensive speech. The victim met the man over social media platform, traveled to India as a tourist and wanted to meet the ‘friend’. The latter rejected the offer to meet her in the place where she was staying and asked her to come to place where he was staying. The communication between them could have been a normal one between two consenting adults and this may not attract the attention of the investigating officers unless the communication may suggest that the man was impersonating someone or it was sexually explicit or obscene that is restricted as per Indian legal understanding under S.67A and 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008). But as it is said “beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”, whether the language is considered offensive and when it turned into for the victim, who was probably consensually reciprocating, needs to be established by prosecution to give the entire case an additional profile of online crime too.

Consensual communication and victim blame game:

Interestingly on 17^th October, 2025, Information Technology Act, 2000 will be celebrating 25^th year of existence. And in these 25 years we have come to understand that the concept of content based cybercrimes basically emphasizes one major tool: language of the communication. It can be deceptive, threatening, insulting, harassing. it can be expressed in end numbers of ways including pictograms, digital graffiti and any legible textual communication mode. Given this understanding, legal debates are also shifting towards consensual acceptance of the offer ‘to accept’ the relationship by the recipient. Indeed, the burden of proof now falls on the victim to establish that the communicator was impersonating, playing fraudulent cards or was in a relationship with the victim in order to pass on threatening, harassing communication to her. It is majorly for this reason that most of the victims start feeling guilty and avoid going to the police fearing victim blame game.

But not to forget, State plays the role of victim too and hence ‘victim blame game’ may definitely backfire on the investigators and the prosecutors if proper access to justice and assistance for the direct victim is denied in the name of blame game.

A key player in this is indeed the intermediary. For long, the intermediaries have adopted the practice of due diligence for escaping the liability of knowingly hosting such faulty communicator and the communication that may be falling outside the scope of protected speech. Indian laws have also provided the protection for the intermediaries under S.79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008), which addresses exemption from liability of intermediary in certain cases. The exemption clauses were further clarified by Information Technology (Intermediaries guidelines) Rules, 2011.

The trust:

Now comes the question of “trusted” friend. Again, the accused may be wrapped up in criminal liabilities if he was impostering as internet Romeo. But if he had used genuine information for building up a trusted relationship with an adult ‘aware’ and empowered woman, he may not be considered an offender under provisions like S.66C (addressing identity theft and punishment for the same), 66D(cheating by personation and punishment for the same ) of the Information Technology Act2000(amended in 2008). Neither he may be apprehended under S.319 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (cheating by impersonation). The victim therefore will be left with laws addressing physical rape only subject to the consequences of investigations on the records of communication. Trust therefore will be considered a mere emotional factor here which is broken because of lack of anticipation of the behavior of the ‘instagram friend’.

But then if the victim can prove that she had a ‘consensual’ communication and the trust (and consent) was built up on misconception of fact (as S.28 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita explains for clarifying what is NOT a GENUINE consent), the accused can further be wrapped with charges under Sections 66C and D of the Information Technology Act and 319 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Indeed, this becomes a tedious work for the investigating officer and the prosecutor as they need to establish the behavior of the accused, past criminal and institutional records and intention for networking with women through cyber space.

What can be the best forum?

The reports suggested that the victim lodged the complaint with a local police station in Delhi. Interestingly this could have included a triangle of ‘forum shopping’ if this was limited only with online crime: victim is from UK, defendant is from India, their profiles and communication were facilitated on intermediary which follows US rules. One arm of this triangle will be automatically vanishing since the intermediary may be taking the protective shield of due diligence laws.

But not to forget, the offence of physical sexual violence on the victim from another jurisdiction has happened in Delhi, India. Defendant is apparently a resident of Delhi and the place of occurrence is also Delhi. Therefore, trial courts in Delhi can take the matter for consideration for punishing the accused if proven guilty. The victim however needs to be satisfied with the offer of legal and medical aid and either apology and compensation (if decided by the court that may be extracted from the fine), or a judicial assurance of prevention of repetition of the crime as long as the accused (and if convicted) /convicted is under lawful detention.

But we did see revenge-gratification in such cases. The court can extend the preventive order against the accused (even if he somehow manages to get bail while bail is generally not a rule for rape cases).

Let March be the month for renewal of our faith to equality, equal right to access to justice and respect for women as human beings.

Please note: Please do not violate the copyright of this post. Please cite it as Halder Debarati (March 16, 2025). Can we have TRUST on “trusted” partners? 2025 Women’s day speaks a different story. Published in https://internetlegalstudies.com/2025/03/16/can-we-have-trust-on-trusted-partners-2025-womens-day-speaks-a-different-story-by-dr-debarati-halder/

Cyber Law October 31, 2023October 31, 2023

Intermediary liability: Are Universities countable? By Dr.Debarati Halder

Behind every data storage mechanism , there is a human intelligence that works to decide how the data store house will be managed, protected and which data may be exposed and how. For Long I have been arguing that behind every breach of data security, there is a human brain. He/she can be a data collector, data fiduciary, data manager, data protection engineers or a designated data protection officer of any website and tech company. My argument becomes stronger with every day update on data breaching methods: this time it is a two member group of university officials in western India who have been accused for leaking cloud storage password to another university located in central India. while the accused persons have the right to defense for such allegation, such information may suggest that no organization including the banks, hospitals, universities and government departments dealing with civilian’s data are safe.

Let us first understand what is an intermediary:

Often, we tend to confuse the term intermediary with website, internet service provider and internet. All three of them denote different meanings but the concept is over lapping with each other. Indian information technology Act 2000 (amended in 2008) defines intermediary especially in respect to electronic records and data in S.2(w) as

any person who on behalf of another person (i) receives, stores or transmits that record or

(ii)provides any service with respect to that record and

(iii) includes telecom service providers, network service providers, internet service providers, web hosting service providers, search engines, online payment sites, online-auction sites, online market places and cyber cafes.

Interestingly the word “any person” has got different meanings in this section: when it says “any person who on behalf of another person receives, stores or transmits that record or provides any service with respect to that record”, it may mean a natural person, i.e. human beings (especially adult human beings, who may be capable to take rational decisions, enter into contracts etc.) again, when it says “telecom service providers, network service providers, internet service providers, web hosting service providers, search engines, online payment sites, online-auction sites, online market places and cyber cafes” etc, it may mean a juristic person who has legal personality and who may be represented by its human representatives like the CEOs or the nodal officers etc.

In its preamble (para 4)in Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)2 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the roles and responsibilities of internet intermediaries, the Committee of Ministers, Council of Europe has shared some functions of such intermediaries which are as follows: …………………. “internet intermediaries”, facilitate interactions on the internet between natural and legal persons by offering and performing a variety of functions and services.

Some connect users to the internet, enable the processing of information and data, or host web-based services, including for user-generated content.

Others aggregate information and enable searches; they give access to, host and index content and services designed and/or operated by third parties.

Some facilitate the sale of goods and services, including audio-visual services, and enable other commercial transactions, including payments.

Individual responsibility of the natural person intermediary for failure to protect the confidentiality of the data

As the above discussion may lead us to understand the meaning of intermediary as both natural person as well as juristic person (who may be represented by a natural person), let me now explain how intermediary (natural person) including the data manager and /or the data protection officer as appointed by the data fiduciary may be responsible for leaking of the data saved in data storehouse under the body corporate . He/she may

Intentionally violate the obligation of confidentiality and share the security password for the data to third party without consent of the body corporate or the data fiduciary who may have collected the personal data for specific purpose.
Negligently passes over the security information to third party to allow the confidentiality of the data to be breached.

In both these cases the primary responsibility of data breach may fall upon the Body corporate who may need to pay compensation under S.43A of the information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008) to the data principals whose data has been breached while the same was under his custody. But then such individual (natural persons) may also be held responsible under numbers of legal provisions. These may necessarily include S.72A of the Information Technology Act which prescribes punishment for disclosure of information in breach of lawful contract. This bag of penal provisions against such intermediary (including the data manager or the data protection officer) may also include S.43 read with S.66 of the Information Technology Act which prescribes punishment computer related offences.

What we understand from the above especially about universities as intermediaries as well as body corporates?

Universities are also intermediaries and body corporates who collect personal data including sensitive personal data of the teaching and non-teaching staff and of the students.

The personal data of the above-mentioned stakeholders are connected with their family members. Hence it may be easy for the possible perpetrators to fish out sensitive personal data of university employees and students as well as their family members.

Universities as body corporates also hold information about their own examinations, public examinations and data related to foreign university collaborations (which may also include domestic -foreign trade collaborations).

As a matter of fact, then if data is leaked from the university data base or the university is attacked by ransomware attacks, all stakeholders connected with the universities may be affected and women will be particularly vulnerable targets. It is necessary therefore that all universities must set up proper cyber security infrastructure and employ trained data protection officers and data managers who may be providing safe services for all as university intermediaries.

Please don’t violate the copyright of this writeup. Please cite as Halder Debarati (2023)Intermediary liability: Are universities countable? Published on 31-10-2023 @https://wordpress.com/post/internetlegalstudies.com/1463

Editor's column, Uncategorized August 24, 2023August 24, 2023

THE DIGITAL PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION ACT, 2023: can women expect any meaningful protection for Data privacy now? by Dr.Debarati Halder

On 11^th August, 2023 the much awaited The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, (DPDA) 2023 came into existence finally. Drafted majorly in the shadow of the EU general Dara Protection Regulations, DPDA offers certain rights to the data principals and certain duties to the data fiduciaries. But first, let me break a myth: DPDA is not an exclusive statute for providing privacy to our Data. The words ‘protection’ and ‘privacy’ may not be synonymous always.

If we look into the preamble of DPDA we would see that the preamble offers four reasons for enacting this law:

To provide for the processing of digital personal data in a legalised manner
To recognise the right of individuals to protect their personal data and
To recognise the need to process such personal data
To recognise the lawful purposes for processing the data

Every individual is a data principal according to S.2(J) of the DPDA. Irrespective of gender and age a data principal is a person to whom the concerned data is related. However, this provision clarifies the status of children and disabled by stating that for the former the parents or the lawful guardians will become the data principal and the for later, the lawful guardian will be the data principal. As we know from the Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008), data means nothing but information that may represent many profiles of individuals: these may include financial status, health status, educational status, maturity status, marital status, and what not. Data itself may be extremely costly especially when it is processed and formally associated with specific organizations or institutions. According to S.2(x) “processing” in relation to personal data, means a wholly or partly automated operation or set of operations performed on digital personal data, and includes operations such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation, retrieval, use, alignment or combination, indexing, sharing, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, restriction, erasure or destruction

Interestingly, DPDA therefore advocates not only for the protection of the integrity of the data while it is being processed, it also bats for right to be forgotten.

For years I have been observing that women are targeted on the cyberspace for many illegal acts. I have witnessed the amendment of Indian Penal Code whereby a dedicated series of S.354 was introduced for penalizing several patterns of criminalities on cyber space. These included cyber stalking, voyeurism, disrobing women in the physical space and photographing the assault, sexual harassment and using sexually explicit language, gestures etc. Several other laws such as The sexual harassment at workplace (prevention, prohibition and redressal) Act, Indecent representation of women (prohibition) Act etc, were introduced, amended to provide further protection to women and support Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008). None could actually completely prevent online crimes against women. On the contrary, perpetrators have found new ways to commit cyber-crimes against women. At present we get to see women are targeted more by fraudsters who are tricking them for financial loss.

DPDA creates a layer of protection against the data processing stakeholders. A processed data may contribute for creating identity of the data principal, educational degrees, health records, financial records etc. Most of these are vulnerable sensitive personal data. DPDA therefore has enhanced the responsibility of the data fiduciaries to protect the consensual data that is shared with them.

But now let us see how DPDA may not protect the interest of women:

Who manages the Artificial intelligence that will be applied for processing of the data under S.2(X) of the DPDA?

The Act indicates that the Data fiduciaries and the data processors may be responsible for controlling the AI for processing the data. But where is the data pool for the AI which will be working with the data ? we must not forget that most data fiduciaries may use foreign based AI for processing data. In that case is there any specific rule to control the foreign entity who may be controlling the AI? The answer may be found in S.3(b) of the DPDA which shares about the scope of the Act. It says as follows:

Subject to the provisions of this Act, it shall (b) ………..also apply to processing of digital personal data outside the territory of India, if such processing is in connection with any activity related to offering of goods or services to Data Principals within the territory of India ;

The answer may also be found in S.11 which speaks about rights of the data principal. But again, this needs a clear explanation.

It is not very clear if the AI system (that will be applied for data processing) falls within the meaning of “services to data principles within the territory of India”. If this falls within this category, then we need to see whether the contractual obligations between the data fiduciary and the AI creator company/entity can be made transparent to the data principal.

2.How would the non-digitized data be digitized without manipulating the original data?

Let us go back to S.3 of the DPDA again. While explaining the scope of the DPDA, S.3 (a) mentions that this Act shall apply to the processing of digital personal data within the territory of India where the personal data is collected…….in non-digital form and digitised subsequently. In such case and also in the case of processing digital data, DPDA does not mention what security procedure may be applied to restrict the leaking of sensitive personal data of data principals, especially women. Such question may be answered through the DPDA Rules that we are looking forward for. But honestly, there may be many occasions where data would be exposed unauthorisedly by the data protectors themselves. We need to see how far the statute would be implemented to heal the harm and compensate the data principal directly especially when the data principal is a senior citizen or a minor or educationally challenged or a disabled woman.

3.Now comes the question of grievance redressing mechanism system that must be set up by data fiduciary as has been mentioned in S.8(10) of the DPDA.

The Act remains silent about the infrastructure of the said mechanism. If we look into Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008) we get to see the court system where the qualification of the forum members (for example, Administrator for civil offences etc) are clearly mentioned. But neither the Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008) mention anything about the qualification of the grievance redressal officers. IT(intermediary guidelines and digital media ethics) Code, 2021 discusses in detail about engaging grievance redressal mechanism by the intermediaries in Rule 3(focusing on due diligence by intermediaries ) and Rule 10 (furnishing and processing of grievance), and Chapters 2, 3 and 4(which discuss about level 1, 2 and 3 of self regulating mechanism and oversight related mechanism. We have to see if DPDA applies parts of IT(intermediary guidelines and digital media ethics) Code, 2021 for mandating the data fiduciaries to set up grievance redressal mechanisms. In my opinion, data fiduciaries must consider engaging women officers to look after the grievances from women data principals. This may make the female data principals (especially those coming from orthodox societies and those who may be educationally and/or socio-economically challenged to access the male dominated grievance redressal mechanisms) feel comfortable to share their grievances. This may also encourage better reporting of criminal activities on cyber space.

DPDA under S.3© very clearly withdraws its scope from the data principals in the following situations:

(i) personal data processed by an individual for any personal or domestic purpose; and

(ii) personal data that is made or caused to be made publicly available

by—(A) the Data Principal to whom such personal data relates; or (B) any other person who is under an obligation under any law for the time being in force in India to make such personal data publicly available.

The explanation to S.3 of the DPDA explicitly shows that if a data principal voluntarily shares her personal data publicly, DPDA provisions (regarding the responsibilities of data fiduciaries) will not be applicable here. In my capacity as cybercrime victim counsellor, I have seen the unfortunate rise of cybercrime cases and more unfortunate cases of victim blaming in cases such as those mentioned in the exception of S.3© of the DPDA: bloggers, digital creators and social media influencers intentionally share their personal data for profit gain. In case of infringement of their data integrity or data breach, they will now become ‘guardian-less victims’ who should brace themselves to face challenges in the system of criminal justice. But here lies the legal twist: such women may claim the protection of DPDA if their sensitive personal data integrity is violated due to the negligence of the data fiduciary i.e., the intermediary/website/web domain etc, who are providing them platforms to publish their blogs, write-ups, opinions, videos, business related information etc. As such, women bloggers, digital creators and social media influencers must go ahead with their data sharing and data processing contracts with the primary data fiduciary (the web domains, websites etc) with extreme care. Such women (and men too) must now consult lawyers to prepare an agreement for entering into contract with such intermediaries etc, who have always tried to dominate the contractual relationships with their custom made agreements which may enable them to escape the liabilities by using immunity veils.

4. Last, but not the least is the question of “lawful purposes” that makes the data fiduciaries liable to share the personal sensitive data with the government stakeholders.

The issue of surveillance is mention-able here. While there may be surveillance in the name of safety of the nation, peace and security of the community, friendly relationship with neighbouring countries and even for protecting the rights of the fellow citizens as has been stated under Article 19(2) of the Constitution, misuse of power by government officials including police officers to breach the integrity of personal data of women may be a serious blow on the right to protection and privacy of digital data.

DPDA, 2023 offers many positive aspects for data protection. But this is a beginning of a new understanding of data protection regime in India. We need to have lot more research on the practical applicability of the Law to provide safety to women. Let this ‘new beginning’ bring more positive attitude and awareness for a holistic safety on cyber space.

Please note: please do not violate the copy right of this writeup. If you want to use it for your article, assignment, project etc, please cite it has Halder Debarati (August, 2023) THE DIGITAL PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION ACT, 2023: can women expect any meaningful protection for data privacy now? Published in https://wordpress.com/post/internetlegalstudies.com/1433 on 24-08-2023

Cyber Law, Editor's column February 26, 2023

ChatGPT : a new legal challenge? by Dr.Debarati Halder

Since November 2022, several stakeholders including those in the education sector have been widely discussing about the new Artificial intelligence based chatbot ChatGPT.[1] Not so long ago we got to see few AI based human assistance apps Alexa and Siri. These were also connected with internet of things. They answered many questions, guided clients for accessing information of any type and generated any cyber security and data privacy issues. In the legal profession we got to see possibilities of AI based judges. Many lawyers and human-right activists were strongly against this while some actually felt triumphant thinking that AI based judicial work will be accurate and would be giving needed justice to the parties. ChatGPT has created new sensation: not only because it is solving test series[2], but also there are possibilities of probable clash with copyrights of many contents.

As many resources on ChatGPT had suggested, it works on human fed information and attempts to answers put up before it. There are few implications for this:

For academic evaluations, the chatbot is fed the information and probable assessment questions. The success depends on how accurately and how quickly the AI system matches the correct answers.
Students may misuse the system and possibilities of wide range copyright violation cannot be overruled.
The chatbot is fed about probable legal issues and the nearest legal solutions for the same. The scope of said legal solutions may be expanded by accessing several other contents available on the internet. This may actually make the chatbot more accurate than an attorney farm or a practitioner whose research team may need several days to prepare the brief to support the client. In short, , human emotional intelligence may be lacking while counselling clients, especially in cases of private injuries.
The chatbot interacts with human beings for assistance. Even though the makers of the chatbot claims that it has better data security, at present all AI based human assistance apps are questionable for providing data privacy and security. There is no guarantee that the personal data including sensitive personal data will be protected.

ChatGPT is heavily supported by LargeLanguage Model (LLM) model tools and this may necessarily have a third-party moderator of the information/data. Within four months of its inception, usage of ChatGPT has become questionable from all sectors including the legal sector: consider this thought provoking article on digital literacy training of the judiciary touching upon the usage of ChatGPT in delivering judgements in the USA[3]: Gutiérre raises question on probable errors in the judgement as judges may not know to check the authenticity of the information received from ChatGPT. Gutiérre suggests for development of a policy to use the AI based human assistance tools for legal professionals and I completely agree with the same.

Let us not forget that emotional intelligence plays havoc in providing healing touch for cases falling in the category of personal injury. Chatbots or any other robot legal researcher would not be able to map and match the emotional injury with physical injury and quantity of damages and compensation. Similarly an assessment designed to evaluate the positive learning process of a student can not achieved properly if the AI based assistance tools are used without any proper guidelines. It is time that we humans tame our machine intelligence by setting certain guidelines first. Otherwise the precious human intelligence for creating artificial intelligence will be used only for destruction and overpowering the good by evil intentions.

[1] For more understanding, see https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/ Accessed on 21.02.2023

[2] See Rosen Kalhan (2023) . ChatGPT passes MBA exam given by a Wharton professor. Published in https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/chatgpt-passes-mba-exam-wharton-professor-rcna67036 on 24-01-2023. Accessed on 25-01-2023

[3] Juan David Gutiérrez(2023) ChatGPT in Colombian Courts:

Why we need to have a conversation about the digital literacy of the judiciary. Published in https://verfassungsblog.de/colombian-chatgpt/?fbclid=IwAR3X2r9vVJH5HeYcGf_O4cBNoKae4_TouFLH36TOJqZ1B954NTqLFnrgFug on 23-02-2023 . Accessed on 23-02-2023

cyber crime against women, Cyber Law June 8, 2022

Gender and internet : Cyber law magazine for women news update May 31-June 08, 2022

Derbyshire Police community security officer who was in charge for safeguarding children from cyber crimes gets 27 months sentence from Derby Crown court for filming, possesing and unauthorized distribution of images of children in the changing rooms.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-derbyshire-61645416

Pakistani nationals get arrested for secretly filming women in Turkey and sharing objectionable images of them on social media.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2359589/two-pakistanis-arrested-for-secretly-filming-women-in-turkey

Nepali women strengthen their protest against sexual exploitation through #metoo movement on the social media and share horrific details of such exploitation over social media platforms.
https://kathmandupost.com/national/2022/05/21/metoo-gathers-force-but-calls-for-sustained-movement

Male university student from Nigeria posing as American widow pleads guilty in the court for defrauding and impostering for fraudulent monetary gain from victims. Court awards conviction and strict punishment.
https://tribuneonlineng.com/court-sentences-fake-american-widow-to-3-years-imprisonment-in-kwara/

Monthly Newsletter on Cyber crimes against women January 2, 2022

Gender and Internet : Cyber law monthly magazine for women news update :30th November, 2021 -31st December, 2021

American video game developer Riot Games agrees to pay $100m in a class suit for gender discrimination for various offences including allowing to develop email chain to rate the comapny’s hottest women employees, showing unsolicited images of male genitalia to women employees by their bosses and colleagues.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59809774

Philippines Department of Justice brings out draft of guidelines for cases of Gender-Based Online Sexual Harassment (GBOSH) under Republic Act (RA) No. 11313 or the Safe Spaces Act to facilitate evidence gathering and case building for supporting victims of gender abuse online
https://canadianinquirer.net/2021/12/31/doj-tightens-watch-on-gender-based-online-harassment/.

Madras High court in Tamil Nadu, India takes suo motu cognizance in a case where lawyer was seen in objectionable position with a woman while virtual hearing was going on. Court also orders for prohibiting of circulation of the said clip on internet.
https://www-opindia-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.opindia.com/2021/12/madras-hc-lawyer-seen-canoodling-a-woman-during-virtual-hearing/amp/?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQIKAGwASCAAgM%3D&fbclid=IwAR2n5JLv6yRnvvfcWrXnNiYWXmCGo5Y56M3cgi66BeC-0-kgwe1be1BNrww#aoh=16403949984294&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.opindia.com%2F2021%2F12%2Fmadras-hc-lawyer-seen-canoodling-a-woman-during-virtual-hearing%2F

YouTuber in Nepal gets arrested by police for creating and sharing obscene contents on YouTube and a Kathmandu court had remanded him. The police has initiated case against him primarily under Electronic Transactions Act, 2008.
https://nepalesevoice.com/nepal/youtuber-arrested-for-posting-videos-with-obscene-titles/

Man gets 13 year jail term in Pakistan for alluring woman with job offer and then creating and sharing obscene photographs on social networking sites and extorting money from victim.
https://pakobserver.net/rawalpindi-man-gets-13-year-jail-term-for-sharing-womans-obscene-photos-on-social-media/

SriLankan woman living in Cyprus gets trapped in romance scam by Indian National from Tamil Nadu, India. Police arrested the accused and initiated case proceedings under Indian Penal COde and Indian Information Technology Act, 2000(amended in 2008).
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/man-held-for-cheating-sri-lankan-national-in-cyprus/article38039340.ece

Indian woman uses honey trapping for extorting money from men. The woman allegedly allured men and then filed false rape cases on the basis of communications over the phone and physical meetings for extorting money. Police arrested the woman and had initiated investigation under different legal provisions and is also scanning the electronic devices for further evidences.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/others/woman-held-for-implicating-men-in-false-rape-cases-in-gurugram-101640810907122.html

Pakistan female actor snapped smoking inside her car and the video goes viral attracting trolls and abusers. Cybercrime wing of Federal Investigation Agency, Sindh, Pakistan, warns every one to not to share the video without consent of the actor.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2336642/fia-warns-against-sharing-alizeh-shahs-viral-video

Tiktok moderator in the US files suit against the company in a California court for exposing her to extreme graphic violent contents which significantly affected her mental health.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59819664

News update on cybercrimes against women and laws, Uncategorized December 1, 2021December 1, 2021

Gender and Internet : Web magazine for Cyber law for women News update for October 25- November, 30. 2021

#orangetheworld #Endviolenceagainstwomen #stopcybercrimesagainstwomen Image courtesy : UN Women

Police arrests man for sending lewd texts, threat messages and repeated calls to a female actor in India and charges him under different provisions of Information Technology Act. The accused is produced before the magistrate and sent for judicial custody for 10 days.
https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/news/lewd-texts-threats-to-actress-lead-to-mans-arrest-from-jadavpur/cid/1841214

Woman falls into the trap of e-commerce fraudsters, shares bank account details and looses a little fortune. After making a police report immediately, the fraudsters’ details along with the bank details were tracked and frozen by the police. The woman received the lost amount to her bank account within record time.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/timely-act-by-police-helps-woman-recover-money-lost-to-online-fraud/article37759802.ece

Report suggests female gamers in Australia are preferring more online games than socializing and going for dating on physical space.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/FMfcgzGllClRsWpWhThqkGNFkJRSDvjv

Man appears semi naked in virtual courtroom hearing for Karnataka High-count, Karnataka, India in spite of senior woman lawyer raising objection to the same. Senior lawyer plans to lodge sexual harassment compliant against the man.
https://www.barandbench.com/news/indira-jaising-to-lodge-sexual-harassment-complaint-after-man-appears-semi-nude-during-virtual-hearing-before-karnataka-high-court?fbclid=IwAR1mxwyvJImBCu1D59Ui2GW5GxYeWmrHliZknejZHJKXlUqj84Au6Y3WK-k

Man shares rape threats to the infant daughter of the celebrity Indian cricketer and gets arrested by the police in India. he is charged with offences including child online sexual abuse, criminal intimidation, defamation etc.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/12/sport/virat-kohli-abuse-arrest-intl-hnk/index.html

Leicester police starts investigation for illegal live streaming of paid for TV programs and arrested woman over suspicion of livestreaming such programs along with another accused man. Charges framed under copyright laws and police warns for consumers who are consuming sch contents over illegal livestreaming platforms.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-59476662

State attorneys general launches investigation into Meta (earlier known as Facebook) on the failure of liability of its platform Instagram to control harmful impact on children.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/18/tech/meta-instagram-kids-attorneys-general-investigation/index.html

Police warns users of social media to secure their profiles as women in Victoria, Australia faces sextortion by perpetrators who culled out sensitive personal data by unauthorisedly accessing the profiles of the friends of the victims.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7521310/victorian-women-warned-of-sextortion-scams/

Norwich doctor uses pinhole camera for voyeurism purposes targeting women in his home, female doctors, nurses and mother of a child patient. He is charged with offences of voyeurism and has now been pleaded guilty for several offences in the nature of cyber crimes targeting women including voyeurism, unauthoirsedly accessing icloud system and douwnloading naked photos etc. He is punished with jailterm for two years and eight months by St Albuns Crown Court, England.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-59353540

weekly news update on cyber crimes against women and laws August 1, 2021

Gender and Internet : Web magazine for Cyber law for women News update for July 27-Auguat 1, 2021

Online food seller goes live to show the altercations between woman customer and the former as the customer refused to pay the balance because she did not like it. The customer knocks the door of the courts for filing case against the food seller as the latter’s act has allegedly infringed her privacy by showing her home and her mother.
https://ph.news.yahoo.com/woman-viral-video-over-unpaid-155000545.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEN-NsaO2lNhVmzrOXAjw0zerZ6DgaQoIeiLMq_3RuUxOzBimuxNE26Bw4QO9Hq7X3zsmGbqFQKVZaZqooLvVCx-20iymh04I3E0x67xQ3dXmTKyM4bsF0BVYiYy6FC2clhGN8DjFqDBnV3pOKpveQ2Z0QvXGXASG30oLoEzi0B5

Cyber security experts raise concern over growing voice cloning industry which is victimising all including women.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57761873

UK law Commission recommends banning of cyber flashing and abusive online messages and prosecuting the offenders on the basis of probability of harm on the victims.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-57902816

Raj Kundra’s arrest related to his alleged connection with illegal porn industry reveals victimsiation of women in the showbiz
https://www.theweek.in/theweek/current/2021/07/29/raj-kundras-arrest-reveals-the-ugly-underbelly-of-filmdom.html

IT Expert turns into cyber cheat and dupes many including women who he met over social media platforms.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/it-expert-turned-cyber-cheat-duped-nearly-everyone-he-met/articleshow/84600712.cms

cyber crime against women July 26, 2021

Gender and Internet : Web magazine for Cyber law for women News update for July 1-July 26, 2021

#stopcybercrimesagainstwomen

Photo courtesy : Dr.Debarati Halder

Pegasus software is being used for surveillance targeting journalists and activists including women.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/18/malware-targets-journalists-activists-and-lawyers-media-reports

Several men face huge loss in their crypto trade related to cryptocurrency OEN due to romance scam where they were allured to be involved with attractive Chinese women. Hongkong police initiates cross border investigation for nabbing the culprits.
https://www.crypto-news-flash.com/crypto-investors-lose-over-70m-in-dating-sites-scam-and-binance-is-again-involved/

Man continued to harass women over phone and escaped clutches of law by frequenty changing numbers. Police arrest him, sends to judicial custody and starts investigation over the complaint filed by one of the victims who approached the Superintendent of the police directly.
https://news.abplive.com/tamil-nadu/tamil-nadu-man-arrested-sexually-harassing-women-over-phone-thoothukudi-1471626

Business gets arrested by Mumbai police for allegedly being involved in porn racket which had targeted and victimized several female actors.
https://www.news18.com/news/india/lights-camera-porn-from-proxy-for-raj-kundra-to-mental-torture-zooming-in-on-the-latest-sex-scandal-3983357.html

Bangalore police arrests conman who was duping women as royal family member of Mysuru, Karnataka.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/man-claiming-to-be-member-of-royal-family-arrested/article35290936.ece

Women activists in Baluchistan face online harassment which is forcing them to stop their activities towards gender empowerment.
https://thediplomat.com/2021/07/activists-in-balochistan-face-a-new-threat-cyber-harassment/

Cyber fraudsters in Lagos , Nigeria allegedly use nudity of women who are procured by the former, to destroy the evidences when police nabs the crime hotspots to arrest such fraudsters.
https://theeagleonline.com.ng/how-30-alleged-fraudsters-nabbed-in-lagos-hotel-tried-distracting-us-with-naked-ladies-by-efcc/

Internet platform operators are held liable for online auctioning of Muslim women. National Commission for Women, India takes a strong note of the same and asks the criminal justice machinery to take immediate action.
https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/so-is-it-fine-to-auction-women-online-a-week-after-complaint-no-arrests-yet

UK government commissioned review suggests to make cyber flashing a criminal offence
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/21/cyberflashing-should-be-new-criminal-offence-review-suggests?fbclid=IwAR1Oly3NpmFL7pM6c_NqvW7Kbgs4xNqibq3edrmkwsKXMIt-LDP-Fg3g394