If you are in Uttar Pradesh, the next time you plan to sit down to surf porn via Google, we suggest you think again. The Uttar Pradesh Police has hired a firm to track people’s internet search data.
A new team – UP Women Powerline 1090 – has been set up to maintain a close watch on whether people are looking for pornographic content on Google. This step has been initiated to “curb crimes against women”.
The team will get an alert if any user searches for pornographic material on the internet following which an alert would be sent out to the person concerned by the cops to prevent “crimes against women”.
“In view of the increasing use of the internet, the powerline 1090 would also reach out to people to prevent crimes against women,” ADG Neera Rawat told the media.
To study the internet analytics, a firm named ‘Oomuph’ has been hired. “A company named Oomuph has been hired, which will keep an eye on what is being searched on the internet through data. If a person sees pornography, the analytics team will get the information,” Rawat added.
Whenever a person tries to access a porn, there will be an alert on his device. UP Police will also have a copy of information about the user. This data will be stored in the Police’s database which will be mapped to monitor crimes against women in particular localities.
“The internet data will inform 1090 team if a person is searching for porn. The team will then send awareness messages to the person. By doing this, the crime will be stopped at the initial process itself. If a woman is still being molested, then 1090 will take action,” Rawat explained.
The project had previously been conducted in six districts of Uttar Pradesh and had received good response from the public, Rawat said.
The monitoring will now be spread across the state which currently has about 11.6 million internet users as per rough estimates.
Meanwhile, Internet Freedom Foundation has filed an RTI regarding this seeking more details from UP Police.
Since yesterday we have been trying to file a RTI request with the UP Police related to the news reports that they are going to track porn related searches on the internet. However, the UP RTI portal has not been registering our request. We will continue to refile and update you. pic.twitter.com/dmjwhyPkB3
— Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) (@internetfreedom) February 16, 2021