The registry is aimed at helping law enforcement agencies to identify repeat offenders while making people aware of those involved in crimes that are sexual in nature, however, human rights activists are concerned the draconian step might do more harm than good.
New Delhi (Sputnik) — With demands to ensure justice for sex offense victims growing louder every passing day, the government of India has decided to adopt a sex offender database. The database would store the profile and personal details of convicted offenders and also those accused of such offenses. Media reports have also suggested that minors accused of such crimes may also be included in the database.
“The national registry of crimes against women will be launched next month. The records are being sourced from the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS),” a senior Union Home Ministry official said.
According to a recent report by the Indian Home Ministry, private contractors will develop the platform, maintain the data’s confidentiality, while officials from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) will maintain the registry itself.
Some 450,000 individuals are already listed on the registry, and another 35,000 names are expected to be added this year, the home ministry report reads.
Mugshots.com and related “extortion” websites declare themselves a “news organization” and they “write thousands of articles a year”, which of course is nothing more than republishing data scraped from various databases. They don’t care if someone is convicted or not, but rather just accused by the justice system.
On a side note, sex offender “mugshots” don’t fall into the same legal definition as “mugshots” as far as I can tell, because they are not taken at booking, but rather as a part of civil registration. Anyway, it won’t be long before our government starts keeping databases of its citizens in private databases in which those not convicted are also tagged. Oh that’s right, they do. Child Protective Services secret databases, Terrorist Watch lists, Insurance companies, Gang databases, etc. Soon, it will include a whole slew of others.
In fact, various cities have adopted 3rd party database that pull data from all over the web as they approach addresses, run names, etc. (See: ACLU slams Fresno police for testing social media surveillance software – https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article52549320.html).
It has become accepted in society that mass toves of databases on people are freely collected and used and used in various ways. 23andMe and other DNA comparison and genealogy tracking services have come under fire recently. This is all happening right under our nose. Registered citizens, “Sex offenders”, their family members and the few courageous people standing up to speak for us and fight for us all see the writing on the wall.
One day, it will all implode upon itself and the aftermath will be brutal for everyone. Every last person.