Projects
2022–ongoing
Knowing without Seeing
Knowing without Seeing is a research project which explores meaningful transparency solutions for opaque algorithms, and privileges understanding over merely accessing information. I will critically question the transparency ideal in the context of AI systems employing opaque algorithms and will culminate in an open-access book. This research will view transparency as an instrumental value designed to achieve accountability of systems by empowering individuals. I will articulate the contours of this version of transparency and speculate how it may be delivered in practice, and assimilated in regulation.
Sinha Amber. 2022. “Reframing Algorithmic Transparency”. Knowing without Seeing.
Sinha Amber. 2022. “Navigating transparency in EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act: a policy proposal”. Knowing without Seeing.
Mathews Hans Varghese, and Sinha Amber. 2020. “Use of Algorithmic Techniques for Law Enforcement: An Analysis of Scrutability for Juridical Purposes”. Economic and Political Weekly.
Radhakrishnan Radhika, and Sinha Amber. 2020. “Towards Algorithmic Transparency.” Centre for Internet and Society.
Sinha Amber et al. 2020. “Regulatory Interventions for Emerging Economies Governing the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Public Functions”, in Artificial Intelligence for Social Good. Association of Pacific Rim Universities.
The project website can be accessed here.
2019
The Networked Public
Networks, whether in the form of Facebook and Twitter or WhatsApp groups, are exerting immense, unchecked power in subverting political discourse and polarizing the public in India. If people’s understandings of their political reality can be so easily manipulated through misinformation, then what role can they play in fostering deliberative democracies? In my first book, The Networked Public I ask this much ignored and often-misunderstood question. In this book, I investigate the history of misinformation and the biases that make the public susceptible to it, how digital platforms and their governance impacts the public’s behaviour on them, as well as the changing face of political targeting in this data-driven world. The book weaves sharp analysis with academic rigour to show that while the public can be irrational and gullible, their actions—be it mob violence or spreading fake news—are symptoms of deeper social malaise and products of their technological contexts.
Sinha, Amber. 2019. The Networked Public: How Social Media is Changing Democracy. New Delhi: Rupa Publications.
The book is available for sale here and an excerpt is available here. See this video of the book launch and discussion at Champaca Bookstore and Café. A podcast interview with Sarayu Natarajan and Alok Prasanna Kumar for the New Books Network is available here. An excellent analysis and review of the book by Karishma Mehrotra in a special edition of Seminar is available here. On a lighter note, please see this throughly enjoyable review in verse by Umang.
2019–22
Digital Identities: Design and Uses
I led the Centre for Internet and Society’s Digital Identity programme, focusing on the global uptake of digital identity, its problems and solutions. With Vrinda Bhandari, I prepared an evaluation framework for national digital identity programmes, which has since been adapted by civil society actors in five Latin American countries, and ten African countries. Additionally, I conceptualised and co-authored a decision guide for policy and technological design options for digital identity systems. This project was nominated at the #GoodID Community Champions Awards 2021 in the privacy track.
Katira Divyank, Trikanad Shruti, Sinha Amber et al. 2021. Digital ID: Decision Guide. Digital Identities: Design and Uses. [PDF]
Bhandari Vrinda, Trikanad Shruti, and Sinha Amber. 2020. Governing ID: A Framework for Evaluation of Digital Identity. Digital Identities: Design and Uses.
2020–ongoing
Technological Responses to COVID-19
Since 2020, I have conceptualised and undertaken research projects which study the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on digital policymaking, with a particular focus on evolution of new (and amplification of old) digital governance initiatives without due regard for human rights implications, particularly privacy. Much of my work has been focussed on South Asia, however I have also led collaborative projects which study digital governance initiatives, particularly digital identity and contact tracing solutions in Africa and Latin America. I have studied the constitutionality of India’s contract tracing app, Aarogya Setu, techno-solutionist responses to the pandemic, and surveyed over 50 Covid-19 Apps Launched by State Governments in India. Aside from the above, I have overseen or managed research projects which analyses privacy and utility analysis of vaccine certificates, analysis of the Aarogya Setu app, and use of private apps for lateral surveillance. Over the course of this research, I have been critically studying key developments along with larger trends and driving factors. I am working on data, technology and surveillance measures of digital solutions introduced during the pandemic in over 15 countries.
Djanegara NDT et al. 2022. Under Surveillance: (Mis)use of Technologies in Emergency Responses. European Centre for Not-for-Profit Law.
Bedi Pallavi, Nair Aman and Sinha Amber. 2021. “Vaccinating a Nation in the Digital Divide: Techno-solutionist Responses to COVID-19”. Electronic and Political Weekly.
Clause 12 Of The Data Protection Bill And Digital Healthcare: A Case Study, Medianama. 2022.
Bedi Pallavi, and Sinha Amber. 2021. “Rethinking Data Exchange & Delivery Models”. Center for Internet and Society.
2015–2022
Privacy and Data Governance
Between 2015 and 2022, I led the privacy, big data and data governance research at CIS. Aadhaar case and the Puttaswamy judgement. In 2017, a report I co-wrote demonstrated the unethical public disclosure of Aadhaar Identity numbers by Indian government websites. This report mobilised public opinion, and led to the immediate introduction of new regulations on encryption and other safeguards for Aadhaar numbers. The report was also referred to in arguments before the Supreme Court of India and the Delhi High Court, and in deliberations in the Parliament in India. Similarly, my research on the right to privacy in India has been cited with appreciation by the Supreme Court of India in its landmark judgment on the Aadhaar project in 2018, where it was described as ‘astute and sagacious.’ Since 2019, I have also written a series of reports and papers on on non-personal data and the political economy in which it exists.
Basu Arindrajit, and Sinha Amber. 2020. “Conceptualizing beneficial interests in the political economy of data: A theoretical enquiry”. GigaNet Annual Symposium 2020, Internet Governance Forum. [PDF]
Basu Arindrajit, and Sinha Amber. 2020. “The Politics of India’s Data Protection Ecosystem”. Economic and Political Weekly Engage.
Kodali Srinivas, and Sinha Amber. 2017. “Information Security Practices of Aadhaar (or lack thereof): A documentation of public availability of Aadhaar Numbers with sensitive personal financial information”. Center for Internet and Society.
Saxena Pooja, and Sinha Amber. 2018. “The Fundamental Right to Privacy: A Visual Explainer”. Center for Internet and Society.
Sinha Amber. 2017. “The Fundamental Right to Privacy: Sources, Structure and Scope”. Center for Internet and Society.
Sinha Amber. 2017. “Rethinking National Privacy Principles: Evaluating Principles for India’s Proposed Data Protection Law”. Center for Internet and Society.
Sinha Amber et al. 2017. “Big Data in Governance in India: Case Studies”. Center for Internet and Society.