Cyber crime police say the owners of cybercafes are summoned only if a complaint is filed against them.
Cybercafés continue to disregard Information Technology (IT) standards by not checking the ID cards of people who come to access the internet. The IT rules mandate cybercafes to keep a record of user documents for at least a year.
N Girish Kumar, owner of Break Point Cyber Café in Yeshwanthpur said that he doesn’t generally check ID cards before giving internet access to the users. He said, “I sometimes check the ID cards of people who access the internet for one hour or more.” He added that people still come to cyber cafes since not all of them are aware of internet usage and how to browse. There are various age groups that visit the cafe and there is no restriction in browsing any website, he said.
This cyber cafe did not even have any CCTV cameras, which is another violation of IT rules.
Similarly, the owner of Chowdeshwari Cyber Net in Kamala Nehru Extension said that he doesn’t ask users for ID cards but sometimes checks with people who seem underage.
Bangalore is seeing a constant rise in cybercrime cases. The main obstacle to settling these crimes, according to cybercrime police, is the absence of identification documentation.
Abhijith, a student of Christ College, who accesses the internet at a cybercafe in Kengeri Satellite Town, said that he often goes there but has never been asked to produce an identification card. He said that the person at the desk makes an entry in the log book and asks for the name and duration of accessing the internet.
He said that he uses the cybercafé because he doesn’t have a laptop. He comes there to work on projects as the internet connection is stable and very affordable. He said, “I’m applying for jobs alongside, so I prefer to fill job forms at cybercafés.” He added that his friends go to cybercafés to play games as they have high performance computers which provide a great gaming experience.
Prashant, a networking engineer said that cybercafés provide high internet speed without any firewall that could stop people from browsing suspicious websites. “It is not too hard to do smaller frauds from the devices at cybercafés,” he added.
Bhanu Prakash S, Police Sub Inspector at Cyber Crime Police Station North Division,said that Bangalore recorded 17,623 cybercrime cases in 2023, an all-time high. He added that it is hard to keep track of the number of cybercafes in the city as it keeps changing every day. He said that cybercafés not checking for ID cards can potentially provide an easy way for criminals to carry out crimes, which adds to the number of cases. He added that the difficulty in investigation is mostly because it is difficult to trace the culprit with common internet access points.
Bhanu Prakash said that whenever they receive any complaints about cybercafes not adhering to the laws, they summon the owner. “If we are not satisfied with the functioning of a cybercafe, we send them notice to produce the entry register and CCTV footage,” he said. Cautionary notice is sent to the cybercafe owners in case of complaints and their functioning is monitored for a couple of months after that, he added. However, there is no Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to impose fines on cybercafe owners in case of unsatisfactory functioning.
According to the IT rules, cyber cafes are required to keep a record of the user identification by storing a copy (hard or scanned) of the document produced by the user. The user may be photographed by the cyber cafe using a web camera installed on one of the computers in the cyber cafe. These web camera photographs, taken by an authorized representative of cyber cafe, shall be part of the log register which can be maintained physically or in electronic form. In case of a minor without a photo identity card, documents of an adult the minor is accompanied by shall be attached.
Prashant said that it has become very easy to execute cyber frauds these days as one can connect to a Virtual Private Network (VPN). By connecting to a VPN, the location or the user identity can’t be traced as the IP address keeps jumping from one country to another quickly.
He said that cyber cafes not checking ID cards is a major concern as smaller frauds like extracting money from the account of a common person can easily be done through a cybercafe device. “The sum lost in such cases may not be too much but that may mean a lot to the victim,” he said. He added that if the identity of the person is not known, then it becomes very hard for the police to nab culprits in such cases. He said that the guidelines for cybercafes under the IT rules should be implemented strictly to avoid any chances of cyber frauds.
