Fingerprinting of cyber cafe customers may soon become mandatory in Mumbai

Mumbai Police plans to make recording of fingerprints of customers mandatory at internet cafes in the city to reduce cyber crimes. However, the proposed plan has evoked sharp reactions from cyber cafe operators who fear that if the plan is implemented the number of customers visiting the cyber cafes may go down in future.

“If the customers are made to go through the fingerprinting system, they will feel that they are being treated like criminals,” Karam Shi, who operates a Sify iWay cyber cafe at Churchgate in South Mumbai, has said. “Customers do not like to go through such formalities before entering the internet cafes.”

“Making fingerprint system compulsory is not a good idea and may not be feasible,” Ashish Saboo, president, Association of Public ICT Tools Access Provider, Mumbai chapter, has said. “Nowhere in the world do cyber cafes have fingerprint scanners installed. Then why in Mumbai?”

“Our idea behind the new plan is to keep a tab on internet users. This will help us nail the accused if a crime is committed,” Deven Bharti, additional commissioner of police, crime, Mumbai Police, has said. “An increase in the number of cyber crimes in the city forced us to come up with the idea.” [Source: DNA]