PCI members info can be accessed by ISI

Urgent cancellation of contract with web developing Company based in Shimla and gross violation of members right of storing personal information

Dear Members,
This is to bring to the notice that the Press Club of India website has been made by a company, Citizen Media Pvt Ltd, which is flouting the terms of engagement.
The former Management Committee got into a contract with Citizen Media
Pvt Ltd for developing the PCI website on 05 August 2009 for an highly
inflated figure of Rs 1 lakh and Rs 10,000 for maintenance.

Incidentally, this company is based in faraway Shimla. The simple website could have been designed by any company based in Delhi for less than one-fifth of the amount. (Suresh Kalmadi is in the dock for similar reasons.) The entire amount was paid in advance, within one week of signing of the contract by the former secretary general.
The Citizen Media Pvt Ltd has failed to respond to the communication request by the staff and correspondence by the undersigned, who as Website Committee chairperson had called for a meeting to upgrade/improve the website.

There has been no response from the representatives of the company to the mails sent on 17 Dec 2010 and 23 Dec 2010. When I sent the third request, the Company terminated the contract today. The PCI website is badly damaged.

Interestingly, Citizen Media Pvt Ltd and PCI function under a privacy policy that would legally enable Pakistan’s ISI or any other organization in the world to ‘store/process/transfer’ information about the members and the PCI. The privacy policy states that the members agree to cross-border data transfer.

For this I draw your attention to the following para, which is a part of the privacy policy which is a part of the PCI website:

Cross-border data transfers
Information that Press Club of India collects may be stored and processed in and transferred between any of the countries in which Press Club of India operates to enable the use of the information in accordance with this privacy policy. In addition, some parts of the personal information that you submit for publication on the website
will be published on the Internet. You agree to such cross-border transfers of personal information.

Given these unacceptable privacy policy terms and costing and subsequent non-functional approach, the matter may be taken up by the members.
Capt M K Tayal
Chairperson
PCI Website Committee
13 Jan 2010