Sunil Abraham is an Indian technology policy analyst and free software advocate, and the director of public policy at Facebook India.[1] He was formerly an endowed professor at ArtEZ University of Arts[2] and the co-founder and executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society. He is a board member of Open Society Foundations.[3] and an honorary steward at Shuttleworth Foundation.[4] He joined Facebook in October 2020 to lead their Public Policy division in India.[5]

Sunil Abraham
Sunil Abraham
Born (1973-06-17) 17 June 1973 (age 51)
Alma materDayananda Sagar College of Engineering
Occupation(s)Director of Public Policy, Facebook India[1]
Endowed Professor, ArtEZ University of Arts,
Former Executive Director at the Centre for Internet and Society

Career

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In 1998, Abraham founded Mahiti, a company providing low-cost software services to the voluntary sector,[6] where he continues to serve as a board member.[7] Abraham was elected as an Ashoka Fellow in 1999,[8] and received the Sarai FLOSS Fellowship in 2003.

He managed the United Nations' International Open Source Network from 2004 to 2007.[9][6] In 2008, he co-founded the Centre for Internet and Society, a non-profit research organisation based in India.[6][7]

Views

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Abraham has spoken in favour of greater online free speech,[10][11] digital privacy, and net neutrality.,[12] He has criticized some of the aspects of Aadhaar,[13] the biometric-based unique identity system of India. He was an early proponent for a data protection law for India.[14]

Bibliography

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  • Digital Natives with a Cause?: A Knowledge Survey and Framework (2009)[15]
  • Open government data study: India (2012)[16]
  • Government access to private-sector data in India (2012)[17]
  • Open standards (2008)[18]

References

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  1. ^ a b Saroha, Aditya (12 October 2020). "Facebook India appoints Sunil Abraham as Public Policy Director". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  2. ^ "CyberPeace Institute - Sunil Abraham". CyberPeace Institute. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  3. ^ "Sunil Abraham". Open Society Foundations. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  4. ^ "Sunil Abraham: Honorary steward September 2017". shuttleworthfoundation.org.
  5. ^ Abrar, Peerzada (12 October 2020). "FB appoints Sunil Abraham to shape its stance on tech policy in India". Business Standard India. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  6. ^ a b c Sen, Anirban (9 August 2014). "Sunil Abraham | The online warrior". Mint. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  7. ^ a b "CIS Team - The Centre for Internet and Society".
  8. ^ "Sunil Abraham". Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker (in Greek).
  9. ^ "Congreso Mundial 2015 De Consumers International". congressprogramme.consumersinternational.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  10. ^ Bajaj, Vikas (27 April 2011). "India Puts a Tight Leash on Internet Free Speech". Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  11. ^ "India and Pakistan in cyber war". Al Jazeera. No. 4 December 2010. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  12. ^ Mishra, Pankaj (6 July 2018). "Outliers 62: "CIS is like the Kamasutra... a collection of many positions," says Sunil Abraham | FactorDaily". FactorDaily. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  13. ^ Abraham, Sunil (9 January 2018). "Fixing Aadhaar: Security developers' task is to trim chances of data breach". Business Standard India. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  14. ^ Thakur, Arnika (22 May 2018). "The law tries to catch up with tech". Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  15. ^ Nishant Shah; Sunil Abraham (2009). Digital Natives with a Cause?: A Knowledge Survey and Framework. Humanist institute for cooperation with developing countries (Hivos).
  16. ^ Wright, Glover; Abraham, Sunil; Shah, Nishant (1 June 2012). "Open Government Data Study: India". Social Science Research Network. SSRN 2071605. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  17. ^ Abraham, Sunil; Hickok, Elonnai (19 October 2017). "Systematic Government Access to Private-Sector Data in India". Oxford Scholarship Online. doi:10.1093/oso/9780190685515.003.0012.
  18. ^ Abraham, Sunil. "Open standards | Global Information Society Watch". www.giswatch.org. Retrieved 11 July 2018.