What is Data Theft as per Indian Law ?

According to the amended Information Technology Act, 2000, Crime of data theft under Section 43(b) is stated as If any person without permission of the owner or any other person who is incharge of a computer, computer system of computer network, downloads, copies or extracts any data, computer data base or information from such computer, computer system or computer network . It is the term used when any information in the form of data is illegally copied or taken from a business or other individual without his knowledge or consent. The act of illegally downloading data from a networked computer to a USB flash drive is called thumbsucking. The use of an iPod or other portable music player for the same purpose is called podslurping.

Examples of Data Theft

• Forwarding emails to personal email id from corporate id’s.
• Sending files as attachments from corporate ids with malafide intentions.
• Copying data on pen drives from computers without the permission of the owner.
• Selecting, copying and pasting data from websites for financial gain.
• Downloading .mp3, .mp4 files or Videos from websites like youtube, etc
• Helping people to commit offense of Data Theft

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