Will your Whatsapp messages be read by the authorities? Is there going to be no privacy anymore? There was a Government proposal that has hinted that every message transmitted through Google Hangouts, SMS, or WhatsApp should be investigated. This had sparked an angry controversy and now
a draft is floated that WhatsApp and other social media applications and websites maybe be freed from the wide range of the Encryption Policy. This has been confirmed by news reports.
The products that are being used by the common man including encryption products utilized in social media websites, web applications, Internet banking, e-commerce, and payment gateways will be exempted in the new draft Encryption Policy, speculates a supplement to the original policy.
Save the messages insisted the earlier draft and it was reported that the draft new encryption policy had originally envisaged that every message sent through WhatsApp, SMS, e-mail or any such service must be mandatorily stored in plain text format for 90 days and made available on demand to security agencies, this fact was confirmed by Zee news.
The addendum to the original policy posted by Diety, has clarified that Whatsapp, Apples iMessage, Twitter , Facebook etc are being exempted from the purview of the Encryption Policy. The exemption also covers the SSL/TLS Encryption products that are utilized in payment gateways and Internet banking as demanded by the RBI. Even password based transactions and e-commerce using SSL/TLS Encryption products are exempted say the authorities.
Modern messaging services like Viber, Google Chat, WhatsApp, Line, Yahoo messenger are available with high encryption levels and its a tough job for the security agencies to comprehend and stop these communication messages that are often exchanged across international waters.
The draft has insisted “All information shall be stored by the concerned B/C entity for 90 days from the date of transaction and made available to Law Enforcement Agencies as and when demanded in line with the provisions of the laws of the country,” the draft said.
The B category includes executive bodies, statutory organizations, public sector undertakings, commercial establishments and academic institutions and the C category has all citizens of the country including government officials and business people undertaking personal and non-official functions.
The new Encryption Policy proposed that people using the encrypted messaging services should make available same text that was used during a communication in plain readable format when demanded by the law enforcement agencies or else face legal action like imprisonment. This is specially demanded if the communication is with an entity living in a foreign country.
The draft demands that all service providers located within and outside India that use encryption technology for providing any type of services in India must register themselves with the government, confirm reports. The social media had got furious at this privacy interference and an amendment to the Policy draft has been demanded in the uproar.
The Government has announced the last date as October 16th, 2015 and public have been urged to comment their views by then. Talking about the issue, the head of Cyber Initiative, Arun Sukumar stated “Having a draft on issue is a welcome step. It looks at everything with prism of law enforcemnnt. It will create a license raj. There is very much concern around privacy of citizen. The policy wants messages to be given on demand. If my private information is sought by government, it should be done through courts.”
