India Paranoid About Communications Devices ?

After banning Chinese telecom equipment, the Indian Government is now getting all paranoid about Blackberry smartphones, Skype VoIP and chat services and Google's Gmail as local intelligence agencies are unable to snoop into these networks. However, the Government must exercise caution lest it falls out of line with international standards around data privacy, says an analyst.

In an e-mail exchange, Sanchit Vir Gogia, associate research manager at Springboard Research told ZDNet Asia that it was "debatable" whether or not the Government's demands are reasonable.

According to Gogia, "With the increase in terrorist attacks and other unscrupulous activities in the country, including stealing of personal information in the local IT industry, the government surely has the right to act professional and demand enough rights to monitor data in the interest of national security.”

"However, this access needs to be in accordance to international standards and policies to ensure a fair play for the vendors providing these services," he pointed out.

Gogia is based out of New Delhi.

The Hindu Business Line last week reported that the Department of Telecom (DoT) had fired off a strongly worded letter to Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIM), Skype and Google asking them to ensure that data going through their networks was in a readable format.

An internal Government note said: “They have to ensure that this is implemented within 15 days failing which services that do not allow lawful interception on a real-time basis would be blocked/banned,” mentioned The Hindu Business Line.

The Government argues that the data services being offered by these companies are highly encrypted, making it difficult for Indian intelligence agencies to keep a watch over the content being transmitted through their networks.

Local authorities raised similar concerns against Blackberry devices two years ago. However, the issue was shoved on the backburner following months of high-level meetings between government officials and RIM executives.