India Rolls Out Central Monitoring System To Snoop On All Communications

hypnosec tipped us to news that India is rolling out a new intrusive monitoring system, using the authority of a 2000 telecom law. Quoting The Times of India: "However, Pavan Duggal, a Supreme Court advocate specialising in cyberlaw, said the government has given itself unprecedented powers to monitor private Internet records of citizens. 'This system is capable of abuse,' he said. The Central Monitoring System, being set up by the Centre for Development of Telematics, plugs into telecom gear and gives central and state investigative agencies a single point of access to call records, text messages, and emails as well as the geographical location of individuals." Privacy advocates are worried about abuse, partially because India has no effective privacy legislation, and the "...Indian government under PM Manmohan Singh has taken an increasingly uncompromising stance when it comes to online freedoms, with the stated aim usually to preserve social order and national security or fight 'harmful' defamation."

Comments

India Rolls Out Monitoring To Snoop Communications

[hcs_$reboot]

So do you mean India does officially what the US does unofficially ?

Re:So now all tech support calls are monitored?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

So now every tech support call in the world is monitored by the indian government? If I defame their leaders while on the phone with Dell, will their be consequences?

"Hello, this is Steve at Dell 'Support' in not-Bangalore, I'm afraid that the replacement motherboard for your system has been accused of injuring religious feelings and offenses against public order. We will provide you with new tracking number when they are finished 'refurbishing' it in the basement of the interior ministry."