India plans to set up a centralized system to monitor communications on mobile phones, landlines and the Internet in the country, a minister told the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, on Thursday.
Indian laws allow the interception and monitoring of communications under certain conditions, including to counter terrorism.
A pilot of the new Centralized Monitoring System (CMS) is to be started by June next year, subject to clearances by other government agencies, Gurudas Kamat, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology told the Rajya Sabha, according to an announcement by the government's Press Information Bureau.
The CMS will have central and regional databases to help central and state-level enforcement agencies intercept and monitor communications, the government said. It will also have direct electronic provisioning of target numbers by government agencies without any intervention from telecom service providers, it added. It will also feature analysis of call data records and data mining of these records to identify call details, location details, and other information of the target numbers.
The current system used by the government for call monitoring can be easily compromised because of the requirement of manual intervention at many stages, the minister said. Interception using the new system will also be instant, he added.
The statement by Kamat comes on the anniversary of a terrorist attack on a number of sites in Mumbai, including two premium hotels, a railway station, and a Jewish community center. The terrorists are believed to have used mobile communications and the Internet extensively to plan and execute their attacks.
The government brought into force earlier this year the Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008, an amendment to an earlier law, which broadened the government's powers to intercept and monitor communications.
Some experts have argued that the government should set up an organization like an ombudsman to ensure that information collected during surveillance is not misused.
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Comments
Big brother behaviour
It is unfortunate to see such big brother behaviour. India has been a target of terrorist activities, but quite often there have been allegations that action was not taken despite intelligence sources providing sufficient information. We aren't much of a democracy now I guess.
Its not a good move
Its not a good move
but they can still change they should monitor connections..
after they sense suspicions only then the identity of the caller should be told out after express permissions from higher authorities or this will be misused very badly
if this move is brought in with out any changes india is no longer a democracy
another bad move
it just creates another trouble for legitimate workers. The system would be very slow in performance and would hinder normal internet activity. Its a pity that an Indian Democratic system doesn't lets its citizen to express their views before putting it into a law.
Indeed this would mean a rogue govt. officer can monitor your every activity and move anywhere across India and then threaten you. This is what happened whenever govt was given more power. Terrorist can use direct satellite connection which cannot be intercepted by Indian agencies.
Good step
Good step by India to fight against terrorism.
~Anuj
http://anuj-mehta.blogspot.com
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