The Government will have access to all encrypted information, including personal
emails, messages or even data stored on a private business server, according to
the draft of a new encryption policy.
The Draft
National Encryption Policy wants users to store all encrypted communication for
at least 90 days and make it available to security agencies, if required, in
text form. It also wants everyone to hand over their encryption keys to the
Government.
The draft
was formulated by an expert group set up by the Department of Electronics and
Information Technology (DeitY) under Section 84A of the Information Technology
Act, 2000.
Since
every messaging service and email, including Whatsapp and Gmail, use some form
of encryption, this draft would cover almost all instant messages and emails.
Cyberlaw
expert Pawan Duggal says the policy is not only dacronian, but also misplaced. “Almost everyone using the Internet will find themselves in
violation of these rules and is hence detached from the ground realities. This
policy has been drafted for the PC era and does not take into consideration the
mobile revolution in the country,” he said.
Duggal
says the policy presumes that everyone will fall in line, while the OTT
providers, most of whom are based outside India, will not even bother to
conform to these rules. “In fact, the policy will be
counter productive and will only discourage people from using encryption,” he said, adding that draft was also in contrast to the objectives
of the IT Act under which it has been framed.
.
The draft
policy, for which the DeitY has invited comments from the public till October
16, has suggested that “all vendors of encryption
products shall register their products with the designated agency of the
Government”. The final policy will be
drafted only after the feedback is taken into account. At the moment, it seems
like the public reaction to this policy will be more aggressive than what was
seen when the Net Nutrality policy was drafted as it will affect almost everyone,
a majority who are not even aware that they are using encryption technologies.
The
preamble of the draft says “the cryptographic policy
for domestic use supports the broad use of cryptography” in ways that facilitate privacy and international economic competitiveness.
However, in its objectives, it lists the “use of encryption for ensuring the security/ confidentiality of
data and to protect privacy in information and communication infrastructure
without unduly affecting public safety and National Security”.
The
government will regularly notify a list of registered encryption products and
only these registered services will be able to conduct business in the country.
Duggal says this will only restart a “registration raj” and isolate India further.
Unlike the
US, which prevents the export of encryption products, India will allow this
with “prior intimation to the
designated agency”. But again, “users in India are allowed to use only the products registered in
India”.
When
contacted, representatives of OTT messaging and email services refused to react
to the draft policy.
Source : The Indian Express
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