India may ask all firms offering internet telephony, including
popular online phone service provider Skype, to set up servers in the
country if they want to continue offering this facility here. The move
is aimed at allowing law enforcement and security agencies get access to
newer forms of communications that cannot be tracked by traditional
monitoring systems.
The Centre has also
decided to ask internet service providers and mobile phone companies to
'segregate Internet Protocol (IP) addresses on a state basis', a step
that will allow the government to block social networking sites or any
other websites and even internet telephony on select states or regions
in the country.
These decisions were taken in a
home ministry meeting on April 23 that was attended by representatives
from Intelligence Bureau, other security agencies, top police forces and
senior officials from telecom and IT departments. ET had reviewed the
minutes of this meeting.
"Any service
provider, who provides communication service in India via any media
through Voice-over-Internet Protocol ( VoIP), should be mandated to be
registered in India, having its office, server located in the country
and therefore, subject to Indian laws. Necessary provisions to this
effect may be incorporated through amendment in Indian Telegraph Act,
1885 and Information Technology Act, 2000," the minutes of the meeting
said.
This solution was proposed after both
the telecom and IT departments said it would be not possible to
intercept internet telephony communications on a regional basis, or even
block these in specific states and regions, due to 'unregulated
internet architecture in India and highly decentralised encrypted
structure of Skype'.
The minutes of the April
23 meeting also add that segregating IP addresses on a regional basis
will 'facilitate home secretaries to allow lawful interception in areas
under their jurisdiction under the Indian Telegraph Act and Information
Technology Act'. According to international media reports,
Microsoft-owned Skype, which has been popular with those who did not
want their communications to be tracked by governments, had last year
made technical upgrades and also expanded cooperation with law
enforcement authorities.
India has been
pushing IT majors and even handset companies to set up servers here
resulting in the likes of BlackBerry and Nokia setting up interception
facilities here to help intelligence agencies monitor communications on
these devices. At the same time, the telecom department's research body
C-DOT has also begun installing indigenously developed monitoring
solutions on the networks of internet service providers (ISPs) and
telcos.
During the April 23 meeting, it was
also decided that all 'ISPs and telcos must designate a nodal officer in
each state with access to GGSN gateway. In common parlance, the nodal
officer must have access to that part of the network that is responsible
for the delivery of data packets from and to the mobile stations within
a geographical service area.
"The telecom
department will also ensure that each state will have facilities for
lawful interception of internet," the minutes add. India has been
seeking to arm itself with the technological capabilities to block
Twitter and other social networking sites in select states and regions
after the government failed in its attempts last year to shut down
social media in some parts of the country. The governnment's efforts had
failed after telcos refused to comply stating that they lacked the
technology to bar websites on a state-by-state basis.
On
August 23 last year, the home ministry had asked the information
technology ministry to direct ISPs and telcos to block Twitter in eight
states — Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Karnataka, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh — amid concerns that the popular
social networking website was being used to fan communal tensions
following violence in Bodo-dominated areas of Assam.
But
the Twitter ban order could not be implemented after telcos said they
could only block websites and social networking sites on a national
basis. Following this, in an August 27 meeting in the Prime Minister's
Office, which was attended by heads of all intelligence agencies as well
as representatives from the ministries of home, telecom and IT, the
government decided to set up an 'appropriate regime' to address issues
related to blocking content on the internet and social media in a
'smart, timely and consistent manner'.
The new
regime was to work out an effective cyber monitoring system, lay out
guidelines and operating procedures on the nature of online content that
would be blocked and also specify penalties for perpetrators.
