Govt blinks, you won't have to save chats for 90 days
New Delhi:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Withdraws Encryption Policy Draft
Public outrage on social media saw the government distance itself and withdraw a proposed encryption policy to monitor private chats and other communication made by citizens over the social media.
TOI had carried a frontpage report on the draft policy on Tuesday and had also pub ished a Times View, saying the proposal was “not practical and an undue infringement of individuals' freedom to delete messages they don't want to retain...It is certainly a provision that must be dropped.“
Telecom and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said some proposals in the draft were leading to “uncalled-for misgivings“ and thus he has written to the department of electronics and information technology (DeitY) -which had prepared the draft -to withdraw it.“I wish to make it clear it is just a draft and not the government's view. But I have noted some concerns expressed by certain enlightened segments of the public. I have seen that some of the expressions in the draft are giving rise to uncalled-for misgivings,“ he said. “Therefore, I have written to DeitY to withdraw that draft, re-work it and thereafter, put in the public domain for comments.“
The draft policy had stated that the public will have to keep 90-day records of personal conversations made over popular instant messengers such as WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook and furnish them as and when demanded by the law enforcement agencies. Prasad stressed that common users would not come under the ambit of the encryption policy that will be framed. The new draft to be issued will clearly state which services and creators it would apply to and which ones will be exempt. Separately , DeitY said on its website, “DeitY has also taken note of the ambi guity in some portions of the draft that may have led to misgivings. Hence, the above mentioned draft has been withdrawn and will be put up for consultation after appropriate revision.“
The draft national encryption policy had put an onus not only on private citizens, but also on government institutions (save for those engaged in sensitive and strategic roles), public sector undertakings and private business establishments to maintain separate records.
