Google And Facebook Refuse To Grant Indian Agencies' Access To Private Content
The US has expressed
"inability" to push internet giants like Google and Facebook to meet
Indian agencies' requests for access to private content uploaded on their sites
to track criminals and mischief-mongers. During the recent India-US Homeland
Security Dialogue, US representatives reportedly cited strict domestic laws on
privacy and freedom of speech to refuse the intervention sought by the home
ministry to access real-time sharing of suspicious internet activity routed
through US-based internet sites. India was instead advised to approach internet
operators through court, with US officials saying their agencies were also
accessing data by traversing the judicial route.
At the session on
cyber cooperation held on May 20-22, the Indian side raised concerns over the
"reluctance" of leading US-based internet firms like Google to respond
to their requests for content or user data to aid criminal and even terror
investigations. Google and Facebook have often argued that they are bound by
American laws alone in terms of content routed through a US-based server.
Indian agencies allege they often adopt a highly selective approach on aiding
investigations that have no bearing on security of the US. Even though these
internet companies have Indian subsidiaries, they claim to be solely for the
purpose of sales with no bearing on content or search results. This has
hampered court proceedings initiated in India against US-based internet sites,
with their Indian representative arm arguing that summons for cases relating to
content must be served directly on the US headquarters. Incidentally, some popular
US-based social networking sites like Twitter do not even have an Indian
office.
Given that any court
summons to a US entity must be made under the Indo-US mutual legal assistance
treaty, the entire process becomes cumbersome and time-consuming. Indian
security agencies are now mulling options to get foreign-based internet sites
to cooperate with Indian agencies in tracking suspicious net transactions. One
of them is to ensure, by changes in the Information Technology Act, that global
internet operators providing IT services in India are represented by a duly
registered legal entity here. The agencies are keen that such an Indian arm be
governed by Indian IT laws, thus making it possible to serve them court summons
here. However, pragmatists warn the long-term solution may lie in developing
surveillance systems that can independently track the traffic routed through
these internet sites. Until then, it may be a better idea to find solutions in
consultation with the internet service providers, a senior official of
department of IT told TOI.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(
Atom
)
No comments :
Post a Comment