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Government wants Skype to set up servers in India
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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.
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