The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has endorsed views of Praveen Dalal on the requirements to have lawful interception law in India and incorporating procedural safeguards to prevent abuse of e-surveillance powers by governmental authorities.Through the information technology amendment act 2008 (IT Act 2008), government of India has confer upon itself unconstitutional and unregulated e-surveillance powers. Interestingly, there are “No Procedural Safeguards” to prevent the misuse of these draconian and sweeping powers, says Praveen Dalal, managing partner of Perry4Law and leading techno legal expert of India.
Further, communication from Assocham also endorsed the views of Praveen Dalal on encryption policy of India. Mr D.S. Rawat, secretary general of ASSOCHAM said that granting sweeping access to all business communications is impractical and completely contrary to how businesses are conducted anywhere in the world. India has been pressurising Blackberry and other encryption service providers to provide services in an unencrypted environment and this is absurd to say the least.
The IT Act 2008 incorporated a single provision in the form of Section 84A for Encryption Purposes. Although the provision became applicable since 27th October 2009 yet Indian Government has slept over the issue, says Dalal. Indian Government must urgently formulate a Dedicated Encryption Policy of India, suggests Dalal.
In fact, recently the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released its Information Technology Vision Document 2011-17 that endorses the requirements for having strong cyber security for online banking and offline banking transactions. The document also mandates that all banks would have to create a position of chief information officers (CIOs) as well as steering committees on information security at the board level at the earliest.
Data security and data protection requirements in India have also been discussed by Assocham. Outsourcing industry relies heavily upon a sufficient and strong data protection law. In the Indian context, outsourcing industry is relying upon contractual terms as there is no dedicated data protection law in India. This is also hampering the outsourcing business to a great extent.
By endorsing the suggestions of Praveen Dalal Assocham has taken a good step in the right direction. Very soon other may also follow the course suggested by Assocham.
