Assocham Endorses Views Of Praveen Dalal

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.

India Is Pressurising Blackberry Indirectly And Unconstitutionally

India is leaving no stone unturned to force Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RIM) to succumb to its e-surveillance demands. By threatening to ban Blackberry services in India, the government has already obtained access to Blackberry’s messenger services. Now India is forcing the telecom service providers of India to drop Blackberry’s services if it does not provide free and unencrypted access to its services in India.

Similar threats have been issued by Indian government to other services providers providing e-mail and VOIP services. Gmail and Skype have been asked to provide the encryption keys to Indian government and its security agencies. However, neither Google nor Skype have admitted of receiving any such communication.

Once again, India has reiterated that companies that offer encrypted communication services will have to allow monitoring of such services by security agencies if they want to operate in the country. Home Secretary Gopal K. Pillai categorically declared that only those who allow access would be allowed to operate in India and none else.

Pillai claimed that under the law the service providers have to give access to Indian security and intelligence agencies. However, India has no constitutionally sound lawful interception law in existence. This practically means that all service providers have to comply with executive orders even if they are not constitutional.

According to Praveen Dalal, a Supreme Court lawyer and leading techno legal expert of India, we have “No Constitutionally Sound” Lawful Interception Law in India and we need one immediately. The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 has served it purpose and it must be “Repealed” as soon as possible if India cares about Fundamental Rights of Indian Citizens, suggests Dalal.

Surprisingly, India has been doing a warrant less e-surveillance for more than 60 years and none bothered to raise a voice. None can doubt that this is a grave violation of civil liberties of Indians. Technology has added another dimension to this endemic e-surveillance exercise of Indian government.

The matter is pending before the Supreme court of India and even the Supreme Court is not happy with the increasingly use of technology to invade privacy rights of Indians. Let us hope the Supreme Court would strike down the telegraph act as unconstitutional.