Government wants to monitor Facebook, Twitter accounts

Aug 14, 2011 |

IANS

New Delhi

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It is not just your BlackBerry and mobile phones, the government also wants to snoop in on your Twitter and Facebook accounts.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Communication and IT Milind Deora has said the telecom department has received a letter from the Ministry of Home Affairs to ensure effective monitoring of social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter.

The minister said the government is in regular conversation with the telecom service providers to address security issues and implement the solution to the extent possible, keeping in view security, service and developmental needs of the country.

India's security establishment has also been in talks with Canadian BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) over access to encrypted data sent on BlackBerry devices while the Canadian firm has been ruling out 'selective' decoding of e-mails and SMSes.

According to the company, it does not possess a 'master key' to provide a third party access to the key or any corporate data sent via BlackBerry devices.

The company also commented on its competitors in the Indian market, saying that 'encryption of data is not something unique to BlackBerry devices alone'.

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