Govt puts onus on service providers
Shifting the onus on service providers, offering BlackBerry services through their networks, the government on Wednesday said that it is the responsibility of service providers like Airtel, Vodafone and BSNL to give access to security agencies to monitor information on smart phones.
Government sources said that the licensing conditions demand that service providers put a mechanism in the system to allow security agencies to intercept any conversation or message of any subscriber whenever the need arises. The sources said that telecom service providers, like Airtel, Vodafone, RCom, Tatas and two government owned firms, BSNL and MTNL, are offering BlackBerry services through their networks. Hence, it is the responsibility of the operators to ensure that security agencies get access to all services they offer, they said. “We have told the service providers that the government will allow only those services which can be intercepted by the security agencies. If any service is not allowed to be intercepted, we will not allow them to run such services,” sources said.
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Pilot: No intention to snoop
New Delhi, Aug. 4: Minister of state for communications Sachin Pilot on Wednesday hoped a solution will be found soon to access encrypted e-mails and SMS messages sent on Blackberry devices under certain situations.
“We are working with them. They have given certain options. We are hoping that they will come on board with India in addressing our genuine and legitimate security concerns,” Mr Pilot said. “We want access to encrypted messages only under certain circumstances, when it involves our security, when we think it is being used for anti-national activities, when we think these services are being misused to harm our nation. But in no way the government intends to either eavesdrop on a citizen’s conversation or invade the privacy of individuals. We are very clear on that.” —IANS
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