Gmail, BlackBerry and Skype may get Banned in India

Well it may seem odd to see this sudden interest of the Indian government in technology, but it looks like it has now put BlackBerry devices, Gmail and Skype under surveillance. The Department of Technology (DoT) which recently banned Chinese telecom equipment is asking these companies to either ensure that the data going through their networks be made available to security agencies in a readable format or face a ban on their service offerings in India.

Well, it may sound really bad as these are really critical services and a ban on it can be a huge problem for many. Concerns have been raised about the data services offered by Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications as security agencies are not able to snoop into these networks.

According to a Google spokesperson, the company is yet to be contacted by the DoT (as usual they are late) and Google will only comment once they are in talks with the Department of Technology. While according to an internal Government note;

“DoT will call the representatives of Research In Motion (manufacturer of Blackberry devices) and Skype and ask them to ensure that the content going through the telecom service providers is in readable format. They have to ensure that this is implemented within 15 days failing which services that do not allow lawful interception on a real-time basis would be blocked/banned,”

Well, what I find strange is that India has a really huge section for cyber laws but they have been implemented at a nearly minuscule scale. While on the other hand the government has also decided to amend the IT laws to make them mandatory for such foreign companies which do not require a local license to provide all the data required by Indian law enforcement agencies. Such a new law would force these companies to give complete access to their networks or set up a local server in Indian to allow security agencies to track the content.

The problem here is that the data services offered by these companies are highly encrypted and the Indian security agencies are not yet smart enough to keep a watch over this content which is constantly being transmitted under their noses. This decision comes from a recent meeting between the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Intelligence Bureau, the DoT and the National Technical Research Organization. This surely is a good thing for the India if we are to grow as a technological sound nation.

Government sources indicate that this time these concerns will have to be addressed and I believe that the companies and the government will come to terms as all the companies have a huge audience in the country.

Source: Hindu Business Line

[cb type="company"]Google[/cb]

[cb type="company"]Skype[/cb]

[cb type="company"]Research In Motion[/cb]

[cb type="company"]Reliance Communicatons[/cb]

[cb type="company"]Tata Communications[/cb]