Phone-tapping gets sophisticated
Regarding a Union Home Secretary clearing a request for tapping 10,000 phones and 1,000 emails across India, a three-member committee reported that 4,360 orders were for fresh interception and the rest were for continuation of existing interception. Ahead of the lot is I B, with 5,966 interceptions in total, of which 2,135 are new.
Implementation plans are underway for ‘central monitoring system’, a way to intercept calls without involving service operators. The mechanism was built by the Centre for Development of Telematics after the 26/11 attacks.

Since such sophisticated mechanisms pose a threat to the individuals’s privacy, a panel headed by former Delhi High Court Justice AP Shah suggests that the reasons for interception must be specified along with the conditions for authorization, subject to a maximum of 180 days of interception, on a renewal interval of 60 days. The information with the agency should be destroyed within 9 months and with the service provider, within two months.
Keeping a strict eye on snooping devices with the public, 51 private firms with such devices have been asked to surrender them.