[msdivy]

This is equivalent to Govt asking all the citizens to retain all the postal letters that receive. When online, why the privacy level must be lowered? Hope we are not becoming like East Germany.

[AWD]

I think Govt. is asking suggestion on this, check TRAI or other Websites & post your opinions.

[phamilyman]

I think people are misunderstanding this. India has had lawful intercept for all such services for many many years. Heck, even telegram was supposedly recently blocked in India for this very reason - no service provider can afford to ignore it and serve the mass market in India, no one.
http://cis-india.org/internet-govern...and-monitoring

[Eddy]

Guys, relax. Its not a proposal / rule / regulation.

It's a paper and feedback is invited for the same, much like hundred other papers on various topics.

[arunphilip]

And the govt clarifies that it intends to exempt social media: http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/repo...uproar-2127480

The government has now clarified that the new draft Encryption policy will exempt the products used by the common man. Those include encryption products that are used for web applications, social media sites and social media applications like Whatsapp, Facebook,Twitter, Internet-banking, payment gateways and e-commerce, said an addendum to the original policy.

Earlier the policy implied that every message that you send--be it through WhatsApp, SMS, Email or any such service--must be mandatorily stored in plain text format for 90 days and made available on demand to security agencies under a draft New Encryption Policy that has triggered privacy concerns.

[Rahul Bhalgat]

Govt. withdraws draft encryption policy. Chats on social media remain private.

http://news.rediff.com/commentary/20...89146c45001310

[rr_zen]

I read this in TOI today. This is ridiculous and blatant breach of privacy. Don't know why the govt keeps coming up with something or the other every month causing a flutter. Last month it was the ban on porn sites and now this. Don't they have anything better at all to deal with in this country ?

[mayankk]

This is a very bad trend.
They try to introduce some Big-brotherly mechanism, but retreat after outcry.
We must make sure to scream foul at every such instance, otherwise, they'll learn how to swim by testing water every now and then. None of the draft committee members are stupid to have "mistakenly" released such a paper. They might indicate so, but assume that the rest of us here are stupid.

[naveenroy]

Originally Posted by mayankk

None of the draft committee members are stupid to have "mistakenly" released such a paper. They might indicate so, but assume that the rest of us here are stupid.

Yes, this is the point! We need to be on the lookout at every turn - heck, I know uncle Sam is reading this via the NSA but I would hate India to turn into something like that.

OT - And did someone else read the news that repeat offenders are to be tagged with electronic devices - so that they are easier to track?