Even Government Is Interested In Knowing 'What's On Your Mind?'
We are a bunch of "Crazy" people here having our own say on government related matters. Well, not anymore. We are required to keep our so-called-opinions to ourselves (This one's applicable only to those people who actually have an opinion), or rather just don't digitalize it. From now on, whatever you post on Facebook or Twitter will not be read by your friends and followers alone, but also by the government sleuths, if Government wants to read your tweets, Facebook posts | India News - Times of India is to be believed.
#-Link-Snipped-#
Are you on Facbook? Do you Tweet?
It's the consequence of the home ministry guidelines to the department of telecom, asking it to "ensure effective monitoring of Twitter and Facebook". While "effective monitoring" has not been specified, sources stated the MHA intends complete surveillance of the sites. Going by this logic, the government now has access not only to your tweets and status updates, but every other information you share with your friends.
Milind Deora, Minister of State for communication and Information Technology,  stated in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha last week that DoT had obtained a letter from the MHA asking it to monitor networking websites in order to "strengthen the cyber security paraphernalia". This statement featured a question from MP NK Singh.
A senior government official said that the home ministry's guidelines requested DoT to ease access to all data in social networking sites for its intelligence agencies. Sunil Abraham, executive director of Centre for Internet and Society said these "blanket surveillance practices" are harmful. "People advocating greater surveillance don't understand how the web works. In some cases, if there is evidence, targeted monitoring can be done but if government wants to go through each tweet and every status update, it's just waste of money and resources. Agencies involved in monitoring can do better work by focusing on core issues. This will also save law-abiding citizens from unnecessary harassment," he said.
Deora confirmed that some Facebook and Twitter content is already being investigated by the National Technical Research Organization. He told Parliament that "telecom service providers (already) provide facilities for lawful interception and monitoring of communication flowing through their network including communications from social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter". He added that to obtain data encrypted by sites like Twitter, the Department's working with concerned parties. Without court order, Twitter and Facebook won't reveal private information. Twitter has the policy of notifying the user whose information it's sharing with security officials.
Being a very opinionated person myself(not in a good way for the government), I've already removed half the content I've shared on these social networking sites, and I can already tell that many of you are following suit. The irony of this particular article will be when it's shared on sites like Facebook or Twitter and some government sleuth reads it. *Smirks at the idea*
#-Link-Snipped-#
Are you on Facbook? Do you Tweet?
It's the consequence of the home ministry guidelines to the department of telecom, asking it to "ensure effective monitoring of Twitter and Facebook". While "effective monitoring" has not been specified, sources stated the MHA intends complete surveillance of the sites. Going by this logic, the government now has access not only to your tweets and status updates, but every other information you share with your friends.
Milind Deora, Minister of State for communication and Information Technology,  stated in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha last week that DoT had obtained a letter from the MHA asking it to monitor networking websites in order to "strengthen the cyber security paraphernalia". This statement featured a question from MP NK Singh.
A senior government official said that the home ministry's guidelines requested DoT to ease access to all data in social networking sites for its intelligence agencies. Sunil Abraham, executive director of Centre for Internet and Society said these "blanket surveillance practices" are harmful. "People advocating greater surveillance don't understand how the web works. In some cases, if there is evidence, targeted monitoring can be done but if government wants to go through each tweet and every status update, it's just waste of money and resources. Agencies involved in monitoring can do better work by focusing on core issues. This will also save law-abiding citizens from unnecessary harassment," he said.
Deora confirmed that some Facebook and Twitter content is already being investigated by the National Technical Research Organization. He told Parliament that "telecom service providers (already) provide facilities for lawful interception and monitoring of communication flowing through their network including communications from social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter". He added that to obtain data encrypted by sites like Twitter, the Department's working with concerned parties. Without court order, Twitter and Facebook won't reveal private information. Twitter has the policy of notifying the user whose information it's sharing with security officials.
Being a very opinionated person myself(not in a good way for the government), I've already removed half the content I've shared on these social networking sites, and I can already tell that many of you are following suit. The irony of this particular article will be when it's shared on sites like Facebook or Twitter and some government sleuth reads it. *Smirks at the idea*
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