Government Of India Wants Skype & Other Internet Telephony Providers To Setup Servers In India

The Government of India has made it mandatory for all the Internet Telephony service providers to setup their servers locally in India. This means not only Blackberry, but popular services like Skype (which is owned by Microsoft now) too have to setup servers in India. The Government wants all the IP telephony operators to comply with the security guidelines so that the law enforcement agencies will have a quick and direct access to all the communications that went through Skype and other similar services. No smiley you sent to your colleague, would remain hidden from the Government. We'd advise you to stop spreading jokes about Government through your phone, Skype, Google Hangouts or any other similar service.

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The Center will soon ask all the ISPs & mobile network operators in India to 'segregate IP addresses on a state-wide basis'. This move is intended to allow the Government to block Internet access and social networking websites (or any site) selectively in select states or regions in India.

The decision was taken in April 23 meeting which was attended by the officials of the Intelligence Bureau, top cops along with senior officials from telecom & IT departments. The minutes of the meetings read -

Any service provider, who provides communication services in India via any media through voice-over-internet protocol ( VoIP), should be mandated to be registered in India, having its office, server located in the country and, therefore, subject to Indian laws. Necessary provisions to this effect may be incorporated through amendment in Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 and Information Technology Act, 2000

Skype so far has remained independent communication service which wasn't tracked by the Governments. With the segregation of the IP addresses, however, the home secretaries will be able to order lawful interception in areas under their jurisdiction under the Indian Telegraph Act & Information Technology Act.

We'd like to know from oure readers their opinion on this move by the Indian Government. Do you think it's justified considering it's a security related initiative?

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  • adinickluv
    adinickluv

    @adinickluv-L3bAsE • May 19, 2013

    As far as the security is concerned I can understand the measures taken by them, but I somehow feel the that this is somehow restricting the freedom over internet...
    We all will be under some kind of vigilance and everything we do is scrutinized!!
    That's the saddest part..

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  • lal
    lal

    @lal-R60Xjx • May 20, 2013

    That is like the post office officials breaking the seal and reading every letter we send!

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  • Nayan Goenka
    Nayan Goenka

    @nayan-Dhpt4N • May 20, 2013

    This is bullshit,I think its time to start back as "Anonymous". We do not forgive, we do not forget, Expect us!! 😀

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  • Sahithi Pallavi
    Sahithi Pallavi

    @sahithi-oJZaYj • Jun 4, 2013

    lalThat is like the post office officials breaking the seal and reading every letter we send!

    Do you think right now the Government is not listening to our phone calls? Yes it is.
    It should. I agree with the Government decision.

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  • Anoop Kumar
    Anoop Kumar

    @anoop-kumar-GDGRCn • Jun 4, 2013

    SadaDo you think right now the Government is not listening to our phone calls? Yes it is.
    It should. I agree with the Government decision.

    It's because security reasons, if any anti-national activity will happen. Govt needs to have to access to data. an I don't think, if severs is not India, if quite a tough to access digital data specially, if there is conflict of interest between nations.

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  • lal
    lal

    @lal-R60Xjx • Jun 4, 2013

    Yes, I do think govt. is not listening to my phone calls. Unless you are a suspect, they won't track you. There is no point in wasting resources over some random person to track him, tap phone calls and so on. It is just a wrong thought that some one else is hearing you while you are making a call right now. This is not a sci-fi spy movie.

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  • Sahithi Pallavi
    Sahithi Pallavi

    @sahithi-oJZaYj • Jun 5, 2013

    lalYes, I do think govt. is not listening to my phone calls. Unless you are a suspect, they won't track you. There is no point in wasting resources over some random person to track him, tap phone calls and so on. It is just a wrong thought that some one else is hearing you while you are making a call right now. This is not a sci-fi spy movie.

    Hay am sorry. Actually the Government is listening to each and every phone call. How can Government know someone is a suspect without listening to calls? And after knowing someone is a suspect, How can we get all his previous calls information without recording from beginning?

    ianoopIt's because security reasons, if any anti-national activity will happen. Govt needs to have to access to data. an I don't think, if severs is not India, if quite a tough to access digital data specially, if there is conflict of interest between nations.

    That's a correct point.

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  • lal
    lal

    @lal-R60Xjx • Jun 5, 2013

    That is a misconception. No government agency of India records each and every call made by her citizens. It is not by hearing phone calls that some one is suspected, rather there are more ways. Previous call information doesn't include any kind of tapped/recorded conversations. It is only the time of call, duration and the place from where the call was made. Your call or my call are not recorded or listened by any government agency as of now.

    Now think practical. How many calls happen a second? How many officials do you think will be enough to hear to all these calls? How much storage space would be needed to store all this data? How much time will it take to manually process all this data and filter people? How costly would it be to carry out such a thing?

    If our calls were recorded, tens of thousands of 'cases' would have already been solved. A common person's calls are not recorded in India as of now unless you are a threat to the nation or a suspect. It is a pure misconception.

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