Emails and phone calls of millions of Indians could be tracked and saved on a “big brother” database, under a new plan being drawn up by the Centre. The government, in the wake of terror threats, is planning to set up a centralised system to monitor communications on mobile phones, landlines and the internet.
The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT), a telecom research and development organisation, is working on the Telecom Security project, which will help the government track calls and monitor emails.
“It is viewed as a national project... Basically, it is about monitoring certain messages or conversations so that we can ensure security of the country. Essentially, our technology would provide an interface to operators of any service or technology and it will give them access to the messages traversing through their network,” C-DoT executive director PV Acharya told DNA.
The contents of each message, Acharya said, would not be collected, but the data on exactly who each person had corresponded with would be tracked and eventually logged on the database.
The present system of surveillance is managed by individual operators, and a phone is tapped and call details are given when law enforcement agencies ask for them.
The government has a Signal Intelligence Agency, a joint service organisation manned by personnel from the Army, Navy and Air Force, which monitors military links (wireless) of other countries. However, it does not have a centralised monitoring system for voice calls on mobiles, landlines and internet. The government is, however, still unclear on how the surveillance system will work.
“We will just provide an opportunity for this... but how this would be done depends on the agreement between the operators and the government,” Acharya said.
Declining to share technical details of the project, Acharya said the first phase of the project will cost Rs 400 crore. It will end next year. The need for lawful intervention is being felt more after the terror attacks in November last year, when the terrorists were in contact with their instructors on the phone.
