Your telephone call is tapped and e-mail is being hacked

NEW DELHI: Now don't jump up and get nervous, but at this very moment you could be under surveillance. Someone may be watching you, your phone may be tapped, or someone may have hacked into your email. Or maybe when you went to the milk booth this morning, your movements were captured by a hidden camera.

Inquiries, investigations, and sources have revealed that a staggeringly high number of telephones are tapped in the country, often without authorisation. Similar illegal activities, mostly by agencies of the state, are underway to hack into your email, monitor your Internet chats, and record your movements.

These intrusions, signs of a growing police state, will only increase as terrorism remains the biggest worry of governments, even though such steps may not be the most effective way of checking the faceless, stateless enemy.

Telecom industry sources told DNA that the number of wiretaps could be as high as 1 per cent of all calls in a day. Most of these are illegal, which means they are carried out without proper authorisation.

Though there is no accurate figure for the number of calls made in a day, data of phone traffic in minutes indicate that it could top 1 billion. This means at least 10 million calls are tapped every day.

Pavan Duggal, leading cyber law expert, believes the figure could be higher because, in sensitive places like Delhi, Mumbai, and Jammu & Kashmir, the pace of random tapping is higher. He believes almost 2 per cent of all calls are under surveillance. "Tapping is crucial for ensuring the country's security," he says, "but adherence to the parameters is very important."

Leading criminal lawyer and human rights activist Nandita Haksar says the situation is worrisome. While the police and army are "accountable in some way", it is the intelligence agencies that are misusing the system and randomly intruding privacy, says Haksar who has handled many sensitive cases, including that of Delhi University lecturer SAR Geelani, who was acquitted by the Supreme Court in the December 13 Parliament attack case.

"The intelligence agencies are not accountable in any way," says Haksar, "and in no way can we make them accountable."

All intelligence agencies of the government have dedicated facilities to tap phones as well as teams of computer experts who can hack through sophisticated data protection walls.

Among key evidence presented against Geelani were details of his telephone conversations. But one of the defence exhibits, a stunning admission of the recklessness of the capital's police force, went largely unnoticed. It was a top-secret memo that Police Commissioner KK Paul had written in 2002, when he was special commissioner in charge of intelligence.

The memo said "several complaints have been received" from private mobile companies against the city police of the way they deal with them. "Members of the public" are obtaining details of phone calls of "opponents in trade or estranged spouses" misusing local police contacts, it said.

Paul's memo said phone companies "extended facilities for listening on the understanding that formal requisition, after obtaining the approval of a competent authority, will be given immediately". But in many cases it is "not given even the next day" and in some cases "never at all".

There is significant incidence of official tapping also, on the order of a home or chief secretary. Such tapping is mainly to safeguard national security and crack abduction, smuggling, and narcotics cases. For instance, in a state that is not considered sensitive, about 150 individuals are on the wiretap list at any given time, a high-level source, who asked not to be named, said. "Sensitive and border states record much higher numbers of taps," he said.

While government officials, serving and former, do not rule out random taps, they insist that "the rules and procedures for tapping phones are quite well set". One source said, "The agencies concerned are careful about following the laws of the land, but in some cases the latest technology and equipment could outpace official procedures."

Police and intelligence officers admit that it is easier to get private telecom firms to do their bidding. But senior officials at these companies and industry associations refuse to give any figures on wiretaps. Asked about unofficial wiretaps, Cellular Operators Association of India director-general TV Ramachandran said, "I think such tapping is very rare." He added that "there could be times when immediate tapping is necessary, but authorisation may come later. You can't call that unauthorised tapping."

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chairman Pradip Baijal said he has no information on the number of taps. "Tapping phones is not my job," he said. "It's the job of intelligence agencies and the police."

SK Dutta, former director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, said, "Phones have taken over our jobs. It's the US way of doing things. In India we are still in the human phase of intelligence gathering, but we are inching towards it."

While Dutta was surprised at the high number of wiretaps "that you are talking about", he said it was unavoidable. There are so many international criminal enterprises and introducing a mole is very difficult.

Experts, meanwhile, blame outdated laws and lack of protection for the ordinary citizen. Tapping of phones is regulated by the Telegraph Act of 1885. "How do I protect myself? Whom do I complain to? What evidence do I have?" says Haksar.

It is a growing chorus, but there is not much hope on the horizon.