The Indian government is sceptical about the way that people are using the end-to-end encrypted messaging services in the country. In a meeting held in Delhi, the threat of “anti-national” people was discussed who used these services to conduct their illegal activities. The officials of the Home Ministry showed disappointment over the way in which the encrypted messaging service was being used in India. The recent arrest of JeM (Jaish-e-Mohammed) terrorists was also addressed in the meeting. The group which was responsible for Nagrota Army camp attack in Jammu and Kashmir admitted that all their activities and planning were carried out over WhatsApp by their handler. This was another reason for the officials to be enraged.
Other authorities including Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, security agencies and the Police also voiced concerns regarding the same and agreed on the statement that WhatsApp is the “preferred medium of communication for anti-national forces.” In this meeting, the authorities showed common leniency towards monitoring these social media apps including WhatsApp. This news was reported by Times of India.
However, despite the attempts by Indian security agencies, the end-to-end encryption which hides the messages between two people from middle extractors is proving to be a hard task to nail. Indian government is also contemplating a move on the lines of Middle Eastern countries who have already banned WhatsApp voice and video calling.
In a contrasting picture to this, the tech giants in the current global scenario stay as promotors of user data safety. Keeping user data away from authorities, remains one of the prime points of their privacy policy.
Specially in the time of growing unrest, where Facebook being WhatsApp’s parent company is being questioned about its promises of users’ data security, this becomes an issue of grave importance. Seeing this scenario, it is likely that the PIL will be dismissed in the Supreme Court in a similar way like it was done in the year 2016.
