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Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception,
Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009 which
makes all this information confidential. Rule 25(4) of these Rules
mandates that strict confidentiality has to be maintained in respect
of direction for interception or monitoring. Although Section 22 of
the Right to Information Act, 2005 overrides the provisions in any
law which are inconsistent with the RTI Act, the Government often
cites national security as the reason to prevent access to this
information. Thus, all we have to gauge the quantum of electronic
surveillance which is going on are the transparency reports released
by these online service providers.
SFLC.IN had filed an application under the RTI Act to obtain
information on tapping of telephones and monitoring of emails. The
Ministry of Home Affairs in its reply dated August 6, 2013 has
stated that on an average 7500 to 9000 orders for interception of
telephones and 300 to 500 orders for interception of emails are
issued by the Central Government every month. If you add to this
the orders issued by the State Governments for telephone tapping
and email monitoring, the numbers will be shocking.
These figures could only be the tip of the iceberg as the legal
provisions make it fairly easy for law enforcement agencies to
gather this data. In India, S.91 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,
1973 (CrPC) gives powers to any officer in charge of a police
station to ask for production of any document for the purpose of
investigation. This broad provision is often misused by law
enforcement
agencies
to
get
information
from
Internet
Intermediaries.
Moreover, sub-rule 7 of Rule 3 of the Information Technology
(Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011 makes it even easier for any
law enforcement agency to obtain information from an intermediary.
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