Μετά την υπόθεση παρακολούθησης PRISM στις HΠA που τράβηξε τα φώτα της δημοσιότητας, το Reuters αποκαλύπτει ένα εκτεταμένο πλάνο παρακολούθησης από την κυβέρνηση της Ινδίας.
Σύμφωνα με το δημοσίευμα του ειδησεογραφικού πρακτορείου που επικαλείται ανώνυμες πηγές, οι υπηρεσίες ασφαλείας αλλά και οι φορολογικές αρχές (!) τής Ινδίας, θα έχουν πρόσβαση στα email των χρηστών στις τηλεφωνικές κλήσεις, ακόμη και τα SMS, χωρίς άμεση επίβλεψη από το κοινοβούλιο της χώρας.
Επιπλέον, οι αρχές θα μπορούν να παρακολουθούν τις δημοσιεύσεις στο Facebook, το Twitter και το LinkedIn, όπως επίσης και τις αναζητήσεις που κάνουν οι χρήστες στη μηχανή αναζήτησης της Google.
Υψηλόβαθμο στέλεχος υπουργείου φέρεται να δήλωσε πως η ασφάλεια της
χώρας είναι πολύ σημαντική και πως όλες οι χώρες έχουν αντίστοιχα
προγράμματα επιτήρησης, για την προστασία των πολιτών και της χώρας από εγκληματικές και τρομοκρατικές ενέργειες.
Η κυβέρνηση της Ινδίας είχε κάνει γνωστές τις προθέσεις της ήδη από το 2009, προτείνοντας το "Centralized Monitoring System" (CMS) ως μέσο για την αύξηση της ασφάλειας στη χώρα.
India’s new surveillance program tracks phone calls and texts, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn posts
Despite the ongoing furore
surrounding the various data gathering programs employed by the
National Security Agency (NSA) in America, the Indian government has
reportedly just launched a pretty extensive surveillance program of its
own.
Citing anonymous sources, Reuters reports today
that the new initiative will give security agencies and tax officials
direct access to users’ emails and phone calls without any immediate
checks or oversight from the courts or parliament.
Officials will reportedly be able to monitor posts on Facebook,
Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as track search queries submitted to
Google by “selected targets.” One senior telecommunications ministry
official, believed to be directly involved with setting up the program,
told the news agency: “Security of the country is very important. All
countries have these surveillance programs.
“You can see terrorists getting caught, you see crimes being stopped.
You need surveillance. This is to protect you and your country.”
The Indian government submitted its initial proposals for the Centralized Monitoring System (CMS) in November 2009 as a measure to “strengthen the security environment in the country.”
Previous reports have suggested that the program, which can also be
used to listen to and tape phone calls, as well as read individuals’
text messages, has cost the government close to $74 million in total.
Government officials have also told Reuters that the initiative will
enable security agencies to conduct this surveillance without a formal
court order, and also bypass the need to request the data from Internet
and telephone service providers operating in the country.
Questions will undoubtedly be raised regarding the new system’s
potential for abuse, as well as how it infringes the rights and privacy
of India’s citizens.
The U.S. government is facing some intense scrutiny of its own following two reports, published by the Washington Post and the Guardian, which exposed a wide-reaching government surveillance program called PRISM.
President Obama held a press conference to clarify that the program
“does not apply to US citizens and it does not apply to people living in
the United States,” but this did little to reassure sceptics.
Edward Snowden has since come forward as the whistleblower and took part in a live Q&A on the Guardian website earlier this week, revealing further details about the program.
PRISM is reportedly used to collect data from a number of
high-profile technology companies: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo; Facebook,
AOL, Apple and Paltalk. All of the firms have since denied giving the US
Government direct access to their servers.
High-ranking officials in the FBI are now disclosing further details as to the impact of the NSA’s various data-gathering programs.
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