The Ministry of Home affairs (MHA) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) have differed over the role of mobile phone companies in monitoring and intercepting communication services for security purposes.
The MHA wants to discontinue about 14 communication services that intelligence agencies cannot track currently, a view that is not shared by DoT. Also, DoT does not support MHA?s stance that mobile phone companies be made responsible to provide assistance to decrypt all services they provide.
These differences have emerged even as MHa has urged DoT to act against Research in Motion on the grounds that the interception tools provided by the Canadian company for monitoring its messenger and internet services were unsatisfactory, as security agencies have been unable to access these services in a readable format.
In a note to the Minister of Telecommunications and IT, Kapil Sibal, DoT has said a decision on banning BlackBerry and other communication services, which have high levels of encryption, must only be taken after various aspects like international relations, commercial issues, implications of other industries, legal and regulatory issues and views of other ministries’ are studied.
DoT had then pointed out that the interception in most countries was carried out by security agencies on their own and the role of mobile operators is limited to providing feedback.
