WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter exempted from National Encryption Policy purview

MUMBAI, INDIA: Following large hue and cry over the content of its draft encryption policy, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) said that social media websites and applications will be exempted from its purview.

A proposed addendum to the National Encryption Policy said that mass-use encryption products which are currently being used in Web applications, social media sites and social media applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter would be exempt from the draft National Encryption Policy.

DeitY was forced to issue the clarification after experts condemned its’ proposal that mandated storing messages that people send through WhatsApp, SMS, e-mail or any such service for up to 90 days.

All modern messaging services such as WhatsApp, Viber, Line, Google Chat, Yahoo messenger, come with high level of encryption, which often makes it harder for security agencies to intercept these messages.

Internet Service Provider Association of India (ISPAI) President Rajesh Chharia said putting responsibility on customers is not acceptable.

"While we welcome 256 bit encryption which we have been demanding from very long time, the government needs to consider secrecy of business as well. National security is paramount but government should think that a terrorist is never going to share encryption code of his tool. Government needs to develop capability to handle such issues," Chharia said.

It must be recalled that the earlier draft had also proposed legal action including imprisonment for failure to store and produce on demand the encrypted messages sent from any mobile device or computer. The policy also wanted providers of such services to hand over encryption keys to the government.