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KOLKATA: The Indian government will shortly impose hefty penalties on business process outsourcing (BPO) firms that compromise on the data privacy of individual customers. It is likely to tighten the provisions linked to data privacy and data protection in the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, and is working closely with the US to emulate existing global best practices in the realm of data security and privacy, a senior official in the communications ministry told ET. There is a view in sections of the government that the present IT Act, 2000, does not adequately address data privacy concerns of individuals . And hence the need for more stringent legislation by way of penal provisions to effectively deal with companies passing on sensitive personal in-formation of individuals to third-parties without prior consent.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) said today the network data analysis system (NDAS) was a tool to gain lawful access only to its consumer services including BlackBerry Messenger, and does not enable access to highly secure corporate emails on its devices. RIM, in a statement, reiterated that there would be no change to its security model for corporate emails, clarifying after a newspaper earlier reported RIM had offered to install the tool at its premises in India to help tap data. RIM has said it was cooperating with the Indian government and was enabling mobile carriers to lawfully access data on BlackBerry Messenger. India had threatened to shut off BlackBerry Messenger and corporate email services unless it gains access to them, in a campaign driven by fears that unmonitored communication puts the country's security at risk.

"The Indian Army will start DNA profiling of its soldiers this year for their identification in case of mutilation of bodies during an operation, attack or any kind of mishap. "We will begin DNA profiling of soldiers from this year as the profiling centre and data bank are almost ready," Lieutenant General Naresh Kumar, Commandant of Army Hospital Research and Referral, told PTI. Being set up at the Department of Forensic Medicine in Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, the centre will collect the blood samples of the troops who are involved in hazardous tasks, including fighting militancy, and store them in a DNA data bank. The DNA profiling centre is being established to help in identification of bodies mutilated beyond recognition. "Now that this centre and DNA data bank are almost ready to take off, we will be able to easily recognise the mutilated dead bodies that we get during war time, from an episode of avalanches or from blast sites." "

Nineteen Eighty-Four may arrive sooner than you think. And, it will be the income-tax department that could take on the role of an Orwellian Big Brother should the government clear a far-reaching proposal to create a directorate of criminal investigation on the lines of a similar wing of the internal revenue service in the US. Under a blueprint currently being vetted by the I-T department, the directorate will house a centralised repository of data culled from telephone and Internet intercepts, banking and market transactions, cross-border deals and even your friendly neighbourhood ATM. To analyse this data and red-flag suspicious activities, the department will also acquire state-of-the-art forensic tools, including software to follow cash trails, track money laundering, conduct forensic audits, mine books and other texts, as well as plug into overseas servers and social networking sites.

"The officials have already collected the data relating to 33,316 fishermen in 66 villages after conducting an extensive survey in the 10 coastal mandals of the district for issue of tamper-proof ID cards using fingerprinting technology and pooling the information in a centralised database of the centre to better manage the internal security. The ID card comprising details like the name of the fisherman, parents' names, address, educational qualification, ration card number and voter ID card number, would be very be very useful particularly when fishermen were stranded in the high seas at times of natural calamities, he added. In all, 4,190 fishing boats were registered in the district so far as per the Centre's directive, he said."

Banks have shot down a proposal from the National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid) to gain access to their confidential customer data.Their anxiety to guard customer information from the prying eyes of the Home Ministry's ambitious anti-terror project seems to have drawn the support of the Reserve Bank of India.

Many Indians have raised data security and privacy issues over the ambitious UID number project. Now, even the US is concerned that the number could be issued to terrorists through fake ID