PrivacyIndia

Law enforcement agencies can tap anyone's phone for security/operational reasons for 72 hours even without getting permission from the Union home secretary or principal secretary (home) of states. An inspector general-rank officer can give orders to do so. But if they don't get a nod from the top on the fourth day, they will have to destroy the call records within 48 hours of getting the response from the designated authority.

Home Minister P Chidambaram's pet project of establishing a National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) to track terror and money laundering is likely to be vetted by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) next month. Informed sources said that a 900 page Detailed Project Report (DPR) that has been prepared to answer the queries raised by the sceptics within the government, including the Prime Minister, on the efficacy of the NATGRID has been sent to the CCS members to study. NATGRID envisages a powerful real-time 24X7 networking of 21 databases with enforcement agencies having analytical capability to cross-link different pieces of information and flag "tripwires" to indicate some unlawful or terrorist activity is in progress or likely to take place.

The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday lifted its gag order on the media that restrained the latter from broadcasting and publishing former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh's taped conversations with top politicians and Bollywood stars. File photo of Amar Singh (Pic: BCCL) A two-judge bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly dismissed Amar Singh's petition to prevent the broadcasting and publishing of his taped conversations, and vacated its interim order passed on February 27, 2006 restraining the media from making contents of the conversation public.

NEW DELHI: Security agencies will soon be equipped to intercept emails and cyber chats in real time through the Centralised Monitoring System (CMS). The high-tech CMS, expected to be operational in a year, will be set up in 30 locations across the country, including Delhi and state capitals.

As the government tries to put a legal framework in place for phone-tapping, a 126-year-old law has come to its rescue. Sources in the law ministry say, thanks to a provision in the Indian Telegraph Act 1885 that allows government in public interest to intercept messages, a new law may not be required at all. However, a directive - instead of a new law - may not take care of some of issues on tapping that have constantly been raised by experts. For instance, India is one the few countries, where tapping can be carried out without a court warrant.

With registration process under the Unique Identity Card scheme (UID) 'Aadhar' ending by June in Mysore district, district authorities have initiated steps making the quoting of UID or enrolment identification (EID) number compulsory at various levels in the state government offices in the district. This seems contrary to what the Unique Identification Authority of India or the UIDAI had said earlier that it would be optional.

MYSORE: Don't have Aadhar number? You could be in trouble. In a move to meet the June-end deadline for the unique identification (UID) number scheme, the Mysore district administration has made it mandatory for learner's licence or driving licence. If you have already applied for Aadhar, just quote the enrolment number to get the licence.

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